Baby Time Warp

God bless my mother-in-law, whose many wonderful qualities include the spontaneous desire to watch her two lovely grandchildren for an evening, allowing us to out to dinner just the two of us more than once in a while. Even so, when we do get to go out on the town, it seems like things have changed more than a little bit in the years since Lucy and Isaac came along.

Before we had kids, we had this freak thing called free time and a bit more disposable income for wasting during said free time. So we would often head out to Borders, back when it was in that great location in Towson Commons, on a weeknight, or we would go to the mall and putter around or go get some ice cream. But the other night, when we had the option to relive those memories, some of the opportunities seemed to have vanished.

Such an invitation was extended to us last Sunday, and we didn’t hesitate to say yes. After hastily tossing some PJs and diapers and bottles and toddler snacks in a bag and dropping off the kids with their grandparents, my husband Joe and I headed over to Bertucci’s in Timonium for those yummy rolls and olive oil, a pepperoni pizza and multiple refills of Diet Coke.

When the check arrived, we were given the first glimpse of our baby time warp. Joe found an old Bertucci’s gift card in his wallet that we guessed was probably from Christmas 2009. We had no idea how much money, if any, was on it, but it turned out it was enough to cover our dinner. That’s how long it had been since we had been there – so long that we didn’t even realize we had money to burn.

Afterwards, it was still early so we decided to go crazy and head over to Borders, now located not far from the restaurant in Timonium. But that was a no go: Somewhere along the line, Borders dialed back its hours on Sunday nights and they closed at 7 p.m., just before we got there. Back in our heyday, it seems like they were open until at least 9 p.m. on Sunday.

Then Joe suggested we go get some ice cream instead, and suggested Moxley’s. But of course the Moxley’s ice cream parlors closed their doors a few years ago.

So we just wound up going to my in-law’s house to collect Lucy and Isaac. We didn’t need to buy any more books or take in any additional calories at that point anyway.