Date night/morning

Well, John and I are off to the Ojai Valley Inn and Spa for the night. It was my Christmas present to John but, obviously, it's a lovely present for myself as well. We're lucky that we have grandparents in town to watch Jack so we can get away. We are hoping for a solid 9 hours of sleep, though after 10 months of conditioning our bodies to wake up every few hours, I'm not sure it'll happen. I'll report back soon. And of course I'll try to do some Christmas posts later this week. We had such a great first Xmas with the boy!

Best. Husband. Ever.

So this is the post where I talk about how I have the most amazing husband. I guess I can qualify it by saying he is the best husband ever, to me. But, really, he's pretty awesome. So feel free to skip this if that kind of thing makes you a little nauseous.

Friday night my husband got home around 9:15 p.m....a little early for him so I was happy. By some miracle I was still in my "normal" clothes rather than my yoga pants and torn up t-shirt. I have no idea why since, these days, my day time wear doesn't really last much past 7:30. I know. Don't judge. Anyways, at least I had my contacts out and my glasses on. So he got home and told me how terrible the commute had been because they are doing construction on the freeway, blah, blah, blah. He said he wanted to walk to Starbucks for his favorite drink and I said I'd go with him. Sure, walking to Starbucks down the street at 9:30 may sound weird to some, but I had done it before with John and he sure loves those iced green tea lemonades. So I threw on some flats, an old zip up sweatshirt because it was cold, and took my phone.

At Starbucks John got his drink and he was very happy. (Side note - are you aware of how crowded a Starbucks can get on a Friday night? You'd think it was a bar or something. Weird.) We were walking back and passed a hotel that is literally two blocks from our house. We've passed it probably 300 times and almost every time we say one of a few things...a) that hotel looks really nice, b) I wonder how much the rooms are in case our family ever needs to stay there, and c) Ali says the hotel bar is really cool. So we're walking past and John says, let's go check out the hotel bar. I tell him he's crazy because I'm wearing an old sweatshirt and glasses and don't even have my wallet. He says, "let's go...I just want to ask them how much the rooms are." For some reason, I didn't even think that was suspect. Probably because we had literally talked about it for two years.

We walk in the small lobby and I make a beeline for the elevators in back because I don't want anyone to say "hey, get out, you obviously are a vagrant." I figured we'd just take the elevator up to the rooftop terrace or bar or whatever and leave. But John stops at the front desk to ask what their rate is. I'm embarrassed because I think "geez, we could just look online." And that's when I see his credit card come out. Only then did it dawn on me that he had made a reservation and this was all planned and we were spending the night here.

I was shocked and then thought "wait, I don't have anything. Not a change of clothes, not a toothbrush, not my wallet." But apparently none of that mattered because who really needs all that. And John had surreptitiously brought my toothbrush. Then I thought of Jack and oh my gosh what would happen and would grandma have a tough time, etc. But I knew he'd be okay.

So for one night we got to drink cocktails in a hotel bar (okay, one cocktail) and sleep in a luxurious king size bed. I'd like to say that I slept in and got 10 hours of sleep but of course I popped up at 5am ready for the day. I guess that's what 7 months of sleep training will do to you. Right before I fell asleep I said two things to John... "I just know this will be the one and only night Jack sleeps through the night." And "You should have brought my breast pump."


p.s. No, Jack didn't quite sleep through the night but he did make it to 4:30. And, yes, I really wish I he had brought that breast pump.

Date night(s)

John's mom is in town so this weekend we were lucky enough to go on not one but TWO date nights. These would be the first since Jack was three weeks old. So it had been a while. And guess what? It was awesome. We didn't even talk about our son the whole time.

The first night we just went out to dinner and, for this momentous event, we wanted to choose a restaurant that was close because, even if we didn't talk about Jack the whole time, I still wanted to be close. What? I was more than ready for a date but I wasn't THAT brazen. So we chose a place a few miles away that we'd been wanting to try. And there's pretty much one reason we've been wanting to try it.... the chef:

"Top Chef" is one of my favorite shows and, of course, Fabio was a favorite of mine (and 99 percent of all other viewers). So we headed to his restaurant and I guess I shouldn't have been shocked it was packed. Good thing I made a reservation. We had a great dinner and even glimpsed the man himself wandering from table to table doing his charming Italian thing.

The next night was even a bigger date because we went to a concert at the Hollywood Bowl. It's one of my favorite places ever to hear live music. Even if you're not that into the band or performance, it's worth it just to go for the venue. Fortunately though, I was way into the band. Or bands. I went for The National but also loved the opening acts, Neko Case and Sharon Van Etten. We were lucky enough to be sitting in a box up front and had a great time. And you know what? Jack survived both date nights. Yay!