Our Romantic Dinners look like this:
No, wait. They’re more like this
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Who am I kidding? Now that Red has graced our lives to make them more wonderful, it is required of us to tend to this little love monkey. That requires a lot of gear, attention, and wet kisses (teething stinks!). He typically gets hungry before we eat dinner, but I make an effort to show him that regardless of time, dinner is a family affair. Hubs and I both grew up eating dinner with family nearly every night, and we want to pass this treasured time on to him.
Red’s highchair is in the kitchen, as well as his cups, bowls, spoons, toys, bibs, pacis, etc. The list goes on and on. Seeing as I try to streamline our life as much as possible, it results in worlds colliding. Like last night for instance.
I was cooking an entire meal from scratch. (A sadly sparse activity in the house). I tend to eat “pantry surprise” more than I should when Hubs is off working during the week. It results in a simple carb dinner with nary a veggie to be found (on most days). So I’ve made a resolution to start cooking more. Even if it’s just me eating, that means lunches to be packed for the next day, and an encouraging environment for Red to start trying new foods when he can eat what we eat. I made a Real Simple meal of trumpette pasta, mild sausage, broccolini and a homemade butter cheese sauce. And buddy, was it GOOD! Find the recipe here. [I subsituted and used broccolini instead of rabe, because that’s what the store had. Also, for the naturally-minded 😉 I used as much organic ingredients as possible!].
This is what our table ACTUALLY looked like:
It should have had some candles, fabric napkins, and be cleared of all electronics and baby gear. And car shopping manuals. It used to be that way. But tonight, it wasn’t. It hasn’t been that way in a long time, and I don’t think Hubs noticed. He’s stepped into the role of fatherhood seamlessly. He usually insists that Red sits near him so he can make goofy faces and harvest some smiles.
After I thought about it, and looked at my other baby guarding the pasta, I realized that maybe I don’t care so much, either. Sure, I’d love to have some date nights with Hubs, but I really will treasure our family dinners together, no matter how much “gear” we have 🙂
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