I’m not going to lie, I love dinner out as much as the next girl, but there are oodles of other great date ideas that can really make the most of that time with your honey—just the two of you. While dinner is a delight and doesn’t require a lot of advance planning, there are a lot of other ways the two of you can make the most of your short time together without the wee one.

A little extra planning can turn a small quantity into major quality. We understand that so much planning goes into just having enough breast milk and diapers to last the evening that you can’t even think about going beyond the restaurant standby, but here’s a few ideas:

• Stay home, rent a movie or a full season of your favorite TV show and just be in your own house with no baby to attend to. Cook a grown-up dinner together and savor it at the table or have a carpet picnic on the floor. This is inexpensive, yet special and intimate. Like a stay-cation.
• Sit in the comfy chairs and read for free at Barnes & Noble.
• Work out together—take a spinning class or a hike.
• Take a stroll through some of the exhibits at a small, local art museum or gallery.
• Take a board game to a coffee shop.
• Have an adventure—do something you’ve never done like climbing an indoor climbing wall or eating Venezuelan food.
• Get a couple cheap-seat tickets to a baseball game.

No one’s giving away medals for the most creative or successful dates so if your plan for the perfect picnic bombs when you forget the basket and it rains all day, don’t fret and don’t stop trying. The point is that you and your spouse are re-introducing a little of that pre-baby spirit– when whatever you were doing was a blast and there was no big expectation. Welcome baby Care knows how important a little baby-free togetherness is and wants you to have a night out on the town—on us. Don’t forget to enter to win the free giveaway. Details below!

Free Give Away!! Get A Baby Free Date Night! 

We want to help you have a night out—so we’re giving away a $50 restaurant gift certificate. To enter, leave a comment in the comments section answering this question:

What do you do on your baby free date nights? What would you like to do?  (make sure to leave your email or a link so we can contact you)

• Contest runs until Saturday, October  8, 2011 midnight CST.
• Winners will be chosen at www.random.org on Sunday, October 9 at 8:00am CST
• Increase your chances to win by letting us know (in the comments section) that you have done one of the following (you can perform several actions and leave comments for each to increase your winning potential!):
• Twitter: following@babycaretweets = 1 entry. Click here.
• Facebook: “Like” Welcome Baby Care = 1 entry. Click here.

Subscribe: receive blog updates in your inbox (click button above) = 1 entry.