Dane's first babysitter

We made our first plans to leave Dane with someone other than his grandparents last week. We had bought tickets to a concert in Tinley Park (Blink 182, FOB, and Panic! at the Disco) that we were very excited to use. We ended up finding a sitter on the Wheaton College babysitter list, a current student who lived in the area with her parents. I went through what she'd need to know a million times, writing and re-writing instructions about feeding times, napping preferences, bedtime routine and more. Mark finally said I would scare her off if I wrote more than a page, so I decided it was time to let go of the worry and know that we could handle however it turned out. Our sitter showed up right on time and seemed like a very sweet, knowledgeable girl. I kept saying, "I haven't done this before" to justify my seemingly over-detailed direction. She was very patient and kept telling us to enjoy ourselves. We finally got everything together and walked out the door. The concert was so much fun - Mark and I found ourselves laughing harder than we have in months. We stopped at Sonic for a date-dinner before the concert and then continued on to our lawn seats at the show. It was a beautiful night and we had a great view. It was so much fun to feel free again together, and we truly enjoyed the date. We came home to a sleeping Dane, and glowing reports about how easy he'd been, and while the house was a disaster and there apparently had been a catastrophic spit-up in his clothes and the crib, all was well. Phew. First one down, hopefully, a few more to go:)