Amore

Yesterday was Valentine's Day. As you might have noticed, I didn't post anything. This is in no way a showing of the quality of my Valentine's Day this year. I just felt the need to do more important things than blog (sorry, blog).
We actually celebrated V-day over the weekend. We went out to a small restaurant that has a reputation for staying entirely hidden...because it does. It's almost like that house in Harry Potter. You can be standing right in front of it and it is entirely invisible. However, we found it. And ate there. And it was lovely. It's a tiny place but it has wonderful food and is of the higher end of class for this small town. The wait staff is lovely and they know what they're talking about when they make suggestions. The menu is diverse. I'd been there for lunch before but never for dinner. I think I can safely say it is now one of our new favorites. If not our favorite in town. And that's not just the baby talking. John loved it too.
Yesterday, I surprised John with a classic homemade dinner of spaghetti, meatballs, and candlelight. Lady and the Tramp style. :) I'd never made homemade meatballs before (other than Hawaiian meatballs which are very different) and I must say for my first time they turned out lovely. Before dinner, I did a full early evening of cooking (meal planning!) and got one whole meal ready for later this week or next and froze it and then prepared the meatballs and spaghetti. (Yes. I am totally on board with the meal planning. So far, it has been awesome and even fun. I originally made a tentative plan of how the month would unfold food-wise...we began the meal-making earlier than I planned...but we are somehow still ahead of schedule...so we are doing WAY better resource-wise than I expected. And there's just something awesome about having a recipe planned out for dinner instead of staring blankly into the fridge thinking, "uh...uh...tortillas....jam....pickles...what else can we eat???") Long story short...it was a good Valentine's day.
It was a good weekend too. Friday night, we played parents for a friend and babysat her baby boy for the evening. It was surprisingly fun, WAY too easy (he was easy on us...I was expecting projectile poo and screaming at the very least and I was completely prepared and ready! But no...he was a complete cherub and went to sleep without a peep when it was time...I was almost disappointed...), and we found ourselves enjoying it even if we knew it was a very unrealistic vision of parenthood. Either way, I think we gave my friend a good night to herself and I know having the chance to go out while your husband is deployed is SO important...I can't imagine what it's like with a child. But I'm sure I'll find out soon. Note: John was AMAZING. I was so glad and impressed with how well he took charge and genuinely enjoyed playing with Wesley.
The next few weeks are filled with all kinds of unknowns: Anesthesia consults, hospital maternity wing open houses, birthing classes, breastfeeding classes, infant CPR classes, to name a few...it's a little overwhelming and crazy to think that it's mid February...which means it's almost March...which means it's almost April and if it's almost April...it's almost MAY. Very soon this baby will be here. I am both overwhelmed by that fact and ECSTATICALLY excited. A large part of me aches for her to get here already...but I then remember how many things we haven't gotten yet and I calm down a bit. Take your time, baby. Take your time.

Photo: Disney's Lady and the Tramp found via Shock Ya