Feast or Famine

That’s what I’ve been telling DH that the past seven days have been: feast or famine. I have little in the way of a social life for 14.5 months and then attend three adult only events in seven days! All of which involved babysitters, a significant development in my life.

Let me tell you knitters who have small children and family members in your local area: count your blessings. And, even if you have recently done that, count them again. It has been very difficult for us coming to a new community where we know very few people (none in the immediate area) with our first child, then three weeks old. I am lucky to have made several great friends through local baby groups and one of those friends is a teacher and her husband who also a teacher and who comes from a family of teachers. It is wonderful to have friends such as these who are able to refer you to babysitters.

Our first event of the week was the Wing Commanders Garden Party last Sunday afternoon, held from 2:00 – 4:00 PM. It was a ‘smart casual’ type of event (are military events the only ones where dress code is specified these days?!?) where I got to wear a skirt. This is a fairly significant fact considering that, apart from my family reunion in July where a couple of events dictated I wear a dress, I have not worn a skirt since well before Iain was born. In fact, I guess it to be at least 2.5 years since I’ve worn a skirt. This is striking considering I am the same woman who used to wear skirts most of her working career including when I was a case working social worker and going out on calls (they were long skirts that I could hike up and run in but skirts nonetheless). On Sunday, we were trying a new babysitter and this event was the perfect set up as 2:00 – 4:00 in the afternoon is Iain’s best time of the day to be joyful and playful and this offered a great introduction afternoon for both of them.

DH and I went out confident that all would be well and we were right. This was particularly wonderful given that that same sitter was at our house again Wednesday evening when DH and I went out for our first restaurant meal without Iain in 14.5 months. Yes, you read that right. And, no, it was not all that romantic. We were sharing the meal with all of DH’s immediate work colleagues and their spouses as they welcomed their new squadron Honourary Colonel. You may have heard of him – Leonard Lee – the founder of Lee Valley (well, you’ve likely heard of him if you are Canadian and have family members who are interested in gardening and woodworking). Despite the lack of romance, it was a nice evening out, Mr. Lee is a strikingly handsome man who is also a very entertaining storyteller and I really savoured every mouthful that did not involve a baby hanging off my leg and whining as the poor creature is wont to do every supper time when he is getting tired and wants to go to bed but does not realise it yet.

Then, the biggest event so far, was held on Friday evening. Our sitter was not available that night but, remember that teacher couple I mentioned earlier (lets just call the female half of the couple Wonder Woman)? Well, Wonder Woman offered to take Iain from supper time until we got home at midnight or so. I call my friend Wonder Woman for several reasons. The first is that she is due to have baby number two on October 5th yet did not hesitate to offer to take Iain when she knew that I likely wasn’t going to attend Friday nights event due to my sitter not being available. Wonder Woman also has baby number one who is only a few weeks younger than Iain. She is one of those people to whom the label ‘over achiever’ does not apply because she is a level above that title. For example, when most of my one year old party planning friends (like myself) were happy that we’d managed to print out and deliver first birthday party invitations, my friend scrap booked all of her invitations, loot bags and thank you notes. And that is only the icing on the cake. Wonder Woman indeed.

Anyway, this wonderful lady who I am so fortunate to call a friend offered to take Iain for the evening and I was pretty confident they could handle anything he threw at them. He was very, very good, we were told. It was their daughter’s first sleepover – ha! So, Friday evening saw us trundle off to the Greenwood Mess to enjoy their annual Wing Welcome party which included food and live entertainment. The food queue was long but the slightly tipsy young military members kept us entertained. There was deep fried turkey and a pig roast for eats.

The entertainment was excellent. The opening act was The Fables, a fabulous Newfoundland band. The second act was The Trews who we also really, really enjoyed. DH and I left around midnight when The Trews were starting their second set. Although I was enjoying the music, the crowd was getting to the ‘stupid inebriated’ stage and I was overtired due to it being way past my bedtime. I do not deal with drunken strangers at the best of times during the day but, when I’m tired, it’s worse so we left before things really got hopping.

And now, here I sit in the peace and quiet that is my home, enjoying the music on the radio, the sleeping breathing through the monitor from my baby upstairs and wondering where DH is currently as he is flying to Ottawa from Halifax tonight.