Our first date

...since Ben was born was yesterday. Our wonderful friend Theresa offered to "steal the baby" from us for a few hours, so, I had my first extended separation from Benji since he was born. It went very well. I may have been overly prepared, writing down almost everything including the address and phone number of where we were planning on spending most of our time.

It only took us 10 minutes to get out the door once we oriented T to where things are and some of the things Ben enjoys and things that help him calm down. We must have said "call us if you need to" at least a dozen times.

We headed down to 2nd Street in Long Beach. We were both ready for a late lunch (it was after 2:30 when we left the house) and decided to head to a Greek restaurant, Georges. I ordered a glass of wine, since it would be over 4 hours before I fed Ben again. I am quite a lightweight these days as I was tipsy before I was halfway through the glass. We had a lovely meal and headed over to Color Me Mine to paint some pottery. We had a tough time deciding what to paint, both item and design. We finally decided to paint a plaque that can be used as a trivet or a Challah plate on Shabbat and a wine glass that can be used as a Kiddish cup. We decided on a tree theme for the cup and that carried over to the Challah plate as well. I worked primarily on the cup while Jeff did most of the work on the plate, but we worked together, encouraged each other and had a great time. I can't wait to pick them up on Wed. so we can see how they turn out once they are fired.

We got home a little more than 4 hours after we left. Theresa was just finishing giving Ben his bottle. We managed not to call and I truly didn't really think about calling once we started painting. Apparently he cried for a short time after we left and then napped on Theresa as she relaxed on the couch. He slept 3 hours and ate over 5 oz from a bottle just before we got home.

It was a very nice time out. We look forward to our next chance. I'm very glad Ben took the bottle so well. I've tried giving him one on a couple of occasions and he fights it, but that is likely because he knows he can nurse with me and would rather do that.