All week I was gearing up for this date. I was looking forward to spending quality time with my husband sharing the things we love: food, conversation, and movies. Bil made a loaf of French bread and I mixed together the ingredients for bruschetta and goat cheese and avocado crostini.
The kids had played all day and neither had napped, which I actually thought would work in our favor: now they would both go to bed early.
Everything was ready for the date, and then everything went terribly awry.
Danny fell asleep at 5:00 without having eaten dinner. That was fine with me. I just hoped he would sleep through the night or at least through our date. Then, I got Charlotte ready for bed. She had a major meltdown; she was so exhausted from lack of nap that she couldn't calm down. When she finally did, Danny popped up out of bed ready for action.
I fed him dinner and then decided to bribe him with a video. He could stay up and watch a video if he behaved and then promised to cooperate and go to bed afterwards. While Bil was getting the video ready for Danny, the phone rang. Bil's work was calling with some urgent question for him. While he was on the phone, I got Danny's video in the VCR, but it wouldn't work. Of course, Danny was totally set on that particular video even though we have hundreds of others. I finally convinced him to choose another one and that one won't work either. Obviously, the VCR (which is only about 6 months old) is malfunctioning.
We go through what seems like hours of him begging for the video and me trying to convince him to pick a DVD instead; all the while Bil is still on the phone with work. Danny finally aquiesces and decides to watch Robin Hood which was much longer than I was hoping to let him stay up, but at that point I was desperate.
Bil and I finally sit down to our delectable dinner and enjoy ourselves for maybe 10 minutes until we hear Charlotte wailing. Next ensues what feels like hours of Charlotte crying that inconsolable, over tired keening that goes right through me and makes me want to run far, far away. Meanwhile, Bil's work calls AGAIN.
It doesn't end there, but suffice it to say that it takes quite a while for Charlotte to cry herself to sleep, and Danny puts up a minor fight about going to bed. Bil finally resolves the work issue and Danny gets put to bed. By this point, we are exhausted and it is only 9pm. We spend a good 15 frustrating minutes trying to locate the video that we had planned on watching, and I am getting irritable and snippy with Bil until he asks me, "Is this how we want to spend the little time we have left on our date?"
By the time we sit down with our profiteroles in front of the video, I feel like we have lived through three frustrating days instead of just one evening. Next time, we will definitely be getting a babysitter and leaving the house!
On the plus side, the food really did turn out quite well.