BOYS NIGHT IN

Looking back, I'm not really sure what I had been so nervous about.

But as I drove home from work last night, my heart was pounding more than it did the day the Little One was born. Last night, for the first time since he was born, I was going to be alone with the Little One for the whole night.

The Wife had a shower to attend for my brother's girlfriend, who will be giving birth to a baby boy sometime in the next few weeks. She could have brought the Little One along (I'm sure the ladies would not have minded), but the night was about the mother-to-be, and the Wife wanted to keep it that way.

Not that I minded, since it meant a boys' night out. Well, a boys' night in, really. In the days leading up, I had been very excited about the night. We've had lots of time together, but almost always with someone else around (usually the Wife). With the exception of a couple hours here and there (grocery store runs, late nights of work, etc.), the absolute one-on-one time I get with the Little One is really limited.

Which is probably why a slight sense of panic set in as I drove to pick him up at day care. As I made my way to get him, I found myself wondering how to make proper bottles with formula and how I would know when his diaper needed to be changed.

Mind you, these are things I have done pretty much on a daily basis.

But not without supervision - or at least the comfort of knowing that the real expert, the Wife, was there to make sure I didn't mess up too bad.

I am happy to report, it went fine. He fussed a bit when I arrived at day care, but once I got him home and made him a bottle (yes, I remembered the process) he was his usual happy self.

After we ate, we laid on my bed for a while, discussing our favorite foods. I told him about pizza and burgers, and he babbled about rice cereal. To be fair, rice cereal is the only solid food he has ever eaten, as he has lived on breast milk and formula thus far.

We played for a bit, and we read two books together - Goodnight Moon and Night-Night, Little Pookie. It was time to get him ready for bed before I knew it. By the time the Little One was in his pajamas and sleeper, he was already nodding off. It was a good half hour before his bed time, but he was also a bit off his usual schedule, thanks to a 12-hour drive to-and-from North Carolina over the weekend.

He was asleep by 7:10 p.m., so it turned out we only spent about an hour and 40 minutes of awake time together. I know you are supposed to put a baby in the crib before they fall asleep, but I broke that rule. He was curled into my shoulder, his head weighing about 50 pounds. So I held him until he feel asleep, just to extend the night a little longer.

Just a couple hours earlier, I had felt nerves and butterflies in my stomach. Yet, when it was time for him to go down, I was sad that our night together was done.

Time flies when you are having fun.