It's been 10 days....

Forgive me blogger for I have sinned...it's been 10 days since my last post.  I have been surprisingly busy doing things that I can't remember and forgetting to do the things I was supposed to do.  (Am I getting old? good lord).

Last week went by like any other in the life of a fitdad, I spent 2 (not 3...grrr) days working out.  I followed my diet relatively well until Saturday evening, more on that below.  I lost another pound and now sit comfortably at 194.6, a total of 40.4lbs lighter than my starting weight last year in January.  I have also noticed that even though I am not losing weight at the rate I was before that my body is reshaping itself.  I look leaner even when I am not losing weight.  Clothes fit looser every week and pretty soon I am going to need to invest in some new pants and shirts.  Its hard to fit into my old baggy clothes anymore (pats self on back) and I look silly in some of the XL stuff I used to wear.

When Christine and I found out we were going to have a baby we told each other, no promised each other that we would make a concerted effort to spend time together.  That we would invest in quality adult time occasionally to make sure that we didn't forget why we got married in the first place.  We committed to a date night at least once a month (or more) when we could find a sitter for Noah.  Since Noah has been born we have spent about 2 nights away from him for more than a few hours and he was always in the hands of his grandparents (my mom and dad or Christines).  One evening was my coworker Natalies wedding the other was dinner on New Years Eve at the Outback.

When I got the text message last week from my friend Brian that he was planning a nice night out with his fiance Nicole for her birthday at a new restaurant in Cranberry Twp, we knew we needed a night out!  Brian made reservations for the 8 of us at Restaurant Echo.  I can tell you that I was checking out the menu and thinking about a night out all week.  I just couldn't wait to spend a night out on a Saturday with my wife and my friends. True this was not a "date night" because we were with friends, but it still qualified as a night out sans child.  (If this was a food review website I would go into more details...but I can tell you that the food was excellent, service was good, bar was swanky and modern, and had great scotch).  Definitely give it a shot if you live in the area!

We employed the services of my sister and her boyfriend to take care of Noah.  Noah doesn't come with an instruction manual so being the nervous, overly prepared,  wonderful parent I am I gave my sister a little letter with his tricks, and how to properly mix up a bottle.  Handed them some money for food and away we went.  Dinner was wonderful, the food and the company were first class.  The atmosphere in the restaurant was nice as well.  The occasional text message from Trish letting us know that our son was the easiest baby ever and that he ate a lot and fell asleep right on cue was also reassuring.  I wasn't the least bit nervous with her watching him, I have the utmost faith in my little sis.  Babies are unpredictable though...Noah could have been "difficult" and he could have been cranky.  He could have fought sleep and cried or projectile vomited all over T and the couch.  Luckily (and as expected) none of that happened.  We came home to a sister and boyfriend enjoying a movie on the couch singing the praises of our son.  If Noah continues down this path throughout his childhood I have a feeling we are never going to have trouble finding sitter and will probably have to increase our frequency of date nights.

Our next night out will be just the two of us though, I owe that to Christine.  She does so much around the house when I am working and still works 2 days a week.  I would be at a loss without her in my life and I owe her a nice night out just the two of us.

I was thinking about creating a second post for today with just pictures but since this post lacked pictures to this point without further adieu here are Noah's Valentine's pictures.  (Yes this may be early for the holiday, but Christine wanted to order some cards online and then have some time to address them and get them mailed).

Do I take too many pictures of my kid? YEP! Do I really care?  Nope...it's a digital and computer storage is cheap! I mean who can blame me really he is pretty cute...