Monday, December 10, 2012

Snapshot: Snow Daze

Morning After.

 When Nick told a friend of his about impending fatherhood, he offered some great advice. He said when the baby comes it is natural to turn all of your focus to the baby, to have that be your only priority. The important thing to remember, however, is to care for our relationship as a couple. He recommend that we try to have date night as often as possible and to make one another top priority. If we are doing well, baby is too.

I can already see how easy it would be to not ever leave baby and to turn all of my snuggling tendencies to the little one. A favorite blogger wrote about her experience with this here


Early Christmas present for Nick.

In an effort to combat this early, we have initiated weekly date nights. It has been the best part of pregnancy. Every Friday or Saturday night is reserved for the two of us to go to dinner and talk and hang out as a couple. We have been making some big efforts to trim spending but Nick asked that we not cut our dinner budget. For the time being, I agree. Besides, without wine, I'm a pretty cheap date.

Saturday evening I started getting ready earlier than usual. I do love getting dressed up and going out. But it's taking me longer to get ready as it is getting harder to pretend that my body is the same. I put on a red dress that I bought when I found out I was pregnant. It is not maternity but it stretches and has an empire waist. I am now showing but if you didn't know, you might just think I have a funny shape. The dress was only accentuating that. In another month it'll probably be cute but now, even Nick was concerned (He never says anything bad about my appearance but is more honest than most guys, and it is usually quite helpful). After a few outfit changes, we were out the door. 

We went to Amore Victoria. It is this great Italian place a few blocks from our first apartment. We used to go there all the time when I first moved here. We sat at a table that only had a booth against the wall and no chairs on the other side. It was very Parisian and the only table like that. It felt like we were there to watch everybody else. We had giant pasta dishes and lots of bread and oil. I even had a glass of sparkling n.a. cider in a champagne glass.

The Kitchen of Amore as we were leaving.
 After dinner we made a date night exception and went to a party hosted by my friend Sam. All of the guests save Nick and I, were theater students at the same college. We listened to Christmas music on vinyl and played with silly British party favors. At 12:30, after drinking too much hot cider (rum), Nick started tugging on my arm and we left to drive home. We got out to my car just as the expected snowstorm was starting.

We awoke in the morning to find everything covered in beautiful heavy snow. It continued all day. Nick, Toby, and I stayed inside watching snowfall and football. We invited friends over for the game but did not expect anybody due to the weather. Right at the start of the Vikings game, I heard footsteps in the mudroom. Elise spent an hour and a half walking the three miles to join us. It was really nice. I made brownies and we all cozied on the couch and watched the Vikings win. 

Toby taking advantage of a snow day.

I do not usually write my days but as I look outside and see everything buried and quiet, it is hard to not want to capture this time. I am learning how to embrace my changing days and these simple moments remind me that the important things are still there hidden in the everyday.