An amazingly wonderful weekend

This weekend has been truly great. Or more specifically, Saturday was truly great!

Yesterday Mark and I went on our first baby-less date in almost 3 months (11weeks and 5 days to be exact). Our friends Nate and Gail offered to babysit for us, so we took them up on their offer. The Mondul's got to our house around 7pm and I showed them the ropes and explained to them the routine and the tricks of dealing with our baby and we were on our way. Leaving her was relatively easy, considering it was, I think, my 3rd time being away from her for more than an hour.

Mark and I went to Westgate, a mall-type area (except it only has a few shops - it's mostly restaurants and a big movie theater and an arena) about 10 mins away. We decided to eat at Jimmy Buffet's Margharitaville, and we sat outside since it was below 90 out. (We were SUPER excited about the cooler weather here - and below 90 is a real treat for us. PERFECT weather.) The food was okay, the conversation was great, as usual. I love talking with my husband. After dinner, we went to The Shout House, which is a dueling piano bar in the same complex. Dueling piano bars have been Mark and my thing to do for a long time. We went to Lucille's in downtown Milkwaukee at least 2-3 times a month while we were in college at MSOE. (They actually offered me a job right after Mark left for ASBC and Florida, and I ended up turning them down because I moved with him, but that would have been fun.) In Florida, we'd go to Howl at the Moon on Okaloosa Island occassionally, but we didn't like that as much Lucille's. Shockingly, there wasn't a dueling piano bar in Enid, so we didn't go to any while we were in Oklahoma. =) We've been wanting to go to The Shout House since we noticed it, and we were excited to try it out. The guy at the door let us in for free, which was awesome since that saved us $16 in covercharges. It was your typical piano bar, I guess. I wasn't as impressed with it as a thought I'd be, but I guess I probably won't think any place is as good as Lucille's was. The singers/players just weren't as good and I guess when you don't drink, piano bars just aren't as fun. Not that you have to drink to have fun, but I think drinking is definitely part of the whole piano bar experience, so when you cut that equation out, the vibe of the bar is just different. And I've never been a huge drinker, but what little desire to drink that might have existed before is now pretty much gone. And since I'm breastfeeding and didn't want to deal with the whole pump and dump thing, I didn't have any alcohol. (There was a girl that was very pregnant in front of us though, and she was drinking a beer.) Mark and I joked that maybe I should have a few sips of his Captain and Coke to help Abbie sleep better. Turns out, I didn't need to...

Yes, Abbie slept through the night for the first time. Unbelievable. Mark's been having talks with her this week telling her she's ruining her chances of having a sibling and if she wants someone to play with she'd better start sleeping through the night, etc. =) We got home around 10:30pm and Nate and Gail had given her 3 2oz bottles, and then I'd nursed her to sleep and she was put in her bed around midnight. I heard her stirring around 3:20am, so I went in and gave her her paci, and went back to sleep, fully expecting her to wake up in 20 mins or so to eat. But I woke up at 6:15am, and thought something had happened to her. Luckily I could see her moving a little in the video monitor, but I still couldn't go back to sleep. She got up around 6:35 to eat and then went back to sleep until about 8:15, when she ate again. I'm not holding my breath that it'll happen again tonight, but at least I know that she is capable of going 6.5 hours between feedings.

Mark and I were talking about our previous jobs during our date and I have to say, this whole stay at home mom gig is by FAR the best job I've ever had.