Outing: Date Night!

Friday marked an important milestone in Ellie’s development: Kim and I escaped and left her at home!

Okay, she wasn’t alone. Our good friend Glenn Fleishman and his wife Lynn gave us a couple of babysitting gift certificates at the baby shower, so we redeemed one so that Kim and I could go out and see Iron Man on opening night. Glenn came over and watched her for the evening. (The picture at right is from an early visit to the house, shortly after she was born; Ellie hasn’t shrunk.)

All in all, I think we did okay. We printed out a list of instructions for Glenn regarding feeding, sleeping, and so forth (“Step 4: With baby at an inclined angle, insert bottle into baby’s mouth…”), and generally tried to remember the things parents told me the three or four times I babysat back in high school. Ellie has been to my office several times, so she seems to be familiar enough with Glenn that she didn’t balk at all when we left. And from what he told us when we got home, and based on his Twittering at the time, Ellie behaved well and went to sleep easily. (Good girl!)

Of course, we spent the drive downtown talking about the baby and Kim said she was more nervous than she thought she’d be, but hey: it was our First Time Out. I think that’s to be expected.

We arranged to meet up with our other good friends Agen and Parie (who got their own babysitter for their boy Sofian), but ran into a snafu. Due to miscommunication on my part, I had purchased tickets only for Kim and I, not for the four of us. Given that it was opening night, the showing was sold out. After much apology, Agen and Parie told us to enjoy the show, but by the time we got inside, the only two seats together were at the front of the theater, off to the side. I’ve sat there for movies at the Cinerama and I won’t do it again. So we got a refund, hooked up with Agen and Parie again, and spent the evening having great conversation and more than a few cocktails at Brasa a couple blocks away. It was a lot of fun, and very grown-up.