Kevin's Bday

It was Kevin's birthday on Thursday: he's the ripe old age of 34 now. I keep teasing him that he's getting closer to 40 than 30...I don't think he finds it very funny.

We got to go out to dinner last night for his birthday. Kat and Jeff came along with us and we had Papa Dad and Grandma Jean babysit Maelin for us. One of the many benefits of a good daycare is that Maelin and I are both getting used to having someone besides me watch her. So far, Maelin isn't showing any seperation anxiety (I know that comes later...) when I leave her, so it makes me feel okay about having people babysit her.

Kevin loves seafood and I can take it or leave it (plus it's expensive) so every year for his birthday we got to Pappadeuxs. We've tried Joe's Crab Shack (horrible idea) and the Fresh Fish Company, but we like Pappadeuxs the best. I called Papa Dan and told him to come over around 6:30pm figuring that I'd have all day to get ready. What a laugh. Nothing is quick like it used to be!

We went to Boulder to visit with Grandma Lea. She's healing great and was in a really good mood. Maelin was a little star: she spent the afternoon talking and squealing to everyone. She's getting so darn cute: I can hardly stand it. We stayed a bit longer in Boulder than we had planned on and got back to Denver around 4pm. I was still exhausted from the work week, so I went in to take a nap while Kevin played with Maelin. I woke up around 4:45 thinking I still had plenty of time to take a shower and get ready for dinner. Well, Maelin needed to be fed and then I needed to pump and then she really wanted to take a nap and Kevin was having a hard time putting her down.

It's so hard not to "step in" when I see stuff like that. I know I'm supposed to walk away and let him figure it out: not only for his benefit (so he feels successful) but also for Maelin's sake (so she realizes that other people besides Mommy can comfort her), but it's sooooooo hard to do that. I was looking at the clock and thinking how my shower was slipping away and just snatched her away from him so I could put her to sleep myself. It worked too: after about 30 seconds, she started to fall asleep.

Then I felt bad. If I had just gotten in the shower then, he would have eventually gotten her to sleep and I would haven been enjoying a uninterrupted shower instead of grumbling that I have to do everything around here. So I gave her back to him to try again. She arched her back and fussed for about 5 minutes and then he did it: Maelin fell asleep on him. At this point, it was 6:30. So much for having plenty of time to get ready.

I jumped in the shower and really tried to go fast but I can't get ready start to finish in 15 minutes. Kat and Jeff showed up and then Papa Dan and Jean came in and I was ready around 7pm. Dinner as adults at last!

Off we went: Maelin was in a great mood and Papa Dan and Jean were so excited to be watching her that I didn't worry a bit about leaving her. They were going to have a great time (and they did: she only fussed for them for about 5 minutes). We got to dinner and I told Kevin we were going to pretend to be "baby-less" for a night. Maybe we could talk about the things we used to and enjoy each other like it was before Maelin came along and we were too sleep-deprived to remember we like each other.

We had a very nice dinner: a bit expensive, but great. Towards the end, I went to the bathroom and saw a little baby in her carseat: almost exactly Maelin's age. Then it was over: I wanted to get home to see my baby. Darn it...

We got home and Maelin was just going down for the night. I was able to cuddle her for a bit before she went to sleep and Jean rocked her to sleep (she really wanted to do this). Jean offered to take Maelin every other Thursday so she won't need to go to Sandra's which will be great!

All-in-all, Kevin's bday dinner was a lot of fun. It was great to go out w/o the baby for a few hours and have a nice dinner. However, having frozen pizza at home while your baby sits and grins and squeals at you is pretty nice too.