How to Have a Great Day

Hire a babysitter to watch your kids all day. Seriously.

That wasn't the plan, originally. We were going to ski in the morning, planning to be back home around 1:00, preferably as soon as Junior fell asleep for his nap. But the temperature finally rose above freezing in the past week and then it rained all day yesterday. Today was supposed to be above freezing (good, if you're going to ski after a day of rain), but still cloudy, and I really didn't see the point of skiing in those conditions. So we canceled ski plans but kept the sitter. Turned out to be a good thing weather-wise because it was actually cold and blustery, even if it was above freezing, and mostly unpleasant. We had the sitter come over at 10:00. Then we set off on an aggressive agenda for the day: brunch, Bed Bath & Beyond, possibly Buy Buy Baby, and the gym, preferably all complete before 1:00.

First we locked our bedroom door and had sex. (I'm not really bragging about that because I have little interest while breastfeeding, but at least I was able to get that out of the way for the week.) Brunch included omelettes, house-cured bacon and--why not?--a cocktail. The spot was not crowded and we were the only ones at the bar, so we got out of their ahead of schedule. At BBB, only 10 minutes away, we proceeded to impulse-buy our way around the store and spend over $200. Thanks to all their stupid coupons though, we only had to pay $185. Let's see, we got these adorable little adirondack-like chairs for the boys (only one of whom will actually be able to sit in it this summer), some plates and bowls for the patio, laundry detergent, K cups, a cupcake batter dispenser...necessities, obviously...oh and a halogen lamp because there is no overhead lighting in our bedroom and I am tired of trying to see from the bedside lamp that is still holding onto one incandescent bulb (but the other is an energy-efficient one that throws icky cool light). We skipped Buy Buy Baby, where we were going to look at convertible car seats because we have been using oldish (maybe too oldish) hand-me-downs and are tired of those, because the Internet. Any recommendations?

Next stop, back through town and past the brunch place to the Y, where we have a family membership because Junior goes to daycare there three days a week. The facility is so old and outdated but I love that they have my favorite old-school Stairmaster and a Textrix right next it. There's also a pool and stuff like swing dance classes, and once the kids are older there will be programs for them that will be fun and affordable. They also have 2 racquetball courts, and Senior likes to play, so I let him kick my ass for a few games of racquetball. (Yeah, right. It was only the second time I played and I used to play squash which is quite a bit different as far as the pace of the game goes, so I'm pretty terrible. I did score 10 points one game but he gave me 6 to start. So I mean I scored 4 points one game. It's better when the guy wins anyway.)

We had already asked the sitter if she could stay until 2, which was fine. While on the way to the gym we passed near an industrial part of town that has a manufacturing and start-up incubator, which reminded us that there was a brewery tasting room that we wanted to try. Google maps said "closed today" but Senior called and they were open, so we asked the babysitter to stay until 3 and she said it was no problem. So after racquetball we went beer tasting. As we were heading over to the brewery, I told Senior what a great time I was having with him. He said, "yeah, it's like we don't have kids."

I actually went to high school with the guy who owns the brewery, and he was at the tasting room, which was neat because I haven't actually seen him since high school. I guess I can't say Facebook is terrible because I have reconnected with a lot of people that way, pretty much all for the better. The beers are really, really good, tastings are free and you don't even have to buy their growlers to buy their beer. But we did anyway, even though I hate their logo and the logo almost makes me want to not drink the beer. Nevermind that. I'm sure we were pushing 3:00 by now, and there was also a distillery and meadery with open tasting rooms in the building. We love our babysitter because she said she had no place to be and to enjoy our kid-free time. And we did. It was such an awesome day. Such an awesome expensive day, but whatever. It was really worth it. My advice to anyone with young kids who can afford to have the sitter for 5-6 hours is to have a day with your spouse and remember what it was like before you had kids. We didn't even talk about the kids while we were out today! But towards the end of the day, I was missing them.

When we got home, LJ had just been fed and was ready for another nap (good and bad, because I ended up having to pump for comfort), and Junior was willing to lie around on the couch with us, because we agreed to put on Frozen. I ate the other half of my brunch for dinner and now we are sipping on the cask IPA we bought for $3 that has to be drunk today.

Which leads me to my diet/sugarless life update. I consider alcohol to be equivalent to sugar as far as the diet goes. I am having a hard time staying away from baking (I made banana-oatmeal-pecan-chocolate-chip muffins this morning, and box brownies during the week for when we had friends over) and staying away from alcohol on the weekends. During the week I have been able to almost completely avoid sweets during the day. Some nights I will have something and some nights not. So I am still mixing in a few sugar-free days here and there, which is definitely progress. I think after the Easter-candy binge we are going to go 21 days sugar and alcohol free. My mom says those who work with addicts/addiction say it takes 21 days to make/break a habit. I learned a lot about my sweets-eating in just three days, and I knew that a few days wouldn't change anything for the most part, so I feel like 21 days will be attainable and also might lead to more long-term adjustments. Updates on failures and shortcomings will be provided. Now...episode 3 of House of Cards. The day is still going pretty great.