New baby? New year's? No problem.

Filed under: Lifestyle, Infant / First year, Outings Last New Year's Eve I went out to an early dinner with my husband, ate something I am pretty sure was friend, then fended off a friend who asked us into the city to go home and plop my pregnant self in front of the television to let Dick Clark ring in the New Year for me. My husband was annoyed--it was the last time in his life, or so he thought, he'd ever be able to go out again, let alone late like on New Year's. I pretty much agreed with him but was too tired to care. Fast forward twelve months and there we were, my hubby, the baby and me, all of us convinced we wouldn't be able to go anywhere or do anything since our little one was so little. He'd be fast asleep well before midnight rolled around. Then we decided to hit up a fancy local restaurant that doesn't take reservations and is known to deal well with people with children. Celebrities occasionally frequent the joint and bring their kids so the staff know how to take care of families. We figured even if we had no where to go that night we could get a good meal and at least some celebrating in before turning in. Then a colleague invited us out to his apartment where he and his girlfriend were having a New Year's party. Hmm. I thought. They lived close so if we needed to make an escape with the baby it would be easy to get home. They were totally cool with us bringing the baby and in fact invited us to let him sleep in their bedroom so we could get a night of fun out. They were making three kinds of pizza from scratch and various kinds of martinis. Need I say more? We did the sensible (and legal) thing by not drinking too much, but we did have some pizza and thoroughly enjoyed all the new people we met at the party. All the while--ok, most of the while--the baby slept in the other room. It took some time to get him to pass out since he was in an unusual place and was super-excited by all the New Year's activity, but finally he fell asleep. (And just so you know, he was in a safe place in his infant carrier, not loose on the bed or anything like that!) The baby slept all through several rounds of Celebrities--a game you may have played in college--and woke up just before midnight. It was as if he knew the big time celebration was about to begin. I rocked him back to sleep and my husband brought me a sip of champagne. It was a good thing, too, that the little one woke up when he did--if the fireworks had done it he would've been totally freaked out. Not too long after the fireworks ended we decided to go back home, We'd rung the new year in with some new friends, eaten a good meal, and proven once again that we can have fun as a family--that having a new baby doesn't mean the end of the world. In fact, it opens up a whole new one. I never realized how much fun it could be to have a little one around. I also never realized how much other people liked having them around. Our hosts were so kind to invite us and to let us bring our son over to what is generally a very adult event. I hope one day soon we get to return their hospitality! Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments