Half a date is better than no date

After my Birthday party two weeks ago, when Athena cried through the whole thing, two of our friends offered to babysit so Steve and I could have an evening out. We took them up on the offer (duh!) and went to see Broken Flowers at The Rose this afternoon. The plan was to have some Thai food afterwards, and be home by 7:30.

The movie finished at 6:15, and at 6:17 my cell phone rings. Oh no. Oh yes. Athena had been wailing for "quite a while" and nothing was calming her down. So we came home, five minutes of boob and she was asleep, and Steve called for take out. We made the right choice declining our friends' offer to stay after I got her to sleep, as she only good for about half an hour before she wanted to read us the riot act again for leaving her.

Sam had a similar incident at around the same age, but we were at the Seven Cedars Casino seeing Cheap Trick, and my babysitter friend couldn't or wouldn't call us home. But it was several months before we had another babysitter.

Athena will not be so lucky. We've hired a lovely older lady to look after both kids for an hour and a half Mon-Fri while we are both at work. So Little Miss will get used to having someone else care for her, whether she wants to or not.

Repeat after me: This is a very short season. This is a very short season. This is a very short season.