Our 2nd anniversary date

Thursday night was our 2nd year anniversary. Everyone keeps telling me how crazy that sounds, but in reality, I feel like I've known Yehoshua forever. Totally soul mates. It's really amazing when you can get to that point in your relationship where you feel super comfortable with the other person. Sometimes I'll say to him, "Do you think I would have ever done that while we were dating?" The answer is usually NO WAY. Although, he's assured me more than once he would have still married me in spite of all my embarrassing idiosyncrasies. When it comes down to it, the things that might annoy you about your spouse are most likely the things that you actually love the most. Like the fact that he never likes to waste things-- so he cleans out the ice cream containers or jelly jars. I used to wonder...WHY??? But now whenever I need to store leftovers, I'm overjoyed to have a sturdy, perfectly sized container to use. Go figure!

I've been anticipating this anniversary for months. I had decided that this was the day that I could try to leave Ziva with a babysitter for the first time. She's almost 7 months old, and she has never been with anyone else besides us. (Not even our parents, even though they've tried!) I asked my friend, Naama, to babysit nearly a month in advanced! I thought she would be perfect since she has such a calm and sweet demeanor, and I knew she already loved Ziva. I was so nervous that day, wondering how everything would pan out. I made sure to have pumped milk, extra clothing and pajamas laid out, diapers and wipes ready and of course a full page of instructions and emergency phone numbers.

It was such a weird feeling to be out with Yehoshua without Ziva. We held hands, laughed, walked around, I even threw on a pair of high heels! It was really fun. We went to get a smoothie before we went out to dinner, just because we felt funny entering the restaurant before 5 pm. (We went out from 4-8:30 so that we could put Ziva to sleep ourselves) We ended up going to one of our favorite places to eat here---RYU on Emek Refaim. They have really yummy Sushi and "Asian fusion" food. We literally ordered the whole menu- Salmon roll with caviar, spicy tuna tempura, beef dim sum, hot and sour soup, spicy schezuan beef, chicken/tofu pad thai. By the time we got the main entrees, we only picked at them and asked for them to go. In honor of our anniversary, they brought us one of their tapioca desserts. It was really delicious, and kind of inspired me to learn how to make tapioca. I remember seeing the tapioca pearls at the health food store on Agrippas.

We called Naama periodically through the night to check on our munchkin. It seemed like they were doing great, and I really wasn't too nervous. At one point, Ziva even fell asleep on Naama, which I thought was so sweet. Since she was sleeping, we took a little extra time to go grocery shopping for Shabbat. It was nice not having to be an entertainer and grocery shopper at the same time, and we got just about everything we needed for Shabbat. We wanted to make something easier---so we snagged my mother-in-law's recipe for her southern fried chicken! (With a salad and mashed potatoes) It turned out well!

When we got back, I couldn't stop smiling in the elevator, all I wanted to do was wrap my arms around Ziva! She came to the door to greet us, and she was so happy! I know I made a good choice about who watched over her. When Naama left, the most incredible thing happened. I was making a funny face while repeatedly saying "Chubby baby" to Ziva and she started laughing so hard, which made us laugh, and her laugh even more. We all literally stood there for over 5 minutes, laughing our heads off. Best anniversary present ever! Thanks Ziva! I thought to myself that I couldn't be happier!