our little man

5.30.2008

preparing for first night away

adam is on vacation next week and we're kicking it off with a night away together in north conway to celebrate our anniversary. we spent our honeymoon in nearby glen, nh, and try go back to the area each year for our anniversary. last year ben came with us, but this year he's old enough to stay behind - so he'll be having his very first sleepover at his grammy's house.

being that it is his first time, we decided to split the kids up. ben will go to my mom's and sophie will be staying with adam's parents. not only does it make it a little easier (having a one year old and a three year old running around your house isn't exactly relaxing, haha), it makes it really special for each kiddo. they don't get a lot of individual time, especially with their grandparents, so i think it's nice that they'll each get to be the only one for the weekend and get some extra special attention.

i've found that i'm much less worried about leaving ben for his first overnight than i was just sophie. mostly because sophie was a difficult sleeper and i worried that she'd have trouble away from home. ben, on the other hand, is great at going to bed on his own and now that he's sleeping through the night it's even better. he's spent the evening at my mom's before and had no trouble going to bed there and he's taken several naps at his nana's house. plus, like i said, i'm kind of excited for him to get some ben-only time. sophie does tend to demand attention and i know that ben will really enjoy being the only one for a bit.

and not only does this mark ben's first sleepover, it also is the first time adam and i have had a kid-free night in over 18 months. we love having our kids around and would almost always choose to spend our free time with them if given the chance, but we have been realizing lately that we need more time for the two of us. particularly with adam's new schedule - we get much more time together as a family each day, which is great, but the sacrifice is that adam and i no longer have our evenings together once the kids are alseep. so weekend evenings are the only times we get to be alone. we're looking forward to spending some time together without one kid or the other (or both) climbing all over us, clamoring for attention, yelling, jumping, etc, etc. and truthfully we both know that we'll be better parents if we have a bit of off-time. not only better parents, but better models of what a healthy relationship is like... and that's something that's very important to me that we can pass on to them.

anyway, i got a little side-tracked there, but the point is that i'm looking forward to this weekend and i'm excited about this little first for ben. i'll be nervous, but not overly, and i'm sure he'll do great and have a wonderful time. i started packing his bag last night and we'll be dropping him off tomorrow in the late morning! wish us all luck!

posted at 9:55 AM by aimee // 0 comments