When My little dude was 5 months old we went on our first
“overnight trip” without him. We have been going to a Montreal
Canadians hockey game every year for the past 8 years and this was our weekend
booked to take in a jacket game, shop and enjoy some adult dining in
restaurants not so “baby friendly”.
Our hockey game trips are almost always the same – this might
seem boring to you, but it is comforting to us. We know what we are going to
do, when we are going to do it and leave out any guess work. As a result we
don’t really get the full Montreal experience, but we leave happy every time!
Our schedule typically goes something like this:
Friday
- Fly to Montreal, take a taxi downtown and check into the same hotel we have been staying at for 8 years (Montreal Marriott Chateau Champlain). Leave our bags with the concierge or in the room if it’s ready and then head out for some “looking”. Side note: Looking is “shopping”, but I call it looking because we almost never buy anything on the Friday. We look around and get an idea of what we are going to buy during the real shopping on Saturday.
- Part of the “looking” usually includes a trip to the Bell Centre where we pick out what souvenirs/ habs gear we will be buying this trip. Of course on this particular trip stuff for little dude was at the top of the list!
- Friday evening we go for dinner and then cap off the night with drinks at one of the pubs downtown.
Saturday
- Breakfast is on-the-go (Tim Hortons or McDonalds, specifically at the Via Rail train station as we make our way through the Montreal underground to St. Catherine street to begin shopping).
- Shop shop shop… Usually we don’t stop for lunch, but if we do it’s quick to optimize the shopping time. The rule for Saturday is we have to be back at the hotel by 3pm – this allows us time to change for the game, have a beer and head to dinner before going to the Bell Centre.
- We go to dinner at either W&G (if the weather is not too cold) or Baton Rouge (if the weather is colder since it is very close to the Bell Centre).
- Then we arrive at the Bell Centre in time to see the full warm up and possibly visit Youppiville (depending on who we are with and if they have ver visited Youppiville before or not).
- We enjoy every minute of the game and stay afterwards to take a picture with the ice in the background (yes, the same picture…almost every time).
- After the game we go to a pub in our jerseys and keep the celebration going with some of the other 20,000 + fans that were at the game and the crowds that watched on the pub’s TVs.
- Get back to the hotel at whatever time and order pizza from the place the hotel recommends as the best pizza to order at 1am – I have to say, it is awesome pizza!
Sunday
- Time to pack up, take a taxi to the airport, have breakfast/lunch before boarding the plane and then head home.
This trip was not a lot different… My brother and V (remember her from my DIY Paper Pinwheel post?!) were our travel partners and were happy to go along with our usual routine. We had lots of fun, lots of laughs and even got in a selfie making the faces we all usually make to get little dude to laugh.
Little dude stayed with Nanny and Papa and was in his glory. He was the boss of the house without a doubt, played with new toys and had all of his favourite foods (similac mostly at that age…) Nanny sent me pictures throughout the day and kept me in the loop so I didn’t feel lonely or bad for leaving little dude home.
All of these elements combined made for a great weekend where I felt like myself, a normal adult doing things I would normally do, for the first time in quite a while! Then we got home. People usually would ask me how the trip was, what I bought or how the game was when we returned home from any other hockey game weekend, but this time was different. Every single person started by asking me if I missed my little dude. This made me feel horrible and experience mom guilt like I had never before until this point. Yes, of course I missed him… but to be completely honest, I didn’t. I was gone for a little more than 48 hours and received updates about 15 times in that period, was shopping, and at a hockey game. I was happy to see him when I got home, but to say I missed him would be lying. Some of you might think I am horrible now while the rest of you are nodding your head and agreeing that even though you told everyone you missed your little one like crazy the first time you were away you were so busy remembering how to be “yourself” and enjoying the moment that you practically didn’t have time to miss your little one.
Little dude stayed with Nanny and Papa and was in his glory. He was the boss of the house without a doubt, played with new toys and had all of his favourite foods (similac mostly at that age…) Nanny sent me pictures throughout the day and kept me in the loop so I didn’t feel lonely or bad for leaving little dude home.
Nanny, Little Dude & Papa cheering from home |
All of these elements combined made for a great weekend where I felt like myself, a normal adult doing things I would normally do, for the first time in quite a while! Then we got home. People usually would ask me how the trip was, what I bought or how the game was when we returned home from any other hockey game weekend, but this time was different. Every single person started by asking me if I missed my little dude. This made me feel horrible and experience mom guilt like I had never before until this point. Yes, of course I missed him… but to be completely honest, I didn’t. I was gone for a little more than 48 hours and received updates about 15 times in that period, was shopping, and at a hockey game. I was happy to see him when I got home, but to say I missed him would be lying. Some of you might think I am horrible now while the rest of you are nodding your head and agreeing that even though you told everyone you missed your little one like crazy the first time you were away you were so busy remembering how to be “yourself” and enjoying the moment that you practically didn’t have time to miss your little one.
It took me about a week to stop feeling bad because I knew I was lying to everyone who asked if I missed little dude while we were gone. In the end, what I took from the experience were these three things:
1) Just because I have a baby doesn’t mean you can’t ask me normal questions about my trip and the experience before asking if I missed the baby. I am doing my best to keep that in mind when talking to other moms now. So if I ask you about YOU before asking about your baby, don’t be offended… I am actually interested in you both equally, but want to know about you first.
2) Mom guilt is a crazy and very real thing. If there is anything we can do for each other to fight it, let’s help each other out!
3) I shouldn’t have been ashamed of not missing my little dude for those 48 hours or so and should have been more thankful/happy that I had the opportunity to go to a Montreal Canadians hockey game (even as a mom…) with the Mr., my brother and V and enjoy a weekend doing our typical, normal, not “mommy focused” Montreal hockey weekend.
I have since been away two nights (each on a separate occasion) without my little dude. I have to say, as he gets older and seems to realize I am gone I miss him more and more! Shortly we are going on a 4 night trip without little dude, which will be the longest we are away from him… my fingers are crossed he is as good for Nanny this time as a 10 month old as he was as a 5 month old!
My shoes for that: Steve Madden Wrenner casual shoes (My brother bought these during the trip)
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