Life with 3

Last weekend we went on a date, well family date, to National Harbour in celebration of 4.5 years. We went to shop around, see the tree lighting, watch the fireworks show, then sit down for a fancy dinner. Michael made arrangements at a restaurant that could easily accommodate a baby carrier and made sure we were welcome to bring Carmen along. It was really delightful at first. The NH is decorated for Christmas and all the store fronts are so pretty. We spent some time sampling Christmas goodies in The Stonewall Kitchen and then walked outside when we heard the massive boom of the first firework. The tall buildings made the fireworks echo so loudly that we were a little concerned about baby. But to our amusement, the fireworks put her to sleep. We arrived at the restaurant in time and settled in to our cozy spot. 45 minutes later we got up and left without even being served our drinks. It was sad. I had timed Carmen's feeding schedule out to perfectly compliment dinner so that we wouldn't have to feed her during our date. We walked around to every other restaurant and the wait was 1.5 hours everywhere. Despite the fact that we were starving and 9pm was fast approaching, fast food was not an option. We got back to the garage, paid for parking and headed back to Fairfax Corner where a 20 minute wait absolutely delighted us! By 10pm we were eating a delicious meal and everything on the menu was nearly half the price of one entree from our NH restaurant, so we ate a lot. Carmen was perfect the whole time and, despite my urge to wake her up to remain on schedule, I let her sleep and enjoyed my wine and pasta with Michael. It turned out to be a very good outing. We recognize that it won't be this easy without a babysitter for long, so we fully enjoyed our family date night.