Moms' Night Out

I feel so lucky that I found my walking group. It's a group of eight women with babes ranging in age from Belle to an 18-month-old. We meet in Central Park Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays (weather and personal-schedules permitting) and walk a fast-paced, hilly power walk in the Park, followed by stretching and sometimes strength training. We exercise and talk and get some fresh air. We often grab coffee after the walk, depending on the state of the babies. It is wonderful. The women are great, we're all in the same place in life, and the walks are really effective.

But, as the babies grow and our Upper West Side apartments feel smaller, it seems that the group is destined to end. And the beginning of the end has come as the first mom is on her way out of the City. She and her husband sold their UWS one-bedroom apartment and bought a home in the Syracuse area near her family. With the impending departure of one mom, I proposed to the group a Moms Night Out to say goodbye to our walking friend.

To my utter shock, each of the eight moms (and therefore dads) could make the first date and time I suggested work! So, we met at a bar/lounge on the Upper West Side. There was live music- two great cover bands- and it was 'ladies night,' so we enjoyed drink specials all night. It was so fabulous to see my walking friends without our strollers!

We took advantage of the excuse to get dressed-up. We wore the dangling earrings and the necklaces we can longer wear because our babies just pull such bling. We wore non-nursing tops. We put on heels and make-up, which some of us hadn't done in months. Of the eight of us, only two of us had gone out like this (just the girls for drinks) since becoming a mom. We had so much fun. We all looked stunning (if I may say so). We hardly recognized each other when we first met at the bar- we're used to seeing one another in sweats, spit-up on one shoulder, our hair thrown back in a messy ponytail with bits of baby food stuck in some of the hairs that didn't make it into the hair elastic. There we were last night dressed up two notches above our usual walking garb.

(These pictures, taken candidly a few drinks in and with my phone's camera, do not do justice to how hot we looked. We were seriously a good looking group of moms!)





It will be sad to see this Syracuse-bound mom leave. In July, another mom is on her way to Toronto. A third mom is actively looking to buy a home in Westchester (which sounds familiar...). So, there are other goodbyes on the horizon. In meantime, it was a very fun night out, followed, of course, by the regular Friday walk!