Girl’s Life

I never realized how hard it is to date my own husband. It sounds like an easy thing to do, right?

It was. Then we had a kid.

Don’t get me wrong, we hang out together almost every night. But last night I decided we needed to step it up a bit — we needed an evening out without the company of a T.V. or laptop. So we jammied up Sophia and brought her up to her friend Chloe’s house, which, lucky for us, is only about 100 feet away. She went to sleep there, and Chris and I headed out for a night on the town.

But…well, here’s the thing. When you’re out of practice in going out without a kid, it’s hard to remember that there are tons of good restaurants out there that don’t have brightly colored laminated menus and easy access to high chairs. Unfortunately, once we tasted our newfound freedom, we couldn’t for the life of us think of where to go. After much debate, we decided on a cute little romantic restaurant not too far from home. But the thing about those candlelit restaurants is that you always need reservations. And also, everyone looks at you weird if you walk in wearing anything but all black — at least around here they do. So since the hubby and I didn’t exactly pick a restaurant until we were in the car (hey, we were just giddy that we were out without the girl), we didn’t exactly have reservations and we didn’t want to hang around getting stared at until we could get a table.

Plan A foiled. Onto Plan B. We ended up at a great Thai restaurant in the area where the owner knows our names, even though we hadn’t been there in well over a year since the baby had been born. We could wear our jeans without feeling dumb, and we didn’t need reservations. We even had time for a drink after dinner at a nearby bar. Although we are definitely out of practice at the art of drinking and were both tipsy halfway through our first (and only) drink.

Even though some Thai food and a couple of cocktails isn’t terribly monumental, I got to spend an evening alone with my husband. We’re taking baby steps in this whole dating thing. And maybe next time we’ll even make some reservations.