First Night Out

Mike and I went to a concert on Wednesday night. One of our favorite bands, Yo La Tengo, opened their tour at the the Triangle area's premier music venue, Cat's Cradle which is in Carrboro, NC (Carrboro is a lively little town smooshed up against Chapel Hill's west side.) Our first dance at our wedding was to a Yo La Tengo song - their cover of Daniel Johnston's song "Speeding Motorcycle".

Speeding motorcycle won't you change me
in a world of funny changes
speeding motorcycle wont you change me

speeding motorcycle of my heart
speeding motorcycle always changing me
speeding motorcycle don't you drive wrecklessly
speeding motorcycle of my heart

many girls have taken you out for a ride
hurt you deep inside but you never slowed down

speeding motorcycle of my heart
speeding motorcycle let's be smart
because we don't want a wreck
we can do a lot of tricks
we don't have to break our necks
to get our kicks
speeding motorcycle the road is ours
speeding motorcycle let's speed some more

because we dont need reason and we dont need logic
because we got feeling and were damn proud of it

speeding motorcycle theres nothing you can do
speeding motorcycle i love you
speeding motorcycle let's just go
speeding motorcycle lets go, lets go, lets go

Our runner-up-first-dance-song (one of them, anyway) was another Yo La Tengo song called "Our Way To Fall". This song makes me tear up every time. Here's the first verse and the chorus:

I remember a summer's day
I remember walking up to you
I remember my face turned red
And I remember staring at my feet
I remember before we met
I remember sitting next to you
And I remember pretending I wasn't looking

So we'll try and try
Even if it lasts an hour
With all our might
We'll try and make it ours
Cause we're on our way
We're on our way to fall in love

Love love love them. Plus they are great live. We saw them play right before I was pregnant last year or the year before as well. They played songs from their bass player's band Dump which is also a great band. They are a three person band and each of them are the stars. Anyhoo. I have a point in regards to the Bear. Because we went out to see YLT live we had to get a babysitter (although I think Aki Burrito would have loved it because sometimes I think he will be a drummer.) Our first date night! We have gone to our friends house with Stanbear for Fakesgiving (which is Thanksgiving dinner with 6 other wonderful friends about a week after the real Thanksgiving) and he slept there and then we drove home at around 10 or 11 and he did really well! We also did a daytime movie date while we were in Maryland for Christmas and Auntie, Uncle and cousins babysat but this was our first night time outing without the Bearcub. Our go-to-gal, Auntie Christina, had to work that night at her hotshot job so we asked Anna to sit. Anna babysat for the Bear before when he was about 4 months old. I wrote about it here. She is one of Mike's former students and she's lovely. She's going to India next week for 6 months (at least) to teach art! Dreamy! We were a little nervous because for the last 6.5 months I have been the only one waking up with Aki Bear and getting him back to sleep when he wakes up (usually by rocking him or popping a pacifier back in his mouth or breastfeeding him.) We didn't know what he would do if he woke up and someone else had to help him back to sleep. Mike was able to simplify the situation by telling me that all Anna had to do was keep him alive for 4 hours or so. Maybe that sounds a little dark but that put my mind at ease. If he cries at least he has someone there to help soothe him. When Anna came over I was singing him to sleep. He was on his tummy in his crib. His eyes were still open and he was moving his hand over the bed sheet over and over again. Since his eyes were open I really wanted him to see Anna before we left so she came in and he pushed himself up on his hands (like a seal) and looked at her and smiled! We went over a couple of things in his room and then we went out into the kitchen so that I could show her how to use the bottle warmer. He started crying so I went back in his room and patted him on the back and said goodnight. I walked out and left the door open. Mike, Anna and I continued talking for several minutes and when we were done going over babysitter things I popped my head in on the Bear and he shot up for a flash and then put his head back down and was basically on his way to fall in love asleep. I was amazed. We left right after that, around 8 and came back around 11:45pm. (We left the concert early as I was about to fall over from exhaustion.) Anna was sitting on the couch and said that Stanbear never woke. WHAT?  I was amazed. He ended up waking up around 12:15am. So a good 4 hour tummy sleep plus an easy put down. I'm looking forward to seeing if that will happen again tonight! I hated having to leave the concert early but was happy that they played "On Our Way to Fall" and a zillion other great songs. Their opening band was them which is brilliant. They played a short set of really mellow acoustic songs. When they came on as the headliner they rock and rolled. Our first date night was a success!