Date Night

Yesterday afternoon, I went to drop off Aiden at his cousin’s house for a sleepover and as his girl cousins, S and A, ecstatically rushed to the door, jumping up and down from excitement, Aiden, with a very gloomy look on his face, refused to go inside.

In confusion, I looked down at him, asked what was wrong and why didn’t he want to go inside and play with his cousins.

“I can’t go. Trissy’s not here.”

His response warmed my motherly-heart and as I was about to tell him that Tristen wasn’t going to be able to come and that sometimes they need to be apart, my sister (my brother’s fiancé) suggested I drop Tristen off as well and that I could just go out and get some things done or just hangout.

What!? Really???

“Are you sure?”

“Yah, the girls are really easy. Just go!” she kindly instructed.

I drove away with Ali sleeping in her car seat and the ride was eerily quiet as it lacked a demanding (almost) four-year-old telling me to, “Drive!!” at each red light (of which I explain to him I can't because the light's red and we would get in an accident if we did to which he will reply once-again, "Mommy, DRIVE!") and him repetitively asking me if I saw that truck, that school bus or  that airplane.

Since going out the eat with three kids under the age of four is annoying difficult, Jarod and I usually will just opt for pizza or take-out and eat at home. It’s hard when there are three of them versus Jarod and I so I have never even attempted to take them all out to lunch by myself . However, since it was just me and baby girl, a sweet, super easy six-month-old baby girl, I decided I was going to get one of my favorite foods, sushi and Korean tofu soup, for lunch. Yum!!

All of this is under $15! Another reason why it's one of my favorite!

As I waited for the food to arrive, I feed her and then sat her back down in the stroller as she smiled and watched me eat without complaint. It’s been so long since I’ve had an easy and peaceful lunch that I’d forgotten that they existed.

I love my boys but man, (sigh) preschool and toddler years are a handful!

Afterwards, Ali and I went to Target to return some items. Usually I would never want to go into a store to run such a simple errand that would take less than five minutes with all three kids because it already takes me between ten to fifteen minutes just to enter the store to begin with. A typical arrival at the store includes grabbing a cart, placing Tristen in the cart seat, putting Ali and her car seat in the basket of the cart, grabbing the diaper bag with all the essentials (just in case) and then grabbing Aiden out of his car seat, instructing him to hold the cart and stay close. It’s a lot of work so I usually just don’t do it but today since it was just Ali and I, I ran my errand, we leisurely walked around the store and then I bought myself a Grande Mocha Frappuccino and a slice of Ice Lemon Pound cake at the Starbucks inside. Ali sat peacefully as I enjoyed my drink and food; again, it was so odd to be able to do this.

"WTF is this shit!?" She tried my lemon cake haha :)

We went home, I set her down for a nap and shortly after, Jarod came home from work. I thought that since the boys weren’t home and wouldn’t be begging to “help” that I should probably clean the house but then I rationalized that I never have this kind of peace and quiet so the house stayed a mess.

Later, we got a call from my brother saying that Aiden accidently slammed the door shut on Tristen’s pinky finger and that we should come over immediately.

A very blurry picture of his finger the day after.

Since I’ve had a few years of mommyhood experience under my belt, I didn’t instinctively freak-out. Over the years, I have had many. many freak-outs, including a waterfall of tears escaping my guilty-conscious mommy-eyes that I fucked Aiden up when he had his first common cold and slightly above-average temperature. Twice, I have driven Aiden in the middle of the night to the Children's Emergencyroom because I thought something was really wrong with him but it turned out that he was completely fine and would just need some time to heal.

Ohhhh.

Thus, when I got the call from my brother, I wasn't too worried. I've learnt that kids are very resilient and it takes a lot for them to "break." Tristen's pinky finger was about twice as large as the other normal, healthy pinky finger but he was acting fine. He was laughing, smiling, cuddling with me and could bend his finger easily so Jarod and I just decided to keep an eye on it and if it got any worst, we would take him to the doctors.

My mom had offered to watch the kids that night so Jarod and I could go out for a date but since we were already there, my sis offered to watch the kids while we went out to eat; she's a sweet soul and I love her it.

Jarod and I just went to the mall to get him a new pair of casual shoes and then off to dinner at Red Lobster for their $15 four-course meal. Nothing exciting but yet, it was amazing. It felt nice to not have to cater to three little people's needs at all times, to not remind them to follow us and to not venture too far. It was really nice to just be able to spend some time focused on my husband.

We spent the night holding hands, which we used to do all the time before kids. These days we seem to be holding one of the kids hands or diaper bag or pushing a stroller instead. We were able to just talk and laugh without interuption. It was wonderful.

It was also a good reminder why we were together in the first place. It seems during our daily lives it becomes increasingly difficult to find some kind of connection but last night, I remembered that I really, really like this guy.

It makes me sad that time will force the kids to grow up; yet, I'm equally as excited to have some quality time back with the person I loved before all this craziness began <3

My Jj :)

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