Valentine's Day

[dorchadas]

sashagee is probably the most into Valentine's Day person I've ever dated, but for different reasons--cuteness. She loves everything cute, pink hearts and cute chocolates and stores done up with decorations and squishy things and so on. In America cute things are heavily devalued unless they're animals or babies and liking cuteness is considered a childish trait, so she doesn't get much expression for her preferences...except on holidays like Valentine's Day. It's not the flowers or the chocolates, it's the cuteness around them.

She had big plans for Valentine's Day that unfortunately didn't all work out, but we did get the day all to ourselves--my parents came and picked up Laila in the morning and took her out to the aquarium and then back to their house for a sleepover, leaving sashagee and me in a baby-free house for the whole day. We ate lunch together, then sashagee took a shower and got ready while I did some dishes, and then she rested to recover her strength. Around 3 p.m. we got on the train and went downtown for the first part of our day, buying her Valentine's Day present--an Apple Watch. sashagee always used to be an Android user, even as the rest of her family used iOS, because she preferred the widgets and the greater customizability of Android. But the multiple family albums with cute Laila photos that she was completely excluded from unless she asked me to send the photos to her finally won her over. She's had an iPhone for around a year now, and she's mentioned that she's ready to buy fully into the walled garden--watch, AirPods, the works. Having a baby means we do not have a lot of extra money so the full buy-in did not occur, but she got her watch in a cute rose-gold with a red band.

After that we walked over to the train, stopped briefly for donuts on the way, and took the train out to Oak Park and the restaurant where sashagee had gotten us reservations at:

Amerikas.

This is a salmon tlayuda, described by the internet as "Oaxacan pizza", and it was delicious. Salmon, avocado puree, radishes, greens, and a spicy sauce. We also got the pollo which Sasha ate since I was having a dairy meal--and this turned out to be fortuitous anyway because she hadn't noticed that it contained chorizo--and the calabaza, with roasted acorn squash, wild mushroom risotto, and Chile de arbol – truffle butter. Everything was delicious, and we ended up finishing the calabaza and taking only a couple tiny boxes home. We each had two cocktails, probably a mistake when we're trying to save money, but one was gin-based (my weakness) and the other was mezcal based (sashagee's weakness), so we each got our own preference at the beginning and then tried each other's drinks. Surprisingly, the gin drink was much sweeter than the mezcal one! Then, we got dessert--dragonfruit cheesecake and crème brûlée:

We had arrived an hour early at the restaurant, but they had a seat for us, so we left around the time when our reservation would have been. And then it took us much longer than we expected, because I had four Lyft drivers cancel on me and sashagee had two cancel on her. She initially thought it was because I had a bad rating until she had her first cancellation, but I think it was just because drivers didn't want to take someone from Oak Park through the city to the north side. We waited for half an hour, to the point where it would have probably been easier (and much cheaper) to just take the train home, and then finally got a ride. At this point sashagee was very tired so she went almost straight to bed. I followed pretty closely behind because I did not take work off today, so I had to get up at 6:30 a.m. But sashagee got to sleep in! I am looking forward to seeing Laila when I get home today, though--I'm sure it'll be different when she's older, but right now when she's small and cute and wants hugs all the time, I miss her so much when she's away.

Comments

[earthspirits]

Sounds like you two had a lovely Vslentine's Day and the food looks delicious. That's also nice that Laila got a visit and sleepover with your folks.

There's definitely a place in the world for cute - I'm all for that!

[weedpizza]

You are always posting about the most interesting food, and I'm here for it! I've never had dragonfruit before, but that cheesecake looks amazing!

And I agree with Sasha - Valentine's Day is the best! Everything's pink, and red, and heart-shaped, and cute!

[gwendraith]

I'm glad you had such a nice St Valentine's day. The food looks fabulous and although Laila is the cutest baby ever it is nice now and then to have time to yourselves and for your parents to have Laila to themselves :)

I've been meaning to ask, how do you make the Instagram user icon? I'm normally good at that sort of thing but I can't do those.

[pill]

the food looks DELICIOUS!

i think Sasha is so adorable - and a total knockout! i clicked on her instagram and i was able to see some photos - and wow! she literally GLOWS! ♥

i am so happy you guys were able to send Laila for some fun and quality time with family members and also so you guys could spend some quality time with one another. that's so wonderful that you have family around to help so you guys can feel refreshed - and so you can spend time together.

that's so sweet that she made you guys reservations and it sounds like she really goes the whole nine yards on Valentine's day! i think that is super sweet, and you can totally tell she has a love language.

i know it was great to crash out after and get some much needed sleep. and extra points for her getting to sleep in!

i think it's perfect and fitting that you were talking about the cute things on Valentine's - and the representation of it all... and then wrapped everything up with the smallest and cutest one of all! princess Laila! ♥

oh my gosh, i know just what you mean about when you can't wait for them to get home... i miss O when he goes to sleep at night and i have to fight the urge to go snatch him up out of his crib and squish him with love. the struggle is very real.