Date Night Gone Terribly Wrong

There's about a hundred more productive things I should be doing right now since we are flying to Milwaukee in the morning, but I have to post about our date last weekend before it gets too late.

Saturday night was the first time I have ever hired a babysitter for Grace so Justin and I could go on a real date. My mom and dad had given us a gift card to Olive Garden for our anniversary so we decided to use it for dinner and then go to a movie. Justin knew how much I wanted to see Bride Wars so he graciously offered to take me to it (I think he secretly has the hots for Kate Hudson and really wanted to see it himself). So, off we went to enjoy an evening by ourselves. When we got to Olive Garden there were CROWDS of people waiting outside and I started to get a little discouraged because I didn't think there would be enough time to wait for a table before the movie started. Justin was being optimistic and said that everyone was probably waiting outside because the weather happened to be really pleasant. So I ran inside to see how long the wait would be and when I did there were at least twice as many people inside as out. The wait was 40-50 minutes. YIKES! Definitely not enough time to eat and catch the movie, so we drove up the road to Texas Roadhouse, a favorite of ours. There were even more people waiting there. I was really starting to get upset because I was soooo looking forward to salad and bread sticks at Olive Garden, not to mention the FREE meal we would've had. We decided to hit up Chili's and see if there was a wait. Now I love Chili's as much as the next girl, but it wasn't what I wanted that night. We were able to get a table in the bar right away and we had a nice enough dinner I guess, but I was really disappointed when the bill came because I had been looking forward to a free meal with my gift card. Anyways, we left and headed to the movie theater where we saw yet again CROWDS of people waiting out front. WHAT in the world was going on that night? Turns out it was the opening night of 'My Bloody Valentine' in 3D. There were two lines in front of the theater that practically wrapped around the building on each side. We had gotten there 15 minutes before the movie started and it didn't look like we were going to make it in on time. We stood in line and waited, and waited, and waited (behind obnoxious teenagers no less). I went up to the front and asked how long the previews lasted and they told me 20 minutes, so we waited until 20 minutes past the start time and we were still a long ways from the window. I was TICKED! I had been looking forward to this date night for a week. I didn't get to eat at the restaurant I had wanted AND I wasn't going to get to see a movie AND I was going to have to pay a babysitter for the crappy evening. As we were leaving the parking lot Justin decided to drive over to the other theater (the one we never go to because tickets are like $10) to see if Bride Wars was playing there. Sure enough when we got there it was starting at 9:00 which gave us plenty of time, so Justin called the babysitter and asked if she could stay an extra hour. She said she could and things were looking up. We were actually going to be able to salvage some of our date night. Plus, there were NO lines at this theater (there was a big sign on the ticket window announcing that 'My Bloody Valentine' was NOT playing in 3D at that theater). We got our tickets, popcorn and a large coke and sat down. After a few minutes Justin tried to pick up the coke out of the armrest holder and the lid came off and the entire 44oz drink dumped in his lap. Great way to end the night don't ya think! Luckily there were only about 6 other people in there and everyone got a good laugh out of it. Justin's seat was soaked with coke so we moved over a few. Justin was such a good sport. He didn't complain or get upset or anything. He just laughed about it and sat through the movie soaked in coke. The best part of the entire night was seeing the guy's face who sat down in Justin's wet seat after we moved. It took him a few seconds to realize that it was wet, but when he did I couldn't stop laughing. Good times, good times. I think we'll wait a while before we try date night again.

1 year stats and random pictures

We survived the first year. This picture was taken the day after Grace's birthday when we celebrated with Justin's parents in Utah. This gift is from my mom and dad. She loved opening presents this year. It seems like she opened presents for 5 days straight and was completely spoiled by loving family members.

Grace had her one year check up last week and she weighs 25.2 lbs and is 31.75 inches long. She's in the 98th percentile for both. She had to get 3 shots this time, one of them being the measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine which was very painful and left her with a nasty bruise on her thigh and a little fever. She was doing much better after a couple days.

Here are a few of the things she likes and what she's been up to lately:

• She will only eat table food now, no more baby food for her.
• She loves scrambled eggs, bananas, and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches (not necessarily together though).
• She says 'mama' 'dada' and 'bahbah' very clearly and distinguishes who/what they are
• She loves attention and making people laugh. She makes goofy faces until somebody laughs at her.
• She loves music and will sing along and has recently started to dance to music as well.
• She loves books and to be read to. She will pick up anything that looks like a book (dvd case, menu, etc.) and start "reading" aloud - basically babbling in her own language - as she points to things on the pages.
• She has the most contagious laugh
• She loves giving hugs and kisses

Now, some random pictures:

While I was watching President Bush's farewell speech Grace was just chillin against the couch. I had to take a picture.

Daddy giving a mani and pedi. He's the only one she'll let cut her nails.

The other night she was so cuddly with Justin that I had to snap a picture (actually about 6) of this sweet moment.

Another girl for the Nessen family

Congratulations Brooks and Amber!

Maggie Jo Nessen was born on January 8, 2009

She weighed in at 6lbs 14oz and was 20 inches long

Maggie is beautiful and healthy and Amber is recovering well. We are so thrilled for your growing family and can't wait to meet our newest niece.

In need of some advise... Desperately

It seems as though ever since Grace turned 1 she has learned how to throw tantrums. Now I understand that toddlers throw tantrums, but Grace does them at 3:30 in the morning. It has come completely out of the blue. She wakes up in the middle of the night screaming bloody murder and won't stop until she is picked up. Then, if I even so much as think about sitting down in the glider to rock her she starts up again. The only way to get her to calm down and go back to sleep is to give her a bottle of water. I hate doing this because I feel like I'm "feeding" the habit (figuratively AND literally). She used to be the best sleeper. She would go to bed for the night without so much as a peep and sleep for 11-12 hours. I'm totally beside myself over this. I don't know what triggered it or how to deal with it, let alone fix it. I've read that some babies will reverse their sleeping habits at about 18 months, but I was not at all prepared for this. Have any of you been through this? What worked for you? What didn't work (maybe it will for me)? Even if you haven't experienced this or you don't have kids, but you have some advise please leave a comment. Like I said in the title, I'm desperate.

Money in my pocket

We've reached a sweet, sweet milestone in our home. The 1 year mark. There are so many things that come at this point in a child's life, but right now I'm completely giddy over the fact that I don't have to buy formula anymore. For you parents out there you know how expensive that stuff is, and compared to the price of whole milk, it's outrageous. So, I'm thrilled to have more money in my pocket for fun things like clothes, shoes, date-night... Yeah RIGHT! I'm sure it will be allocated to some other baby necessity, but it's still nice to dream.