Date Night
My wife and I became parents for the third time on September 26 with the birth of our son, Emiliano. In a previous blog, I wrote about the importance of “Pause. Breathe. Reset.” in my life. Particularly with a cyclone of events ranging from the early arrival of our boy to moving into our new home… all in the same week.
We’re almost 2 months into our new normal. Karla is back to work and trying to adjust back to her work schedule, I started my new job and I’m adjusting to a new work schedule, our other two children, Annabelle and Aiden are getting used to being older siblings, a babysitter and settling into our new home. We’ve been unpacking, cleaning, organizing and purging. In between, we’re spending quality time with all of the kids and doing our best to keep chaos at bay. Are we succeeding? I’ll give us a 6 out of a 10! Lol! We’re actually doing great — we are relying on each other more, looking at each other for support, and really just trying to do our best. Every day. Even when it’s hard. Especially when we’re tired.
As you can imagine, finding time for just ourselves hasn’t been in the cards. There’s simply not enough hours in the day. I feel bad that she’s home with the baby and the kids while I'm at work, and she feels bad because she thinks I don’t get enough sleep. I come home from work and I see she’s exhausted. I do everything I can to help with the baby and the kids. She does everything she can to make our home run well. We make a great team — we just don’t have time for each other. That had to change. Karla needed a change of scenery, an evening away from the kids. I needed time with my wife, to laugh and reconnect.
Enter date night! It wasn’t expected, to be honest. Through my job, I was given tickets to the Blackhawks game. Incredible seats. We invited our son’s godparents to join us and it was a double date night. We had a blast! It took a beat but we relaxed, loosened up, and we were in the moment. We took in the frenetic energy of the crowd, we laughed, talked, drank a few beers and enjoyed ourselves. I had these moments where I looked at my wife — she took time to “get ready” and she looked amazing. I don’t think she needs makeup and I don’t care if she’s in sweats or a nice pair of jeans. It was her smile — it was big, genuine and happy. And it made me smile. I felt peaceful. She was happy. We reconnected. Date night was a success.