Four Questions Answered in Sin City

I mentioned recently that I would soon be going to Las Vegas to attend a wedding.  This was a babyless vacation, as the bride and groom had requested that friends and family leave their littles at home for the three-day party extravaganza.  I will admit, this caused some inner (and outer) turmoil for me.  I felt that I may as well have been asked to chop off my arm and leave it at home while the rest of me went to Vegas. I knew there would come a point when the Hubs and I would choose to take a short trip without Lilah, but I always expected that it would be on our terms.  We would be the ones to decide when we were ready to leave our girl.  And to be honest, I probably would have waited.  I didn't really feel ready.  But then, would I ever?  I'm not sure.

The Hubs had already accepted the honour of acting as Best Man to the groom, who was also Best Man at our wedding.  So it was a no-brainer that he would attend the wedding.  And I would have regretted sending him off to Vegas while staying home myself to play the martyr and tend to the baby.  After all, these are my friends too.  So we came to a conclusion we felt would work for us all: the Hubs would go for the full three days, I would join him on the second day and stay just two nights, and the Hubs' parents would stay at our place, shuttle Lilah to and from daycare, feed her breakfast and dinner, put her to bed, and be there when she woke up in the morning.

All of this navel-gazing raised some questions for me.  Surprisingly, I found the answers to my questions on Monday and Tuesday in Vegas.  In Vegas, of all places, where the vast majority of people go to kill millions of brain cells, I actually did some learning.

1) How much would I miss my sweet baby girl?

The answer: A LOT. (Yeah, that's right.  Bold, italics, and caps.  That's how much.)  Over 48 hours without her, and I felt as though I was missing an appendage.  But I was also conflicted.  I felt oddly hollow, and yet, whenever I saw a parent wrangling an unruly toddler, I breathed a sigh of relief that I hadn't attempted to bring my own toddler to Vegas with me.  It would have been overstimulation city for her, and exhausting for me, since the Hubs was off doing Best Man-ly duties much of the time. 

As it was, I missed her like crazy, but, oh, the reunion!  I could not stop kissing her sweet cheeks, crushing her with bear hugs, and stroking her hair, which I swear is longer than it was when I left her.  I can't say that I'll be going away again anytime soon, but we enjoyed ourselves, and it was a learning and growth experience for us all.

See?  No worse for wear!

2) Would I rock the dress?

I like to think I did.  Unfortunately, since being a total control freak means that I'm the always the one behind the camera, I didn't manage to get a full-length photo of me rocking it, so you'll just have to take my word for it.  But here's one of the me and the Hubs just to give you a little feel for it:

I relinquished the camera for 2.5 seconds.  Baby steps.

I could not, however, have outshone the bride, as a previous commenter suggested I might.  She was absolutely stunning, so that would have been entirely impossible.  (And who would want to anyway?)  But I managed to collect a number of compliments on the dress and (bonus!) the raspberry colour in my dress perfectly matched the bridesmaids' dresses and some of the decor.  It was meant to be!

3)  How awesome are my in-laws?

Pretty frickin' awesome.  They were fantastic with Lilah, followed our instructions to the best of their abilities, and they had dinner on the table for us when we got back from the airport.  They also put up with my obsessive phone calls without making me feel silly and... well, obsessive.  In addition, I'm pretty certain my mother-in-law cleaned our floors shortly before we got home.  We couldn't have asked for anything more.  But this raises a new question: what to do for them to show our appreciation for all their help?

4)  How hot is my husband?

Brad Pitt has nothing on this guy:


Am I wrong, ladies?

Have you gone on a childless vacation?  How old was/were your child(ren)?  If not, will you try it at some point?  At what point do you think you'll feel comfortable taking a vacation without your child(ren)?  I'd love to hear your thoughts!  (Also, if you'd rather talk about how hot my husband is, I'm okay with that.)