Date Night

On Thursday, I took Noah to his gym class and they mentioned that there were still 10 spots open for Parents Night Out at the gym on Friday (yesterday). Parents night out is a three hour event where if you pay some money, your little one gets to play at the gym with other kids and eat some pizza while you go out on your own. They allow kids 18 months and up, and when Noah was around 17 months old we talked about trying it out. We made up excuse after excuse for why we couldn't drop Noah off there. What if the big kids bullied him? What if he fell off of some of the equipment? They use daycare standards so that means 10 to 1 kids to adults, how could anyone watch that many kids at once?

Noah's almost 22 months old, and so on Thursday, I thought it sounded like a good idea. I nonchalantly mentioned it to Ash Friday morning as he left for work, and he paused. I could tell he thought it was a good idea too. His birthday is tomorrow and on Monday he leaves for a work/music trip to Eastern and Western Europe.

Around 2 pm, I talked to Ash on the phone, and we decided if there was still an opening we'd try it out. Worst case scenario, we'd have to go right back to pick Noah up or we wouldn't be able to leave him there. So I left a message at the gym saying we were interesting in finding out if there were still openings. I checked their website and realized it was likely that no one would be there until later in the afternoon just before the 5:30 start of the Parents Night Out. So I emailed Ash and told him I thought we'd hear from them closer to 5 pm, and that I thought he should get home at 5 and we'd either take Noah to the gym or all go walk around somewhere together.

Sure enough at 4:48 they left me a message saying there was room for Noah. I spent some time in the day explaining to Noah that he was going to have a special night without mommy and daddy. I told him we'd take him to his gym and we all know how much fun he has there and that he'd get to play for a while with other kids and teachers without mommy and daddy there. Then I told him we'd pick him up later.

We got to the gym and Noah immediately ran in and began running around. Ash and I were apprehensive. Would he freak out if we tried to leave? Noah came over and asked Ash to play with him in the gym and we explained that it was a special night where he'd play alone. He raised his eyebrows then ran away to play and didn't look back. We ran out the door before we had a chance to change our minds. This was the first time in over 16 months that we were leaving Noah to do something together.

After a little chatting we decided to head to the historic district of a neighboring town. It's really cute with little shops and restaurants on the main drag. Three hours isn't enough time to do dinner and a movie, but we figured it was enough time for dinner. We walked up and down the street checking out the menus of a local brewery (we had to limit the money we were going to spend on dinner since we were paying for Noah's night out too!) We passed a sandwich bistro that we decided was a good option, and then went to check out a pub someone had suggested. Pub food is cheap so we figured we had to look at the menu. After a minute or so we both decided the ambiance wasn't exactly date night material and I noticed the fries weren't the kind I'd want to eat. So we headed back up the street toward the Bistro. On our way we noticed a little Italian restaurant and stopped to look at the menu. I stayed on the side while Ash read it. "This looks reasonable." I asked if they gnocchi because I'd been craving it for days. They did and it wasn't that expensive. We walked in and the restaurant had the charm of a little family owned restaurant we'd been to Brugges back in the day when Ash was on a music tour in Europe.

They asked if we had a reservation and we did not. But luckily they had one table left if we didn't mind not sitting in the main dining room. We hadn't been out to eat a restaurant alone together in 20 months so we didn't care where we sat. The table ended up being cute with a candle and there was nice classical music playing the background. All along our walk we'd been talking about politics. I told Ash about the President's speech I watched on the middle east and so when we sat down we continued to talk about politics. We ate fresh bread dipped in olive oil and laughed and chatted about why I'd never vote for a Republican candidate for President, why primary elections are so important, about Ash's work, the world, our ideas and thoughts. A few minutes in we were each smiling from ear to ear. And each of us said, "This is why we're together. We really like each other." That's not to say that we don't like each other every day, but it is rare for both of us to eat at the same time even if we're at the table together. Having a very active toddler means one of us is helping him eat, or picking up food, or stopping him from jumping ship at dinner. When it was time to order we easily decided on two dishes to split. We ate slowly and the food was amazing. We talked and talked and talked. Everything about the date had the makings of two people falling in love again.

After dinner we strolled for a bit and realized it had only been an hour and a half. What would we do with the other hour and a half? We debated going to a coffee shop then decided to head for ice cream near Noah's gym so we could chat and have some dessert. We had ice cream and sat outside for a bit but both of us got cold and we realized we each wondered how Noah was doing at his gym. Was he having fun? We hoped he wasn't getting bullied. They would have called if he cried the whole time, right?

We realized that there was a half hour or so left of our Parents Night Out, but that at this point we'd had a wonderful night and we both wanted to pick Noah up early. The teachers mentioned that most of the kids cry after their parents leave are fine for the rest of the time and then start crying when the first parents arrive. We didn't want to be anything but the first parents to arrive so Noah wouldn't worry where we were. We headed into the class and noticed a group of children laughing and standing by the ball pit and the teacher that I asked to make sure Noah didn't fall down by the ball pit too. After a few seconds we realized Noah was in the ball pit entertaining the teacher and about six other kids. The teacher said to Noah, "Guess who's here?" Then she lifted him out to see us. Noah smiled from ear to ear, waved his arms as he got closer. Then he said something to us and ran away to play again. He continued to dance and play for the next thirty minutes. He came by twice to check on us but ran away to have fun each time. We'd been worried that Noah wouldn't get attention but it was obvious that Noah had managed to get a teacher mostly to himself for the duration of the time and he seemed to be working the room full of children quite well.

One of the teachers told us he didn't cry or fuss for them once and that there was a time where the other 20+ kids spent with Noah leading them in clapping and dancing. She nonchalantly mentioned that Noah has more energy than any other child she's ever met, and it made us laugh. Oftentimes we say that to other parents and they tell us their kids do too and I wonder why I'm so exhausted at the end of the day. It felt reassuring to see that a teacher that sees that many kids knew exactly what we were talking about. He's lovely, but a little ball of energy. They were doing a zip line and pretending surf while we watched. The teacher explained to the kids that they would each get a turn and after their turn they would have to sit down and watch the other kids instead of running around. At that point, Noah got up in front of the class and started waving his arms and yelling something to the kids. I heard the teacher say, "Listen to Noah!" Noah continued to tell the kids a few things and they all listened and did what he wanted. We couldn't believe that Noah was working a room full of so many kids, mostly older than him so well.

When it was time to leave, Ash carried Noah out and part of me wondered if he had missed us at all. That's when Noah started chanting, "Mommy, Mommy, Mommy" and reaching for me. I took him and he gave me the biggest smile I've ever seen then popped his thumb in his mouth and leaned in to cuddle me on the way to the car.

I could tell he was saying, "I had the time of my life tonight, but I still want to go home with you guys." And we felt the same way.