Alone at last

This past weekend Darcey and I spent two nights away from Leah. It was the first weekend we have had alone together since she was born almost 20 months ago.

In the weeks building up to the trip I started feeling anxious about leaving. I knew that Mom would take good care of her and that Leah would most likely not notice that we were gone, but I still felt that something could go wrong and I would be a few hundred miles away. That feeling of dread remarkably melted away as we pulled out of the driveway and headed to Charlottesville, Va., for my college roommate's wedding.

It's amazing the habits that I've collected in the last 20 months. On the ride north I had to fight the urge to turn down the radio time and again as I was afraid it would wake Leah who is usually sleeping in the backseat on late-night car rides. When we arrived at the hotel after midnight there was no pack-and-play to set up, no baby awakened to soothe back to sleep and no worries about an early morning babble pulling us from our much-needed sleep.

I had forgotten how nice sleeping in is.

Darcey and I spent the day touring around Charlottesville. We visited the University of Virginia's campus and then headed for the city's unique downtown mall. It's a street that is closed off to all but pedestrian traffic and filled with shops and restaurants. At our first stop, a used book store called Read It Again, Sam, we bought Leah a book titled My Dog Never Says Please. We barely even thumbed through the pages, it was just a perfect title. We walked through art galleries and jewelry stores without any real destination and finally settled in at an outdoor table for an Italian lunch.

As we watched people come and go all around us, we both watched the children more than the adults. We were both making comments like "that girl is about Leah's age," and "we should cut Leah's hair like that," and "that little girl just said the sweetest thing." It was obvious where our minds were.

After a short nap we made our way to the wedding. It was the first time that Darcey had met many of my college friends that were there and we had a wonderful time. Without any worry about putting a child to bed or getting home at a reasonable hour we were able to stay at the reception until the staff started hauling out the tables. We then rode a shuttle back to town and stayed out until after last call.

As we made our way back south the next day, I didn't have any sense of urgency. The 7-hour ride was quiet and easy and we laughed together and talked about the ceremony the night before. We had just seen the start of a new family which, I assume, will eventually move from two to three people, and those parents will also have a first time away from their child. I wonder what theirs will be like.

As for our little one, she was outside playing with GeeGee when we pulled into the driveway. She came over laughing but then was distracted by a group of clover flowers growing nearby and walked away to pick them.

It wasn't exactly the reunion I had envisioned, but then again, I didn't think I would be able to handle being away from her as easily as I did. I guess I should take this as a lesson learned: we will always come home to our little girl.