I took one for the team.

It was Sunday afternoon in the Early household when I received a text that would change the course of my evening drastically. My lovely girlfriend asked if she could go out for some drinks with her friends. Not that she needs my permission or anything.

Now other dads out there know this is something you need time to mentally prepare for. Something like a 48 hour notice is respectable and here I am being given 3 hours and 24 minutes. Not cool!

Ok that was a bit dramatic because in all honesty I didn't mind at all. In the back of my mind I was already thinking of an opportunity to use the same card on her. I looked over at my 5 month old daughter and asked her if she was down to hangout with dad, which she responded by blowing bubbles (a skill she just mastered). I took that as a yes.

What followed next was the typical 8 x 10^3 (8000 for those of you suffering from the Monday blues) outfit changes. Each time being asked what my opinion was. After the 5th time I'm pretty sure my robotic response of "you look amazing babe" began to get on her nerves. In the end she wasn't naked when she left the house, which is a win in my book.

My focus quickly turned to putting my daughter to bed. I didn't want to get stuck being awake at midnight with a cranky baby. Luckily, she had spent some time at the pool earlier in the day, which drained all of her energy making my job pretty easy. A quick bottle and she was out for the night. 💤

I set my alarm for 5 a.m. this morning with the intention of going to the gym. Yup that didn't happen. Maybe I will make some time for it this afternoon when I get home from work. Or maybe not.