Not Parents for Dinner

I wore my heels today.

We got a babysitter, I put on red lipstick, I wore my favorite pair of heels and we met our best friends for dinner at a restaurant that doesn't have paper napkins.  Ok, so it had paper napkins but it definitely had a fireplace which clearly classes up the whole experience.

Sometimes the best thing you can do for your kids is pretend they don't exist for two hours.

Then laugh and joke like you used to about the Oscars or something you pretended to read in Vogue while checking out your poop/juice/any kind of edible or bodily function stain free self in the mirror every five minutes.  Remember when you used to look this good all the time??????? Remember???????

Laugh aloud at the emoticon happy text message you get from your babysitter about how Ellie had a tummy ache but she pooped EVERYWHERE AND NOW SHE FEELS FINE WHERE IS THE ANTIBACTERIAL SOAP PLEASE?

And flirt with your husband because it's not very often you get to sit next to each other and damn that man looks good in a navy blue sweater and dark framed glasses.

It's so good to have friends who knew who you were before you became Mama and Papa.  They ask you things about how your plans are going for such and such that you all but forgot about because you've been too busy crying over your low sleep need child for the last three years.  They're proof that you once existed without pull-ups in your purse, or references to a "piddle pad". And they dig your kiddo too, and remind you how awesome being a parent really is.  (Just not for these two hours over dinner.  We're not parents for two hours for dinner. Just for dinner.)