The other day I spotted this letter in the Berkeley Parents Network newsletter:

My husband and I have a 4-month-old and a 2-1/2 year old. We want to start going out on occasional dates again, and we need some ideas of how to get childcare for the two of them. Now that we have two, do we need to hire two babysitters? Dinner and bedtime are still 2-person jobs even for us. Would an experienced sitter be able to handle both if we went out in the daytime? I'd love to hear some success stories on this - depressingly, everyone with kids who we've asked about this just snorts and says, ''Dates?!? We haven't gone on a date since the second one was born...'' Help!
Need some mommy and daddy time

Yeah, I hate to break it to this tired mommy, but my husband and I have not been able to follow up on the Father's Day present I gave him last June: dance lessons. It's just not happening.

But I feel her pain. I remember getting cabin fever with both my babies and really missing my husband who was also cracking from sleep deprivation and lack of sunlight.

Yet, it is difficult to secure childcare for two children when they are that young. I never felt comfortable leaving a baby especially at night since both our babies hated to sleep, preferring to be up and nursing. I didn't want to put that on anyone. The other thing I feared was whether a teenager or college student could handle a baby. I wasn't as nervous about babysitting when my children became toddlers.

What say you, MotherTalkers? How did you handle cabin fever when your children were babies? For those of you who live far from family, how do you arrange dates with your partners?

Katy Farber at Non-Toxic Kids, wrote a great piece in Eco-Child's Play about how to fight cabin fever during the bitter cold winter months. Here were her five suggestions:

1. Visit your local library.

2. Attend a local elementary school or high school sports event.

3. Arrange a weekly meal swap or share with another family.

4. Visit a child friendly coffee house in your area, just for a change of scenery.

5. Look for wide open play spaces. Many towns have weekly play groups of sessions at recreation centers or gyms.

Good suggestions. For those of you in places with ice on the ground, I bet winter sports like skiing and ice skating are also options. What other suggestions do you have?