The Mom Crowd

Daniel and I always thought that we would be parents that would get a babysitter and go out all the time. We weren’t going to let having a baby change our lifestyle. Thirteen months after having our little one arrived reality has set in. Good, trustworthy babysitters are hard to find and they are expensive. Sure, our family could babysit and I do ask when it is needed but I don’t want to ask all the time. So we have become creative with our date nights at home after our daughter goes to bed.

I believe date nights are incredibly important for healthy marriages. They build trust and encourage a break from the routine to just stop, relax, and enjoy one another. On the date you should not talk about the kids, work, or bills. Save those conversations for another time. Also, don’t think about the household chores that need to be done. If you are the type that can’t relax if there is a dish in the sink, then do all the dishes before your date and get take out that you can throw away. The point is to relax.

You need to schedule your date and guard that time. We generally have a date (at home) on a weekend night. Yes things come up, but we don’t go long without a date. Sometimes I tell Daniel “I need a date” and he knows what I mean. I crave that time together and I miss it when we haven’t had one in a while. Don’t be afraid to ask or put in on the family calendar.

Here are 30 date night ideas that you can do at home after the little ones are tucked into bed and SOUND ASLEEP.

1. Have dinner in the backyard, patio, or your front lawn.

2. Re-watch the first movie you watched together.

3. Don’t cook and get your favorite take out.

4. Have a theme night. You must dress, eat dinner, and watch a movie with the same theme. Think ‘Western’ and dress like a cowgirl, eat bar-b-que, and watch Tombstone. Think ‘French’ and put on a black and white top, make French onion soup, and watch Amelie. It could be anything!

5. Put a blanket down and picnic in front of the TV.

6. Make a special dessert to indulge in. Bake chocolate chip cookies and right when you get them out of the oven put vanilla ice cream and chocolate sauce on top. Even making brownies from a box can warm up any night.

7. Take a shower and get dressed up to go out, but stay in. One night I even put on my dress from my prom. I would never wear it out now, but I still love it and wore it on a night in.

8. Snuggle on the couch and watch a movie. I (heart) my Netflix queue!

9. Try to beat your all time record. (This was my husband’s suggestion for the list.)

10. Wear your old bikini that you would never wear in public again, because your stretch marks glisten too brightly in the sunlight! Ha. Your husband won’t care and will love you in it.

11. Break out the board games. Play it so that the loser has to do the dishes or even a fun strip version.

12. Wear your favorite lingerie under your normal clothes. Better yet wear none underneath.

13. Sit outside and read together.

14. Have a candlelit dinner in the dining room you rarely use.

15. Make a mix CD or playlist to enjoy throughout the evening.

16. Dance! Make room for our own private dance floor and have fun. Don’t worry, no one is watching you dance like Elaine Benes.

17. Write out an invitation card to your date requesting their presence at the VIP Lounge of your private nightclub.

18. Splurge on delicious cheeses and add fruit, crackers, and wine.

19. Make out during the DVD menu music.

20. Give each other a back rub.

21. Share your favorite dating memory with each other over dinner.

22. Set out candles around the room. (I know this is an old idea, but it is really nice to do once in a while.)

23. Dress as a character from a movie and you pick the character for each other (think Tom Cruise in Risky Business).

24. Work out together. Set up a circuit in the garage or in the back yard with a jump rope, dumbbells, push-up, and sit-up stations.

25. Cook together and try a new recipe for dinner or for a cocktail.

26. Go to bed early together.

27. Play video games together.

28. Watch a sports game and eat stadium food like nachos and hot dogs.

29. Set up a pair of chairs and stick your feet in the kiddie pool.

30. Make breakfast in bed for dinner and watch TV.

Do you have date nights at home? What do you do? Does it get harder to have a date night at home when the kids get older?

