Alone At Last

As I mentioned in earlier posts, my in-laws came to visit last week. They left on Wednesday morning, but while they were here, Andy and I took advantage of their stay. For the first time since having the girls we left for a night. By ourselves. ALL NIGHT LONG. I mean we didn't go very far, only to a fancy hotel in Hollywood, but still we got to leave for the whole night and not wake up at the crack of a kid crying. Now you may think I would have been nervous and worried, but really I wasn't. The girls are all at an age now where they are on a certain level of self sufficiency. By that I mean, there's no bottles to give, or baby food to worry about, and only ONE diapered baby to change. It's a bit easier for me to leave them now. Plus it was only one night. Andy and I have both been away from the girls for a few nights separately, but we have never been away together, so was still going to be new for everyone.

Before we left, I forewarned my in-laws about the girls sleeping habits, or in Lana's case, lack there of. They were ready for a sleepless night after all my talk, but were nice enough to stay with them anyway. I was pretty sure Sonya would be fine the whole night, but Lana would for sure wake up, with at least one cry from Georgia thrown in there.

Andy and I left later in the afternoon and went to check into the hotel. Then we went to get some dinner, before heading to the movies to be the last people in America to see Avatar. On our way to the theater, I told Andy to give his parents a call to check on the girls. It was around bath/story time, but since Avatar is fortnight long, I thought we should call before going. Andy called from the blue tooth in his car, and I could hear the conversation too.

"Hello?" said Julia, a bit frantic.

"Hey! How's it going?" Andy asked.

In the background we hear, "Wwwwaaaaaaaahhhhhh!!!!" from Georgia.

"Oh, it's fine, everything is good. The girls had their dinner...." She started to tell us.

"MMMMAAAAAMMMMMAAAAAA!!!!" Georgia yelled.

"And Daddy (my father in-law) is giving Georgia a bath now," Julia continued.

"WWWWWAAAAAHHHHH!!!"

At this point Julia was obviously trying to get us off the phone. "She's going to bed in a minute, she's really tired. Everything's fine though, have fun."

"MMMMAAAAMMMMMAAAA!!!"

At this point I'm trying everything I can to not burst out in laughter. This is what my house sounds like on a daily basis when I'm trying to get the girls to bed. If you call me on any given day around that time, you'd probably hear something similar. The only difference is I'm so used to it, carrying on a phone conversation is second nature to me. I don't like to do it, though, except with my mom and sisters, because they're able to tune it out like I can. Julia, was having a bit more difficult of a time with this.

Andy tried to ask her another question, but I think Julia had the phone half-way into hang up mode because all he got was,

"Yeah, okay, we'll talk to you later. Bye." Then the phone went silent and I let my laughter erupt. I'm sure if I was a nervous mother or had no faith in my in-laws I would have made Andy drive home that minute. But I know my girls, and I know that was normal and that my in-laws were doing their best. Georgia was fine, she really was just tired, and doesn't always like to have someone else give her a bath. Besides I was not about to ruin my first night away, by running home for no reason. I had Avatar to go see! In 3D no less! Which, in case we weren't the last ones to see it, I recommend seeing it. If for nothing else, how beautiful it looks. It really is a pretty movie. I liked the story too, although, some people might take exception to it. But really people, it's just a movie. Get over it. And there's my 10 second movie review tangent for you.

After the movie, Andy and I went back and um.. relaxed at the hotel for the night. We'll leave it at that since my Dad does read this blog. We slept until 9am and woke up to breakfast room service. One of my favorite things in the world. Andy called his parents in the morning to see how the night went. To our surprise, they went quite well. NOBODY woke up. Not even Lana. Figures I miss the night they sleep all night long. Damnit! It happens about once every week and a half to two weeks. I suppose it's a good thing I got to sleep at the hotel that night because I won't get another night of uninterrupted sleep until at least next Friday.

I can't complain though. Andy and I had a great time being alone and kid free. Although, by noon both of us were ready to go home. We were missing the girls. It hadn't even been 24 hours, but that's what happens when you have kids. You miss them when you're away from them. Then you get home and remember why you needed the night away to begin with.

A special thanks to Robert and Julia for taking great care of the girls.