Another Date Night

Ian stayed at Grandma Trish & Grandpa Tom's house Friday night so Shawn and I could have another date night. I know what you're thinking...That's 2 date nights in 6 months. Isn't that a little selfish? Well, it's only the second since Ian came home in November of 07, so I'm willing to risk offending that growing segment of the parenting public who are quick to jump in and say they've never been away from their kids overnight.

It was worth it, although Shawn wore jeans again, just like our last date night. He dresses really nice for work (for no good reason) yet jeans for our night out. He said it was because I was behind on laundry. OOOOHHHH. Probably not the right thing to say a month before our Anniversary.

So we went to Palomino, an upscale grill, and in true romantic fashion used a 2 for 1 dinner coupon. If we were newly married, this would be a major problem... but after 13 years, even just ordering something off the menu over $10 is a fancy night out... so I'm not complaining.

The dinner was great and I had 2 martinis (Tirimisu and Lychee...as a homage to Chinese New Year)and crab stuffed cod. It was awesome. It was worth the jeans and coupon. That's how good it was.

After, we went to see The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. It was very good. I expected it to be good considering the hype, but it was better than I expected. The story is moving, it has just enough love story but wasn't over the top lovey dovey... and Brad Pitt was nice to look at in his younger (older) years. It reminded me a lot of Forest Gump and will probably do well at the Oscars. The cinematography and special effects were great. It was also very long...almost 3 hours. It moved at a good enough pace to support that length though, and made me feel like I got my money's worth considering it may be a while before I see another movie in the theater again. Who wants to pay $10 and spare their only night out for a 90 minute slapstick comedy? Not me.

We were home and asleep by midnight and I was up by 8 the next morning feeling like I wanted to go get Ian right then. I missed him and felt like if I was going to sit around and do nothing, he might as well be doing nothing with me (yeah right). We ended up going to lunch, which we rarely do because of the circus that ensues, and it was nice to eat uninterrupted. Of course, there were Chinese twin girls eating lunch next to us and they were so adorable. I thought of Ian the whole time and counted the hours until we would drive to pick him up.

As I knew he would, he had a great time at Grandma and Grandpa's house. His cousin Ashleigh stayed the night also and they had a ton of fun playing, sharing blankets, and being silly. She is great with kids and he loves her, so it was nice that they had that time together.

Ian and Grandpa Tom jammed together on their harmonicas and it was a total laugh riot. Videos are hard to post in Blogger, so I won't even try, but there are some good pics below of those two gettin' their blues on. It was too cute.

Ian did OK with his glasses, but I'm nervous about school tomorrow. I know for a fact that those things won't stay on for long periods of time and who knows what will happen to them. They plan to use "glasses" as their conversation at circle time and discuss why Ian needs glasses, and why they should not be touched, taken off, or pulled on. Hopefully he'll only be the center of attention with them for a while and then life will go back to normal. It will be interesting to see how it goes. He doesn't like them on when he's looking at a book or things close up, but he's learning how to lift them to his forehead and then bring them back down again when he's done. Again, not sure how that will translate to school.

Below are a few pics from yesterday. There are more cute shots trapped on grandma's camera...But there's even one of me with Ian. So very rare! Too bad I was having a bad hair day. Can't we schedule these things better? :-)

Tomorrow marks the start of Chinese New Year and Ian already knows he wants lots of Hong Baos (red envelopes of money) to symbolize weath and prosperity in the new year. I have one for him each day of Chinese New Year, and he can put the money in the Golden Ox piggy bank I bought him. We are planning to go to our Families with Children from China chapter's CNY celebration next Saturday in Seattle, and sometime during the week, Ian and I will make fortune cookies and paper lanterns. I would love to take him down to the China Town in Seattle for Dim Sum, but I'm afraid we won't have time during the CNY period. Maybe after when it won't be so crazy.

Showing off his blue glasses

Rare pic of the two of us... and I have hair issues. Oh well.

Silly

He couldn't get enough of this placemat for some reason. With his short nose bridge, it's almost impossible to get his glasses to stay on straight.

Jammin with Grandpa

Finding a good rhythm. He is actually pretty good at this...and bobs back and forth to the tune. It's so adorable. It just can't be described with pictures.

Getting a goodbye snuggle from Aunt Shannon