Tonight, I went out on a date.
A real, Saturday night, out-to-a-nice-dinner-at-a-nice-restaurant date.
So what if it was at 6pm?
We were out, we were about, get used to it.
We left the baby in the capable, trusted hands of my parents and grandparents,
and set off for a romantic evening meal,
that just so happened to be at the scene of the crime.
We cozied up in a corner banquette
and spent the entire 2 hours talking, laughing, eating, drinking and talking some more.
It was as my husband was telling me a compelling story about his time in DC during the 9/11 attacks that it hit me;
We hadn’t spent this much time actually talking to one another,
and actually listening to one another,
in nearly 5 months. Most likely, since we dined on cheeseburgers the night I gave birth.
That’s what happens when you have a baby;
You don’t have time to sit and talk.
You are too tired to talk.
You don’t make sense when you talk.
You forget how to talk about anything besides diaper cream and bankies.
That does not, however, mean that you are no longer able to communicate.
Quite the opposite, in fact.
You develop intricate hand signals
(like when you tap your husband, point at the baby, shrug your shoulders and cover your eyes. That is code for, “I can’t see her eyes from here. Did she fall asleep?”)
And, once you become a bit more seasoned,
you need nothing more than your eyes to communicate.
(like when you look at your husband, furrow your brow and close your eyes, to ask, “Are her eyes closed?”
He responds by closing his eyes, slowly, to signal that “No, she has not yet dozed off, but she’s close.”
And then, minutes later, you respond by opening your eyes as wide as you can, creasing your forehead, as if to ask, “Now???”,
and the husband responds with a wink, letting you know that the mission has been accomplished.)
You have no idea how many nights we’ve spent communicating through mere eye signals. Gestures, winks and text messages, sent from across the bed, as to refrain from making any noise whatsoever, lest we risk waking the sleeping babe.
So, as you can imagine, it was a real treat to spend 2 full hours, being able to use our voices, to speak to one another, about things relating to nothing but each other.
We’ve both grown up immensely in the last 5 months, and it was nice to be able to check in…
especially over some spectacularly delicious blueberry duck and tequila jumbo shrimp.
Speaking of, there’s a certain ice cream parlor that happens to be giving me hand gestures, beckoning me to visit it for some dessert.
A sweet ending to a sweet date night.
Wink.