In honor of Dave’s first Father’s Day, last night we had our first official Date Night. Dave and I haven’t had an evening that was just the two of us since Cate was born, so it sounded like a good idea. Kris came over to baby-sit, while we went to dinner and a movie. It was so nice. We went to this great little Italian place for dinner, and then we went to see “Ocean’s Thirteen”. (Which was surprisingly entertaining. And hello, two hours of Clooney. No complaints here.)

I had called Kris to check in between dinner and the movie, just to see how things were going. She said she was in the middle of giving Cate a bottle, and everything was fine so far. I set my cell phone to vibrate in case Kris needed anything during the movie, and we sat close to the aisle so I could easily jump out of the theater to answer the phone if necessary.

Two hours later, we got home, and the first thing I noticed was that Kris had pulled her hair back into a ponytail (it was down when we left) and she wasn’t wearing the same shirt she had on earlier. She also had that sort of wild-eyed, crazed look that I imagine people have after they’ve just emerged from some sort of battle. Uh-oh.

She was so apologetic, all “oh my god, I hope I didn’t traumatize her for life, she didn’t stop crying for TWO SOLID HOURS, and I didn’t know what to do, but I didn’t call you because I didn’t want to ruin your date night.” There was apparently also a rather huge barf incident, which explained the wardrobe change. (Cate was also in a different outfit, but she was asleep in the swing when we got home, so I didn’t notice that right away.)

I felt so bad. I knew Kris was kind of nervous about being alone with the baby for the first time, and I was really hoping that Cate would go easy on her, but no such luck. And all of my little tips that I gave her – all of the things that I do to calm Cate down when she gets fussy – failed miserably.

As for Kris’s fear that she traumatized Cate, I think we don’t have to worry too much about that. She seemed to have recovered completely by this morning.

I don’t know if I can say the same for Kris, but hopefully she’s ok and will be willing to baby-sit for us again. Even if it isn’t until Cate is in kindergarten.