There's A First Time For Everything

Tonight was our first night to leave Connor with a baby-sitter he didn't know. He is 20 mths old and up to this point we have had the luxury of leaving him with aunts, uncles, grandmas and grandpas he knows and loves. I've been dying to get out of the house with Byron lately (a.k.a. a date) and as Connor was throwing up all of his breakfast Tues morning (a byproduct of teething for us) I think Byron could see a look of desperation cross my face. He said, "How would you like to go on a date this Friday? I'll set it up and find a baby-sitter." I was thrilled at this but also a little nervous about leaving my little guy. A wonderful, sweet girl that Byron goes to school with has been offering to baby-sit so we took her up. She came over tonight and Connor was thrilled to show off his room, his toys, all his "tricks". I'd been trying to prepare him for a visitor all day and it seemed like things were going well. The time came for departure and because I read somewhere that it's not a good thing to sneak out on your kid, a knelt down and told Connor we were leaving and that he was going to stay and have a great time with Amy and that we'd come back home and see him in the morning. Well, as recognition dawned that we were leaving without him, a slight panic crossed his face. We left with our trusty sitter holding crying Connor consoling ourselves that this was a good step for all of us. "There's got to be a first time for everything right?" we kept saying, putting on our brave faces. I'm convinced things would have been OK if our Cavalier hadn't jolted and threatened to break down on us while we were stopped on a hill at a stoplight. We were still close to home, so we decided to turn around and use our other care for the night and worry about the Cavalier another day (we were determined not to let anything get in the way of our rare date night!) My heart sank as we pulled into our parking lot to find Connor and Amy walking around. Connor was thrilled to see us; "They came back! I knew they would!" I could almost see it on his face. He had been crying, it was plain to see that, and he eagerly stretched his arms out for us to hold him. I took him and he looked at my face a few seconds, "Yep, still you" and then started playing with my necklace. I said, "Hi! We love you, see we came back. Now it's time for us to go again." His face lit up and he started reaching for the car. He thought we had come back for him and it was the three of us as usual going out for some fun. I almost called off the whole night right there and said, "Let's go to McDonald's" but I bit my lip and gave him to Amy (he was in hysterics by now) and got back in the car and drove away. I wish this was our first time making a mistake as parents, but we've worn that path well by now, bummer. We kept on saying, "We shouldn't have gone back. But we had to. We should have taken the Lumina first. But who knew?" We determined this may be our first time with our new baby-sitter and our last. We don't know if after the sabatoge she'll want to come to our home again. We tried not to worry and to enjoy our dinner. I really really loved Byron when he took his cell phone out of his pocket and set it on the table so we could know for sure when it rang. We came home to find a sleeping Connor but to also hear that after we had left, he had been inconsolable. He sat down in the grass and cried. He refused to be held, to be comforted. They came inside and he laid down by myself on a pillow with his blankie and sucked him thumb. He mentioned "Daddy" and "Mom" and continued sucking that trusty thumb. I checked on him and he's asleep. He looks so peaceful. I feel so bad for leaving and think I'll give him ice cream for breakfast. He deserves it, don't you think?:)