family circus

...a night out...

so he and i have been parents of both a baby and a hound for five months now, and to be totally honest, the baby part has been relatively easy. (i shudder even admitting that outside of my own head, for fear of what lightning may strike my home and bring devastation and crying babies with it).getting a hound dog used to a baby and a new routine took some time, but truly, baby is pretty much wonderful and easy to please. he loves to eat, sleep, play and basically just take in the world with his big blue eyes. we're smitten with him.

before baby, we used to take long, sauntering walks down to some local shops and restaurants to take in the sights and grab a bite to eat. after the hound dog arrived last year, we (he, really... depending on a dog to behave for extended periods of time in public is a source of neurotic anxiety for me) would love to take the hound with us on our walks. we would tie him up outside whatever local eatery we were at and sit on the patio or closest window seat, watching our pup and the world go by over a fun date.

now that the weather is nice and it's lighter out, we are getting a pep back into our step and coming out of hibernation. meaning, the few block walk down the street sounds inviting and fun, and reminiscent of even warmer and longer days. so naturally, when we had an unexpected evening together last night, we decided to pack up baby and hound and go grab a bite. we only had about an hour before baby bedtime, (which was unusually important this week because we began sleep training), so we were super happy that good food and a patio was within such quick reach.

it started out normally enough: the hound was curious, leading the way with his giant hound nose. he and i walked in sync with the enormous stroller, talking about life and even stopping at our neighbor's 'little free library' to grab a book to laugh about on our way.

it took us a long time to decide where to eat- somewhere that had an open patio and food that wasn't fried sounded good, which left us with the new taco bar on the corner. i was excited to try it, because i had just visited another local taco joint the week before and had great food, so i had high hopes. plus, if you're trying to usher spring/summer in early, what better ambiance to revel in than a street taco bar patio during golden hour with margarita in hand? it was shaping up to be awesome.

proof that it was, at one point, a relaxing evening

we sat down at most accessible patio table there was, and parked the enormous orange taxi- i mean, stroller- on the sidewalk side of the fence, and tied the hound right next to us. immediately his nose went to into overdrive, and he was all sorts of curious, which meant he kept tangling himself up in his leash, over and over again, until it was so short he couldn't move. so we got up and untangled him, only to find him repeat the same cycle over and over. we had poured him some water (out of our water glasses) into a dog dish, and he lapped it up, spilling half of it all over the sidewalk. normally that would be nothing of note, except that baby has entered into 'get anything and everything into my mouth' stage, so when he continued to throw his toy on the ground, it fell right into the dog-infested water, and somehow kept ending up back into his mouth before i could stop him. after a minute of this, he looked at me and asked me for my ice.

"i can't get it, my hands are dirty with dog..." he said.

i looked down at what he was referring to as 'my ice' and realized he wanted me to scoop out all the ice cubes from my full, not-yet touched, glass of water and give it to the dog. i looked back at my husband, and maintaining eye contact, i sucked down the whole glass of water through my straw, and handed him the glass of now ice. little did i know this was only the beginning...

although we were quickly approaching baby bedtime, and we still hadn't even ordered yet, we tried to relax a little- he ordered a margarita, i ordered an agua fresca and we sat back to watch the sun set into golden hour, talk about how awesome our baby is, and just generally enjoy each other. we ordered some chips and salsa, and spent time debating over the best tacos to choose, which we finally ordered from the nice but overly-busy waitress. this lasted a glorious six and a half minutes.

as the hound continued to tangle himself up and howl at strangers, we realized the table next to us was on an obviously awkward first or second date. because it was a nice night and everyone was in a summery mood, (and we were sitting at the closest table), they kept trying to strike up random conversations with us. at one point, they asked us how our chips were. and then later, if we liked our food (which, to note, we hadn't been served yet... ), and of course, what kind of dog we had. and as if on cue, our hound lost what little cool he had left, and started howling as only hounds can.

before the howling, i had been getting up here and there to visit the bathroom to wash my hands or baby toys of dog drool, and my husband was on dog/baby patrol. once the howling started (approximately 43 seconds after we placed our dinner order, of course), my husband took up dog duty: trying to tempt him with chips, tie him up further away, and finally walking him around the block- anything to get him to shut up- and i was on baby and lonely hearts date duty. and, i was trying to forget that we were 30 minutes past the start of bedtime.

finally the food came, while he was out walking the dog, so i asked for the check and a box, and started shoveling the tacos into my mouth as fast as i could- partly to get home to put baby to sleep, but mostly to stop the insanity of having a dog at a taco bar. of course, just as i finished wolfing down my tacos, he showed up, having tied the dog-that-still-could-not-shut-up a block away. so as he waited for the box, we traded duties and i went to get the dog, while he entertained the baby and shoveled tacos into his mouth as fast as possible.

by the time the waitress arrived with the box and the check, it was 40 minutes past when we 'needed' to be home, we had eaten all seven tacos and were standing, ready to go. i had the dog in my hand, he had the baby in his, and we loaded up the big orange stroller to leave.

thank goodness we live three blocks from the liquor store that's right next the ice cream shop, which was on our way home from dinner. i won't tell you if we stopped at both places on the way home or not, but i will say the night ended on a chocolatey note for me.

just another relaxing night out as parents!