you know you need a date when...

That's the query for today's blog blast [check out the Parent Bloggers Network for everyone's answer, and marriage.eharmony.com to help find your own answer]. So what's my telltale sign?

You know you need a date with your husband/partner when you continue to refer to each other as mama and dada long after the toddler is in bed.

Guess what? The dog and the cat don't care what you call each other as long as they get walked and fed, but the neighbour who stops by to pay for renting your parking space from you might give you a funny look. So what gives? Use of those two words certainly brings home the reality of the current number one priority and reinforces the notion - however subliminally or not - that no one is getting lucky tonight. [oh wait. a good night's uninterrupted sleep is lucky, so maybe we are!]

But there is hope: tomorrow, for the first time ever, just shy of her first birthday, we are having a babysitter over while the Magpie is awake. We're going out for a cup of coffee. In public. Where we will have to make the effort to not refer to each other using third person parental monikers.

Wish us luck.