good friday

One of the biggest challenges that we've found in this adventure called parenting is finding "affordable" and "quality" childcare for us to enjoy some couple time together. We're pretty frugal folks and so it's hard to justify paying more for a babysitter to "watch" our sleeping child than what we would spend during our entire evening out. Luckily, we've got some friends and family who are willing to trade off childcare so that we all have a chance to enjoy an evening out for free*. Tonight, we were on the receiving end of the "friends and family" plan.

Our friends Kalonji and Kelly brought over their sweet baby boy Jaxxon this evening and we grilled brats and chicken for dinner. This was the first time we'd seen little Jax man -- hard to believe it's been 4 months since he was born! Madeline was intrigued by Jaxxon and all his baby accoutrements. I think she was secretly jealous of his bouncy seat. It was fun to catch up with K & K and hear about their transition into life as parents. Hopefully it won't be so long until the next time we get together!

We got M settled into bed and then headed off to a fondue party thrown by Jon and Chelsea. There was cheese, there was chocolate, there were adult beverages. It was all good. Josh rocked out on the drums during the Rock Band marathon and I confabbed with the grad students in attendance while playing speed Scrabble. By 11pm, we were spent (we're so old) and went home to relieve our sitters.

It definitely was a Good Friday.


*Our "free" usually means we feed the folks who watch over M. So not exactly free, but still less than the $10/ hour for a sitter!