The art of balance

We don't have it fully sussed out yet, but we are getting there - albeit baby steps (no pun intended). Trying to get some balance back into our lives has been trying for the last 23 months. It has felt like our lives have been put on hold, waiting for things with Kien to get easier.

Now that he has been consistently sleeping through maybe once every 3 or so nights at least we've been managing to get a little bit more solid stretches for our sleep cycles, making functioning the following day a lot more bearable. More sleep makes loving life a heck of a lot easier for sure!

We found a babysitter to let us out on week nights, hooray! Once upon a time when it was just Jef and I (a distant memory now) we used to go out 3-4 times a week, mostly because a) having someone else cook for us was awesome, and b) it's just a lot more fun to be out drinking in the atmosphere (no pun intended). Now perhaps we can have some semblance of our pre-Kien life - maybe not 3-4 times, but definitely at least once a week/fortnight.

We went out on Thursday night! That sentence deserves an exclamation mark, and what's more, we didn't turn into pumpkins until midnight. We went up to Ken Yakitori Bar on K'Rd (our old haunt way back when), and savoured every bite of every dish that we ordered one-at-a-time, 'cause, you know, we had all night to drink and enjoy (pun definitely intended).

We discovered this place not long after we came back from our first trip to Japan in 2006, and just love the authenticity of this establishment.

After finishing our pleasantly savoured meal accompanied by hot house sake and Santory Malts beer, we ambled down Queen St.

Care for the Chef's special of fried and spicy chicken beer, anyone?

We stopped by Starks for some Long Island Ice Tea. They were playing some groovy Latin American music - I got Jef to Shazam it for me, and I'll definitely be downloading some tracks.

Babysitter said that Kien was so easy to put to bed, and there were no problems whatsoever - exactly what I wanted to hear.

There is an art to balancing life with a child and "having a life" that doesn't just revolve around his existence. I think we are finally getting that blend right, and I am glad.

I'm linking this with other bloggers posting about the things they are loving too.