  How ironic that urlLink I spent Saturday worrying about what I could do without my kids that would be fun enough to merit spending hours away from them and paying for the baby sitter, only to enjoy my Sunday so much. That's how my new datenight standard was born: sitter worthiness. Deep down, I think we all have our whatever worthy, that precious thing we savor and meter out only after stingy consideration. A standard that sets our own personal bar. Elaine had spongeworthy, I've got sitter worthy. And in case you're wondering, urlLink it was.
But then, I spent yesterday all day with the kids, and enjoyed myself--more?--for free! John finally installed Ella's bike seat, so we went bike riding through the park (whatever you're supposed to call eastern Memorial) with the kids on the back of the bikes. We stopped at the swings for a while, played Laura Anders running down the hill. On the way back, I fell. The good news is the little cocoon-shaped bike seat did a great job protecting Ella. No part of her touched the ground, she stayed firmly suspended--if suddenly sideways--in the five-point harness (glad we put her in the newer, more expensive model!). I braced most of the jolt with my wrist, then elbow, then shoulder, which I'm paying for today with soreness. But all in all, no harm done, and now I can lay my fear of falling with her on the bike to rest after seeing it was no biggie.
The next time I'm at some playdate and somebody says aren't you too afraid of falling to ride with your kids (and that's come up a number of times), I can say, no, I fell once and everything was fine. The other positive side of it is that now, as Aidan is learning to ride his bike, we have a new illustration for what to do when you fall.
Just get back up and say I'm all right (if he's following my example, of course, there's an intermediate step of quickly and frantically checking his baby sister for injury!). But back to the life lesson, I feel grateful that we never feel the need to escape our kids. Aidan's little morning pre-school along with the one or two afternoons a week I get to myself, thanks to Yolanda, are enough to quell the frantic feelings.
I just want to spend every moment with them, as a family. I don't want to vacation without them, even overnight. A restaurant or movie is fun now and then, but I think I'll even stick to the urlLink crybaby matinees for a while. 
