A Night Away

When I woke up this morning, I was filled with a mixture of excitement and nerves. I was excited because Michael and I were going to be celebrating our 3 year wedding anniversary with a night out in downtown Seattle. I was nervous because we were going to be leaving Zoey to spend the night at my mom's. Our morning got off to a really slow start and I was definitely putting off getting ready; the sooner we got ready, the sooner we left; and the sooner we left, the sooner we dropped off Zoey...

She had no idea that her momma was a nervous wreck!

She always has a way of making me smile...

All of those awesome toys and she's sitting there sucking on her toes!

That's better.

She's reaching for her new Vtech Move & Crawl Ball. So far, it's pretty awesome. 

We'll see if it helps inspire her to start crawling (it moves on it's own so she can go after it).

Once we had the hotel picked out for the night, I started to feel a little bit better. We chose the Hilton Garden Inn in Bothell. We were only going to be about 10 minutes, maybe less, from my mom's house. So, if I needed to feed Zoey because she wasn't taking a bottle, or if I had a major breakdown and needed to see her right away, it wouldn't be a problem!

When we finally got to my mom's (we were running late, as usual), I fed Zoey while simultaneously giving my mom verbal instructions on how to care for her. You'd think I would have written pages and pages of notes before leaving her in someone else's care, but, I don't know why, I just couldn't do it. I couldn't really think straight, to be quite honest. If I sat and thought about all of the little things I do for her each night and tried to get all of my personal thoughts and preferences down on paper, I knew I was going to lose it. Instead, I took the approach of telling my mom the important things and not really giving myself too much time to dwell on it. I knew she was going to be in good hands, and I kept reminding myself that that was all that really mattered. 

After briefly explaining Zoey's bedtime routine and what to try if she woke up in the night (the thought of which made me want to start bawling), Michael and I kissed our angel goodbye and headed downtown. I had made dinner reservations at a Bosnian restaurant called Sarajevo Lounge. We had been wanting to try it and even though it wasn't the fanciest place, I knew it was something that Michael would actually appreciate. After dinner, the plan was to ride the Great Seattle Wheel and then head to the hotel for some dessert and wine (and a much needed night of uninterrupted sleep!). 

I really only set myself one goal for the evening: Relax and have fun! I knew it was silly to tell myself not to think about Zoey or to try not to talk about her. She is my world, but Michael and I deserve each other's attention, too :)