Date...

It's something we used to do often before our little one came along. We've made it a goal to eat our way through Salt Lake City, and before August 12, 2009, we were well on our way to accomplishing that feat.

Post-baby, we are lucky to spend more than 20 minutes wandering through Costco before our girl demands otherwise.

A few weeks ago, my lovely parents kidnapped our daughter and kicked us out of our apartment. The ransom: an entire Lola-free night out, just the two of us.

The only problem? We'd forgotten what we used to do before Lola came into our lives. Dinner without stopping to nurse? A movie without worrying about the volume? Shopping without bundling her up, pulling her in and out of the carseat and having a bottle on hand?

We decided to play it safe and headed three minutes away to the Gateway. First on the baby-free agenda: dinner at California Pizza Kitchen.



Ten minutes into dinner, I caught Reece looking at pictures of our baby on his phone. Funny thing is, I was doing the same thing.



Then, since we didn't have our girl to pass back and forth, we decided to spice things up a bit by blowing bubbles in our water.




Eating an entire meal with two hands AT THE SAME TIME was a very novel concept...



After our dinner, we walked the shops at the Gateway and did some last minute Christmas shopping. I panicked at least twice about not having a stroller to push around (those things come in handy when shopping), but it was nice to browse without worrying about feeding time.



It was quite the night. We felt renewed, rejuvenated -- even newlywed again. And though we wouldn't admit it until we were in the car on our way home, we both couldn't wait to see this little bug again...



I think I'm ready to start steady dating again. I'm just saying.