Date night at home: Have your cake and eat it to

For those of us with babies and young children, getting out of the house for a date night can be challenging to say the least. It requires scheduling (especially if your breastfeeding), a babysitter, money for said babysitter, and the ability to stay awake past eight PM. I don’t know about you, but for me that’s just a little too much effort for any old night. I would rather save those nights for really genuine special occasions like birthdays, anniversaries, landing a great job, or just because we really feel like it! That being said, carving out time to spend with your significant other is essential, especially with little ones because it’s so easy to get caught up in the busy day to day and let adult time fall by the wayside . My solution is a stay at home date night! Put your little monkey/monkeys to bed and have an easy relaxed at home date night. Think back to when you were first dating and it really didn’t matter what you did, you just wanted to be in each others company. My husband and I used to spend hours laying on a futon on the floor of his studio apartment above a vacuum store just listening to music and hanging out. We did other things too, but let’s keep it PG up in here, I don’t know how many of you have a little sneaky peeper reading over your shoulder. So let’s recreate that simplicity. It’s all about being with each other, hanging out, snuggling up. Music is big in our house (I’m married to a musician), so that is the basis of this date night.

1. Put on some sexy, comfy (emphasis on the comfy) pajamas. THESE are so cute.
2. Cook up a simple, easy one pot meal like THIS ONE, or order take out if you prefer.
3. Get out the vinyl if you have it. We’re going old school tonight. If not, an iPod will do. Go with whatever music is meaningful to you. Our playlist is going to look something like this.
4. Lay out a cozy comfy blanket like THIS one, and some pillows on the floor of your living room.
5. Turn the lights low and light some candles LIKE THESE for ambiance. They are 100% beeswax which is non-toxic, burns clean with very little smoke, and beeswax actually makes negative ions so it’s a natural ionizer and actually IMPROVES air quality!
6. Open a bottle of organic wine. Full disclosure, DP is not a wine drinker, so it’s really just for me. Should I feel weird about that? Nah! It’s date night!
7. Have a relaxed, chill dinner. After dinner take the blanket and pillows to the couch. Let’s face it, we’re not twenty anymore, we can only lay on the floor comfortably for so long.
8. Crack open a pint of Coconut Bliss Salted Caramel chocolate vegan ice cream and watch something fun and romantic on Netflix or Apple TV. In keeping with the musical theme for the evening, we will be watching HBO’S Vinyl which I have saved on DVR. Here are a couple other ideas you can find on Netflix that I think men and women will like equally:

• Amelie
• Francis Ha
• Copenhagen
• Some Like it Hot
• Annie Hall
• Your Sister’s Sister
• The Kids are All Right

What you do after that is up to you… provided you can stay up past eight o’clock.

Happy date night!

xo