And they said it wouldn't last (admit it, you at least THOUGHT it)!!

Five years ago today, I got happily married. I was in the second trimester of my first pregnancy at the time, so mine was actually a shotgun wedding (actually I was the one holding the shotgun, but I like to think I had to twist my hubby to be's RUBBER arm and not his ACTUAL ulna...). We went from first kiss to wedding to parenthood in just over a year and we haven't looked back since (well only to dwell fondly on our happy past)! And I am happy to announce that this year will mark the first time that we are actually going to go out and really celebrate, because as it turns out, baby M is the only baby I've had so far that allows us that luxury (come to think of it, he was the coolest one in utero as well, because we WERE able to go out for a quick bite last year)! To mark this momentous occasion, I shall take a stroll with you down memory lane and recount each and every August 21, since 2005.

Before the anniversaries, there was the actual wedding, which was quite fun. Even though it was more my mother's shindig than my own, I must admit she did a great job and it was a great day.

Did you know that most people don't actually do it on their wedding night? Unfortunately, I didn't at the time, so we "enjoyed" ours despite, the fact that I was five months pregnant and I'd worn the heaviest dress conceivable and horrid five inch heels all day and shmoozed with countless relatives and I was perfectly sober and retaining water and hormonal and really not IN THE MOOD. The things we do for love...

Our first year anniversary was a little bit like our honeymoon in that my mother was there (and so were my hormones and my baby weight and the new baby for that matter). It was the first time we left big M alone. My first baby, whom I could not stand being separated from for more than two minutes.

Alone.

With my mother.

My determined hubby dragged me ALL THE WAY DOWN the pier on Old Orchard Beach, ALL THE WAY DOWN to the Dairy Queen to have an anniversary ice-cream while I tried not to panic and cry from the suffering brought upon me by my separation from Princess M, my baby, my whole reason for living!!!Really, how could I be expected to CARE about anything else, when I was planning to have at least fifty more wedding anniversaries in my life and my baby would only be seven months old once in her life???And Dairy Queen? Come on.

The evening picked up (for me, anyways) when I was reunited with my baby a half hour later and we had a nice dinner with my mother in front of the TV, in our minuscule rental in Maine, our bedroom separated from my mother's by nothing but a thin curtain (which enabled me to dodge the proverbial bullet on that anniversary) and baby well ensconced in my arms for the next six months.

Anniversary number two was me pregnant (read hormonal, retaining water and FAT) again and for the life of me, I can't remember what we did, but I suspect my mother was there again...

No she wasn't! I just remembered, we were on a plane! We'd just left my mother behind in Italy and were on our way home on the fateful day of August 21, 2007! We had a one night layover in Paris and ordered room service with big M (the mother of all chaperones)! It was, because of my mother's absence, a step in the right direction, but still not the type of evening we write songs about...

The year after that, I was nursing two kids (yes, I am that kind of freak and I breast-fed Big M until she was three, which meant I was breastfeeding a baby and a toddler for almost a year!), still fat, still hormonal and still not feeling it. I don't recall exactly what we did for our third year anniversary, but we were either in Vancouver, ergo flat broke, or packing up to move to Vancouver, ergo really not  in celebratory nor, for that matter, hanky panky, mode...

But THEN, on August 21 2009, even though I was pregnant AGAIN, the fact that we'd finally moved back home, the fact that we weren't in BC anymore, the fact that hormonal fluctuations were now the norm for me and the fact that my best friend had lent me the most flattering little black dress I've ever worn all made me want to let my hair down, have a glass of wine (insert judmental gasp from first-time parents and my mother here) a plate of sushi (insert a judgmental, SCANDALISED gasp from the same crowd here) and celebrate my life with my husband for the first time since I got down on one knee (ok, both knees)! But of course, after three years of scarfing down a meal in minutes to be able to cater to the kids' incessant dietary demands (sit down to dinner to get back up to get more cheese, sit down to get back up for more juice, sit down to get back up to clean up spilled juice, sit down to get back up for some water, sit down to get back up because we forgot the forks/napkins/salt, sit down to get back up because even though they haven't actually eaten anything, it's now time for dessert, sit down to get back up because even though they SWORE they both wanted the same thing for dessert, they actually didn't, etc, etc.), we were done with our romantic dinner in half an hour, which earned us strange looks from our waitress. Then we got stuck in traffic coming home, but that was fun because we had no kids in the back seat (although we did not, in fact, "make use of the back seat" as my dear hubby of four years hopefully suggested...)!

Which brings us to this year! This year, where another excellent buddy has leant me another beautiful black dress, I've spent a fortune at Sephora's on a mascara and a lip gloss, I've pumped milk like a maniac for  weeks and I've been pretty good with the Weight Watchers! I've no qualms about leaving the kids now (in fact most any excuse is good now to get out of the house) and I've reserved a table at eight o'clock tonight (practically our usual bedtime!!) in a super fancy restaurant in lovely Québec City!

Tonight, we are setting a new-trend in anniversary celebrations!

Tonight we are actually going to have a romantic outing which doesn't involve the grocery store or the McDonald's at Wal-Mart!

Tonight, we shall be a beautiful, well-groomed, childless couple!

And tomorrow, another day, we shall be up at 6:30 am with the kids to go meet my mother early...

So there you have it! Five years of celebrations and through all that, I'm still ecstatically happy and in love! Hell, Hubby and I aren't James Mallory and Georgina Anderson*, but I can guarantee you that the few times a year, we actually do get to do it, it's "just like in the books"!






* For the few who "got" the reference, I know you'll never admit you did and for those who don't, sorry but I'm not telling