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Us time

My mother-in-law called this past weekend and made an offer I just can't refuse: She wants to come down to our house once a month to play with Sweet Boy while Big Daddy and I go out. Just the two of us. Alone. As a couple of adults. Can you imagine how wonderful that would be?

I didn't even let her get the entire sentence out before I yelled "YES! YES! YES! PLEASE!" Since Sweet Boy was born three-and-a-half years ago, I can count on both hands the number of times Big Daddy and I have been out on a date. It's sad, but true. We try to go out for each of our birthdays; we went to a couple of shows at the Walnut Street Theatre when Boy was an infant; and we had a really nice anniversary dinner at Harry's Savoy Grill last year. This past Christmas, we spent an entire day together while Boy was at school -- breakfast, shopping, movie, more shopping, sitting at a coffee shop holding hands and reading magazines -- it was fabulous. And I remembered how much I really like my husband's company.

So we're setting up a standing monthly sleepover with Nana starting, appropriately, on Valentine's Day. Sweet Boy is self-sufficient enough now that we don't have to worry about Nana having to lift him -- and really, if we time it right, all she has to do is help him brush his teeth and tuck him into bed. Easy-peasy. He doesn't get to spend as much time with Nana as he does with my dad, either, so it will be good for him to have one-on-one time with his grandmother. A win-win-win proposition!

Now the question is this: Whatever shall we do with a few hours of grown-up time?

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