Making Plans Doesn't Work With A 1 Year Old

Prior to surgery, we could plan to see movies on Saturday afternoons and the great-grandparents would arrive and we would leave and there would be sunshine and rainbows and joy for everyone.

Then the surgery thing happened, James became clingy with me, at the same time not allowing A to leave the room, and giving the stink eye to anyone who appeared for the first part of their visit.  He'd relax once the playing began, but because we were worried about the arm braces, we didn't leave.  We'd stay and play and chat.

This last weekend, we attempted to go to the movies both days.  And no movie was seen.

James is apparently teething, and over the weekend reached the point where pain was trumping anything.  He and I ended up napping together on the couch because he refused to sleep without me.  Saturday night he was having trouble sleeping, and at 5:30 am ended up in bed with us.

We have a king size bed, but I still ended up with half my rear end hanging off the mattress because someone insisted on snuggling with me.  No matter if I scooted a little away from him, he followed in his sleep.

What it boils down to is that we aren't making any plans for things during the day on weekends anymore.  Well, at least not movies.  It's easy to drop him off with the great-grandparents to play and swim, and we run off to run errands or eat dinner out.  We are a phone call away, and if it goes wrong we can be back to them in 20 minutes.

But for movies, something we both love, another solution has been found, and we are testing it this week.

A babysitter.

James goes to bed at 9 each night now.  So, if we can find a movie showing after 9, have someone here to just put him in his crib and watch TV, then we can still get some time away.

We are testing this out tomorrow night.  My father-in-law is headed over to watch a movie on our TV while we head out to see Prometheus.  If it goes according to plan, he doesn't mind doing this every so often.  We also have a friend of the family who we both love, James plays with, and is saving money for next summer when she studies abroad in Rome.  She jumped at the chance to come sit and earn a little extra money, so we'll see how that goes.

Wish us luck!