Date night on Gamla Stan

James and I went on our second date in 14.5 months last night. Can you believe it? I can't. I never thought I'd be the type of mom (or we'd be the type of couple) who just stops doing things after having a baby. But then again, I also never thought I'd be raising babies in a vacuum - by which I mean with no outside help whatsoever. We don't have family who lives nearby to sit at home with the baby while he sleeps, or to take him for an hour or two during the day while we run errands or have lunch or go to the doctor (we actually had to take Augie to the doctor with us a couple weeks ago!). We don't have money to pay a babysitter. And until recently, Augie's sleep has been so unpredictable that we weren't comfortable with having friends come over once he'd fallen asleep, for fear that he'd wake up and everyone would be terrified.

I'm not really complaining about these things - these were our choices. We've chosen to live far from family and raise our baby with friends around us instead of family. I (sort of) chose not to work so I could be at home with Augie (though even if I had gone back to work we would barely have been able to pay for day care in America, so things like babysitters would still be a luxury).

But: two dates in 14.5 months. We really gotta get better at this. (Oh, and we think it's quite funny that our babysitter last night was a world-famous scientist!).

We went to Gamla Stan ("old town") Stockholm for dessert and tea. We went to two places for two chocolatey desserts, and walked along the cobbled lanes and tried peeking in windows. We found a wonderful old bric-a-brac shop which was open at 9pm; we bought Augie a little soccer ball and me a small ceramic bowl. It was wonderful to get out and enjoy Stockholm. We even found things other than Augie to talk about.

What did you do for Valentine's Day?