Introducing the Guys: Lauren Alexander...

So my little family is coming up on our one year anniversary of moving to Seattle. It's almost impossible for me to believe it. I guess when you spend the first 6 months living somewhere in a postpartum haze time really seems to fly by. Nonetheless, the year has really flown by and I find myself often looking back at our early days here and how far we've come. One major milestone is that I now have a 14 month old who is thriving and growing and becoming a real kid! Gone are the sleepless nights, endless days, and a constant state of fear that I would screw it all up. (Well, I still worry about screwing it all up but you know what I'm saying.) Now he's on a schedule I can pretty much set my watch by, I have full nights of sleep, and I worry more about how long he's going to whine instead of how I'm doing in my role of "mom".

Another milestone I've come to is that I now have a really great group of girlfriends! We have playdates, we have moms nights out, we have a bookclub...I'm talking real, live friends folks! I honestly thought that when I moved here I was just too tired to get out there and do the "making friends" thing again. But I'm so glad that I did because they really keep me going when we're going on our 100th straight day of clouds and rain, Nash is teething, or I desperately want to see the newest chick flick. 

As us ladies have spent more time together we've slowly brought our husbands into the mix and I have to admit there was a bit of anxiety about this. Sure, I really enjoy spending time with the girls but what if they were married to a complete weirdo or jerk? What if the dynamic changed, and not for the better, whenever we brought along the guys? This wouldn't be the end of the world of course but it's always so nice to be able to have adult nights out and simply spend time having conversations that don't include "stop screaming!" or "no, no, no!". Todd and I used to spend so much time with our friends back in Boston and Charlotte before we had Nash and I think we both really miss that interaction. So when the ladies and I decided we should do an adults night out on the town recently I was filled with a mix of excitement (yea make up and high heels!) and anxiety (Todd, please behave).

This wasn't the first time the guys had met- we've had our fair share of birthday parties and family cookouts. But this would be the first time that there were no distractions and no kiddo to give you an excuse to leave a conversation. The ladies were nearly giddy with excitement to be out of the house without a highchair in sight. The guys, well, it was a little hard to tell in the beginning. I'm sure they were happy to be out but, unlike us stay at home mamas, they get out all the time! They don't have lunch while standing up in the kitchen, hiding from their kid. They get showered every day, leave the house, and have adult interaction on a daily basis- can't say the same for myself on any of those points. So dinner out isn't exactly the break from reality that it is for us. So while we sat there like a prom date, the guys casually talked and joked and acted, well, normal. It appeared that my anxiety was for no reason. Like my girlfriends, their husbands were down to earth, funny, relatable guys that had no problem making a conversation with each other. Insert sigh of relief here. This was exactly what the doctor ordered for us all- a kid free evening, a fantastic dinner with a view of Mt. Rainier (google it), and great conversation between us all.

Fast forward a few hours and there are 5 grown men, fathers no less, bellied up to the bar next door downing Irish Car Bombs (a hideous concoction of whiskey and Guiness beer) and laughing like they were long lost friends. This was the first time all night that I actually knew where the night was headed but I didn't care. I was just glad to be out on the town in my new city with my new friends.