a break for us [+ a video]
MacKenna + I have had an exciting couple of days. Wednesday afternoon, we went and visited our babysitter, Stacy. I feel extremely fortunate to have a family friend who watches kids out of her house and only lives about a mile away from our house. As much as I hate that I can’t stay home with M, I’m happy to know that Stacy will nurture + love my baby almost as much as I do! She’ll definitely be in good hands and that comforts me just a little bit.
And since I am going back to work in a few weeks, I decided to brave the germs and go visit my staff + kiddos at school. Plus, any excuse I get to show her off + brag about her a little bit is worth it! I mean, she is the most beautiful baby in the world, right?!
I honestly thought I wasn’t ready to go back quite yet, but after seeing my kids yesterday, I realized I kind of missed work. I absolutely love what I do and am looking forward to getting back into the swing of things, even if it means sacrificing precious time spent with my baby girl. I know I’m going to miss her a ton, but it will be a nice change from the full time mom gig.
Matt + I also got a little break from parenting last night with a date night! With a new baby, we are making sure we plan at least one night out together each month without the baby. I think it’s really important that you still keep your marriage the number 1 priority with the baby closely following that. It’s easy to get wrapped up in the parenting thing since a baby is constantly in need of you, but without that solid foundation of a marriage, there’s just no way a family can survive. So, spending time together is a must to make parenting work!
We received a gift card from one of our runners a few years ago (back when I was coaching with Matt) that we just recently rediscovered and since our original plans were cancelled, we decided to take advantage of are already planned babysitter (my dad/PawPaw) and have a date night, just the 2 of us. We headed down to Main Street St. Charles for dinner at Tony’s on Main.
We started the night with drinks: a Cocoa Cream Stout for me and an O’Fallon Hemp Hop for him; followed by a small starter salad with French dressing.
The stout reminded me a lot of Schlafly’s Coffee Stout (one of my favorites) without the coffee flavor. It was really good – and if you’re a stout drinker, I definitely recommend it!
For my main course, I decided to go with a veggie pasta with garlic toast. ‘Twas delicious!
I finished most of it, leaving behind a few bites (not enough to take home), and ate a few of Matt’s waffle fries that came with his pulled pork sandwich. The waffle fries were definitely the best bite of the night! We both left stuffed + happy for a night out, just the 2 of us, but we missed our little girl and were happy to relieve my dad of her fussiness. (She get really fussy when she’s tired. Baby girl is a nosey little thing and wants to make sure she doesn’t miss a thing.)
I’m happy to end the week with a lazy Friday at home, as I’m sure MacKenna will be thankful too since I’ve been wearing her out by making her continuously roll over.
Anything interesting going on for you this weekend or are you just taking it easy since the next 2 will be jammed packed with holiday celebrations?