As a parent there are many little milestones you look forward to.
When the baby sleeps through the night
The completion of potty-training
When you can go on an outing and no one needs a stroller
Each of these milestones bring with them a new found freedom for the entire family. And a welcome sigh of relief.
In our opinion, though, the milestone that beats them all is when your child is old enough to baby-sit the younger ones. Oh yes! The built-in baby-sitter!
Conner has been babysitting the kids for a while now and can I just tell you that it is so so so wonderful?! We have the freedom to go out on a date whenever we feel like it, whenever the idea strikes. And no longer do I have to worry about forking out a bunch of cash after a night on the town.
It's a total win-win situation. The kids love when we go out because it probably means they get to eat corn dogs, fish sticks, or Velveeta shells & cheese for dinner. And the best part is they get to watch a movie or play the Wii while we are away.
See, no sad face here as we are heading out the door.
Conner has been very responsible with the kids. No problems so far.
There was that one time the home alarm went off. But that was all my fault. I mistakenly set it to "away" rather than "stay" on our way out the door, so the motion sensors were activated. Yep. Felt pretty bad when I got the phone call from Conner and heard that Anna had totally freaked out. But he handled it wonderfully and was able to enter the code to turn the alarm off. He only called me about it because Anna insisted (I think she was afraid the police were going to show up.)
Bottom line . . . having a built-in babysitter rocks. You should get one too!
(these photos are from a date in September, celebrating my birthday a few days early. We ate dinner at BJ's restaurant and then went to the Crepe Shack for ice cream crepes and a game of Scrabble.)
