With our 2 year anniversary coming up on Tuesday, Mark and I decided to take a little getaway to Wisconsin’s capitol city, Madison. It was our first official post-baby date (excluding weddings and baby-friendly events) and Charlotte’s second time sleeping away from mom and dad.

Of course, the whole thing gave me anxiety.

While I was confident that Charlotte would be in good hands with my parents, I found myself stressing over Charlotte’s behavior. Would she refuse to go down for naps or bedtime easily? Would she wake up screaming in the middle of the night? What if?

Now, these occurances would be totally out of character for Charlotte, but I still felt worried. I didn’t want Charlie to be a bad house guest because, let’s be honest, it’s much more likely my parents will volunteer to take her for more overnights if she isn’t a total terror.

Anyway, in preparation, I typed up instructions and a packing list for my mom. I did the same thing for the first overnight and it seemed to work really well. This time was actually even better, because Charlotte’s on MUCH more of an actual schedule these days.

Here’s what I sent to (and printed for) my mom…

Babysitting Charlotte Packing List – Take 2

Babysitting Charlotte Guide – Take 2

We definitely overpacked milk. The first time we left her, 40 ounces was perfect… this time, now that she’s eating solids, it was just way too much.

In fact, I think she went on a bit of a milk strike, because she really did not drink much… OR poop for that matter. Literally NO poop while we were gone. We dropped her off around noon on Saturday and met her, my parents and grandpa for brunch around 1 on Sunday. No poop that whole time. BUT, once reunited and back home, the little one pooped… twice. And now she’s pooping like normal.

Anway, all in all, the sleepover was a success and Mark and I had a GREAT time.

Here’s what we did…

Saturday

12 pm: Dropped Charlie at Mom & Dad’s

1:45 pm: Stopped at teh gas station for a GIANT diet pepsi and popcorn… we’re on vacay!

2:45 pm: Arrived at hotel and checked in. We used name your price using priceline and did 3.5 stars and got the hotel for $100 including all fees! We stayed at the Hilton Monona Terrace. Because hubs called and told them it was our anniversary, they upgraded us to a delux room on the top floor facing the lake and gave us two free drinks at the bar and free breakfast. Not a bad deal at all!

As I was freshening up, I noticed I had baby barf on my shirt. Quick clean up time.

3:10 pm: Time to cash in our drink coupons for some vacay martinis.

So of course, we’re enjoying a nice adult cocktail, planning our afternoon, when suddenly I notice that my milk machines feel super full. I make a comment to Mark, look down, and realize that I leaked through my shirt. Time to chug my cocktail and return to the room to pump.

4 pm: Time to pump and freshen up again, then it was off to State Street. The weather was gorg, so we walked from our hotel (about 6-10 minutes to the start of state street). It was so fun. We went in and out of little shops, looked around, soaked up the weather.

5:30 pm: Back to the hotel for more pumping and changing for our night activities.

6:15 pm: We headed to Tempest Oyster Bar where we literally had the BEST waiter ever. We are not big oyster people, so he helped us to order appetizers. We got an oyster tower with 6 oysters, 4 gulf shrimp and clams… then we ordered a plate of mussels in the most delicious broth ever. And oy. They had this sourdough bread. Mmmm. Needless to say, I took a break from my Charlotte diet. She’s been doing so well, it was time to test the waters a bit. So after 2.5 hours, seafood galore, a couple glasses of wine for me and a couple of cocktails for hubs… it was off to our next stop!

8:30 pm: We were off to Graze, an awesome locally sourced farm-to-table restaurant. They don’t take reservations and by the time we got there, the wait was 1.5 hours. We put our name in and went to Heritage Tavern, down the street, to get a drink. I had a glass of wine and Mark had some bitters drink with egg whites in it. Weird, but pretty good!

9:20 pm: Our table was ready! We headed back to Graze to get our eat on. Of course, we needed ANOTHER app. We ate a giant pretzel with a cheese dip and three kinds of mustard. Mmm. Then, for dinner, we decided to split two entrees: Artesian Farm Trout with the best coconut curry sauce and the Graze Burger (fresh ground bacon, sirloin, ribeye & short ribs, caramelized onions, Worcestershire-cabernet jus, Swiss Emmental compound butter, SarVecchio sesame brioche, with fries & aioli). We ended up eating the trout and taking the burger to go!

10:25 pm: We scooted off to make it to a local comedy show featuring Robert Kelly. He was definitely not politically correct, but goodness was he funny! We were both in tears. It was so much fun!

SUNDAY

12:30 am: Since we hadn’t eaten enough in the previous 24 hours, we decided to make a stop at the famous Ian’s Pizza for a late-night slice. I ate the most heavenly piece of mac and cheese pizza. Mmm! AND, we ran into my brother-in-law’s brother and his sweet girlfriend there. The four of us had a great time mowing on late night snacks and catching up. Then, it was time to crash.

9:15 am: WAKE UP! I woke up at 7 and was so scared I wouldn’t be able to fall back asleep… I mean, I had to sleep in on my morning off. So, I was super pleased when my eyes woke again at 915.

After our Madison adventure, we headed back to Milwaukee for brunch with my parents and Grandpa where Charlie had her first french fries (oy… she enjoyed them too much). Then, it was naptime for the fam and once we woke up, headed to an anniversary dinner with Mark’s dad and stepmom.

All in all, a GREAT weekend!