Well... I did it... and survived!

Aaron and I just got back from a little trip to Kansas City... without Camden. We decided we needed a little "us" time, so we packed up and headed to KC for the weekend while my mom and granny came up to B-ville to hang out with Camden. This was the first time to leave Camden overnight, and I had a lot of anxiety about it. I knew this was something I needed to do for a couple of reasons, and a lot of people told me that if I didn't leave him around 3 months then it would be a lot harder to leave him as he got older. It was not fun leaving him on Friday afternoon. He went down for a nap right before I left, which made it easier because I didn't have to see those big blue eyes watching me walk out the door. I can't tell you how many times I called on Friday, but the last time I called, my mom warned me to not call back for the rest of the night. I couldn't help it; I missed him! I was also worried about him taking a bottle for every feeding, but he did really well with that!

Aaron and I stayed in a hotel at the plaza, so we didn't really have to drive anywhere. The plaza is like a giant outdoor shopping/eating area... kind of like a very large Utica Square. The first night we walked to California Pizza Kitchen to eat, and it was 13 degrees outside! Luckily, I had looked at the forecast, so we were loaded down with coats, gloves, hats, etc. Anyways, the pizza was, as usual, fabulous, and we had a good time. That night we saw on the news that the Dead Sea Scrolls were on exhibit at Union Station, just about five miles away. How many opportunities do you have to see something like that? They give you a headset to use for commentaries as you go through the exhibit. The exhibit is about the history of the dead sea scrolls, how they were found, where and when they were written, etc. It was really cool and to see the actual scrolls was amazing.

After that we headed back to the plaza and ate at McCormick and Schmicks. I had this amazing stuffed salmon and Aaron had his oysters on the half shell that he had been craving (yuck!) and Dungeness Crab cakes. We ate a ton! We shopped around that afternoon because I had Birthday and Christmas money to spend! Poor Aaron, I think I spent an hour in the fitting room at Anthropologie. This is my first shopping trip post-baby, and boy, do things fit differently! My dilemma of the day was "Do I buy things that fit now or get my pre-baby size for when I'm done nursing?" It is very frustrating that I now have different sizes from shirts to shoes. Ironically, I am down a size in jeans... blah blah blah poor little thing has to go down a size... but none of my jeans fit as well anymore because they are a little big (and we know how much I have invested in those). Shirts do not fit the same anymore, thanks to nursing, so I'm not used to wearing a V-Neck and having to worry about showing way too much cleavage while some shirts with a higher neckline make you look even worse. I never knew you had to worry so much about necklines, and I have a new appreciation for my girlfriends who have this problem. I got a couple of things at Anthropologie, but I scored at Urban Outfitters and their "Take an extra 50% off" all sale items! We headed over to Cheesecake Factory for dinner, and there was a 90 minute wait. We went upstairs, waited out for two seats at the bar, and made dinner a 2 1/2 hour event by eating appetizers and watching the Florida game at the bar and then going to our table and eating dinner and cheesecake. It was nice to just hang out at a restaurant without worrying about rushing home to get Camden.

I'm not going to lie, the next morning I would have left at 6am to head back to Bville, but I restrained myself. We headed out at 10am and got back around 1pm. He was asleep when we got back so I had to wait an hour to pick him up and hold him. When he finally woke up, the big smile he gave me was priceless. He seemed a little confused with all of the kisses and squeezes!

Talking to his mama!

It was hard to leave him overnight, but I am glad I did it. I probably won't be doing it again for some time because pumping for the trip and then during can get a little annoying, but it was worth it and Camden and I successfully survived the weekend apart!