Joel and I had our first date in over a year last night. I know it's hard to believe, but our families live several hours away and I have to admit it's also hard for me (us) to let other people watch her. But after we got our sitter situation finalized for when I begin work I figured we could use that same sitter possibly before I started.

So, I got to work planning a secret date night for Joel and I. I got a hold of Desirea our sitter and set it all up and also purchased tickets online, hoping Joel would not see my emails. Avery had been going to be at 9:30 two nights in a row because of different craziness that came up (one including a carbon monoxide false alarm.) Anyway, I was nervous that we would miss the movie at 8:10pm because of her late schedule. We're not quite comfortable with having someone else put her down because she's not that easy to get to sleep and don't want anyone else to have to deal with that quite yet. The day before our date I ended up telling Joel that we were going out the next night just to prepare him to help me get Avery ready for bed early.

Of course, Joel loves surprises but always wants to know them early, loves opening any presents as soon before the event that he can. But, I did not tell him ANY clues other than we were going out, he really tried though, I'll give him that!

I wrote a list for Desirea, knowing I would forget something. But it was very weird being on the mom side of things because I am so used to being the caregiver to other people's children. But anyway, we planned for her to be at the house at 7:30pm so I could show her around a little and explain what to do if Avery woke up.

We were showing her around and how to work the tv and whatnot and she asked which movie we were going to see, so Joel found out what we were doing and said he already knew, which is debatable. As we drove the 2 minute drive to the mall we parked and had the weirdest, emptiest feeling getting out of the car. We felt like we left Avery in the car because we've never been somewhere together without Avery period. It was also nice/strange to not have to get out the diaper bag and car seat.

We got our tickets, Joel got yummy snacks for us and we watched Hellboy 2. In the middle of the movie I kept getting nervous that the sitter would call because Avery was too upset, but that never happened. About 3/4 of the movie had passed and I needed to use the restroom so I took that opportunity to call home and check on everything, Avery hadn't made a peep. Wow!! I was very surprised and delighted.

The movie ended about quarter after 10 and we decided we should go home because we'll have more dates in the future to look forward to :) We went in search of an atm for cash to pay the sitter and then had to get change and by the time we got home it was about 10:45 and just in time.

Desirea was upstairs with awake Avery, she had just woke up before we got home but wanted Desirea to hold her and probably play with her too. She updated me on what all happened and then as she said, "Goodbye," Avery started saying, "Buh-bye," and crying at the same time. It was so sad to hear, but I figured it was because it was late and dark and Avery wasn't sure what was going on.

After that Joel and I were up and down the stairs because we'd rock Avery and she'd sleep for about 10 mins and then wake up again, so after about 40 minutes of that she finally fell asleep, but it was so worth it just to get out of the house. Not that we want to be away from our baby who we love so much, but we need that "us" time that we've been sorely missing out on.

All in all it was a great date and is nice to be dating my husband again!