“Yo Gabba Gabba!” is a hip live action children’s show with a techno beat that airs on Nickelodeon. Each episode is focused on a social topic like sharing, love, sleep, or eating. The premise of the show is that DJ Lance Rock carries five dolls in his boom box and when you say the words “Yo Gabba Gabba!” all five characters come to life in their own diorama world. According to a NY Time article, the show’s title is combination of MTV’s “Yo! MTV Raps” and the Ramone’s chant “Gabba gabba hey.”

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Thank you to everyone watched the first episode of ‘The Mom Crowd Show’ and for all your kind words. It really means a lot to McKenna and I. We still have some rough edges to work out, but we will get there! Thanks for sticking with us as we work out the kinks in these first few episodes.

Here is episode 2! I had a lot fun meeting Deb in San Diego. Her beach is really that beautiful.

SHOW NOTES

The Mom Crowd Show Ep #2. Running a 5K, Baby Proofing a Hotel, and San Diego Momma

Are you about to run your first 5K? Are you going to be traveling with your baby soon? We discuss Dawn’s “Feeling Proud of My First 5K” and McKenna’s “Babyproofing Your Hotel Room” posts. Plus, Amanda interviews Deb from SanDiegoMomma.com. Finally, we share about our favorite websites: meetup.com and yogababy.tv.

Posts:

Dawn’s “Feeling Proud of My First 5K”

McKenna’s “Babyproofing Your Hotel Room”

Friends:

Deb at SanDiegoMomma.com

Heather at OhMyStinkinHeck.com

Web Picks:

Meetup.com

YogaBaby.tv

My 12 month old daughter started throwing her food on to the floor when she was done eating. We don’t even have a dog for her to watch eat the food. It made our kitchen floor a mess. I had no idea how to stop her from throwing food on the the floor so I asked McKenna, one of the authors here at The Mom Crowd. She told me that Ace was throwing her food on the floor when she was done, because she had no other form of communication with me.

McKenna said that I needed to do 3 things:

1. Teach her to put her food in a special place on her tray when she is done.
2. Tell her “No, we don’t throw food on the floor” and pick it up.
3. Teach her how to sign “all done.”

I had never done any sign language before only because I wasn’t sure if I really needed to teach it to her and I was being lazy. Hopefully, if I gave her a way to communicate with me, then she wouldn’t throw her food.

After about a week of being diligent and saying “no,” teaching her to put her food in the cup holder of the tray, and signing “all done” my daughter did it! She signs “all done” when I ask “Are you done?” I immediately pull Ace out of her seat when she signs it. An added bonus of signing “all done” is that she looks adorable when she signs it.

She has also learned where to put her food when she doesn’t want it anymore. She very rarely throws food on the floor now. It still happens occasionally but it isn’t every single meal.

I love that I am able to communicate with my baby who isn’t saying many words. I wasn’t a huge believer of signing until just recently. I went back to McKenna and asked her to show me some more signs. We are working on signing bread now. Ace will get it.

McKenna’s wrote a post on signing called, “Ready, Set, Sign” if you are interested in reading more about baby sign language.

Did you have a problem with your little one throwing food on the floor? How did you handle it?

Have you ever been sitting on the floor playing with your little one and felt bored or lonely? I know I have. I consider myself an outgoing person. I have plenty of friends. My husband is even a work at home dad and I still get lonely and bored at home.

I know I can call my friends and set something up. We have to coordinate naps and schedules and let the stars align. Also, on a selfish level I struggle with the thoughts “I always initiate,” and “Why can’t someone call me for once?” Whenever a friend does ask me for a play date I always try to say yes just because I am so happy they asked.

When I first came home I coordinated a mass play date with almost every stay at home mom I knew. It seemed to go okay but no one really seemed interested in continuing the group, so I didn’t try to keep it going.

The internet and blogs keep me going everyday. I am so thankful for having a blog to share my thoughts on parenting and to meet other moms. However, there is still something about seeing a friend or anyone in real life that meets a need on a different level. The grocery clerks that know my daughter by name don’t count.

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