The phrase ‘I should’ runs through my head thousands of times every day.
I’m at work. I should be working. I should be working on my work email instead of paperwork. I should be taking advantage of adult conversation time. I should call the hospital/insurance company to work out maternity bills I overpaid. I should have {yet another} snack & glass of water instead of diet coke. I should pay bills & empty out my purse.
It’s lunch time. So I should eat. I should leave work & rush around running errands. Or use the time to catch up with coworkers. Or, what I usually do, work through lunch to make up for being out sick.
I’m in the car. I should stop for groceries. I should go straight home to the babies. I should use this alone time to rock out to tunes or to catch up on phone calls to family or friends.
I’m home at night. This is where my ‘I should’ list goes really crazy. I should prepare tomorrow’s sippys & cloth diapers for Lucy & Zach straight away. I should start dinner. I should start laundry. I should clean up the den/sink/bathroom. I should sit down & relax {ha! that’s funny}.
I should blog/Facebook/instagram/tweet about my day or the silly thing Zach did or Lucy’s first steps! I should read them another book & put down my phone.
Lucy & Zach are finally asleep. I should read that overdue library book or package that outgrown book/outfit/diaper to mail. I should catch up on TV. I should make my lunch & pack my pump bag for the following day. I should talk to my husband. I should take photos of all their outgrown clothes to try to sell in multiples groups {did this last night}! I should sleep.
So I go to bed, & instead of snores & dreams, I first play another round of Candy Crush {level 152, I have my eye on you} & think of my ‘I should’ list for the next day. And I’m exhausted. Any idea why?!
I thought it was well past time to do another must haves list. I’ve looked back on my newborn list for twins to reminisce & have shared it with multi-momma-to-be friends too. Here’s my favorites for Zach & Lucy from the past couple of months.
Feeding
If you’re still nursing like I continue to do {yay you & us!}, some of the newborn list still applies like a good pump for working moms, nursing pads & the twin version of the mybrest friend pillow. I continue to use the Gerber 9oz bottles to pump into & couldn’t go without mini packit coolers for storing my pumped milk while at & on my way home from work.
Around 11-12 months, Zach & Lucy said goodbye to our beloved bottles. We had a mix of 9oz tommee tippee, 5 oz Medela, & 5 & 9 oz Gerber bottles. I discovered 5 oz bottles will hold almost 6 oz filled so that’s what we used for almost a year. I’d heard to buy a few of multiple kinds of sippy cups because it can be a tough transition & kiddos can be picky. {Aside: we’d tried water or water/apple juice in starter sippys beginning around 8 months with little success.} Zach likes ones with handles.
His favorite are these Nuby ones. Lucy isn’t as picky, so we have a mix of non-handled ones in her daycare milk rotation too.
When they started really eating solids, I purchased some waterproof big bibs online & from Target & Walmart. The bumkins ones have held up better than the others.
Munchin snack cups are toddler stand bys.
Snack took precedence with Lucy & Zach over Nana Sunday afternoon.
We agree. I have 4 & at least 2 are in the dish washer at any one time.
We love our Fisher Price space saver high chairs. They fit securely in our regular dining room chairs & Lucy & Zach eat at the table with us.
Clearly they’re fans too.
Clothing
We tend to return again & again to Carter’s {from their outlet, Target & Costco}, Target’s Circo line & the Children’s Place for our daycare & play staples. I love the quality of Gymboree & GAP Kids when they’re having sales & those are brands I look for first while consignment shopping.
For pjs, I’m a bit of a mixed bag, & I’d say our must haves would include both cotton zippered & snap long-sleeve {mostly} footed pajamas as well as Old Navy two-piece ones. Zippers are quick & snaps work well for getting-to-the-diaper-while-keeping-toddler-dressed for cooler nights, & we like the two piece short sleeve {& some shorts} for mix & match as well as heavy drooling/vomit nights.
I’d be remiss if I left Halo sleep sacks off this list. We love them in both cotton & fleece. Lucy & Zach are about to outgrown the size mediums & we’ve added the larges into rotation while I’m stocking up on XLs for this fall & winter.
Leaving The Nest
We received a Baby Jogger City Mini for Christmas. It stays in the van because we use it that often: for fitness walks & strolls, shopping trips, at the beach.
I also keep one of our Ergo carriers in the van. It continues to work great for grocery or Target shopping with a sleeping toddler.
When Lucy & Zach aren’t in either of the above, we put them in shopping carts with one of our cart covers.
The covers we received at showers are adaptable for restaurant high chairs too.
Toys
There are so many toy options for toddlers. These are a few of my duo’s favorites. {All links unaffiliated from Amazon.}
Standing toys
From their birthday, playing with their ball table before school.
When they first began to pull up, we bought them the Bright Stars ball table. At the time, their hands were too small to palm the balls. Now they’re clanging the balls together & fetching them across the room. Lucy & Zach also have the Fisher Price laugh & learn kitchen. We don’t travel without either of these two.
We have future books nerds on our hands. This could not make my momma heart any happier. This week, we’ve read Owl Babies, Little Blue Truck, Goodnight Owl, Five Little Monkeys, Good Night, Little Bear & Pookie a thousand times. I’d recommend board books for toddlers. We know mine are getting a new tooth when they start choosing on a book & ones without flaps have survived the best.
That’s it off the top of my head for now. Let me know if you think my list misses something your toddler loves. I’d also love to hear what we might want/need for our next stage.
I took Zach & Lucy’s 14 month photos on my cell today. While organizing them for their posts this week, I ran across these photos from this weekend. {Yep, you read that right, thanks to a dead DSLR battery, this months’ will have timely pics!}
I took this nursing selfie Fri evening. I’m still successfully breastfeeding two babies toddlers. If nursing tandem, 99% of the times it’s football hold on our much beloved twin mybrest friend pillow {we’ve gotten every bit of its $60 worth}. And yes, nursing toddlers has it’s own set of challenges- mostly in the form of keeping Zach focused on nursing {instead of running}, keeping them from poking each others eyes/lips/nose/hair & trying to dissuade them from playing with my mouth/necklace/hair. It’s hilarious too when nursing one-on-one the positions they get themselves in while managing to stay attached! I might have future yogis!
Saturday night, I attempted to take a ‘happy almost 14 month day’ group shot of the three of us.
This was the best I could do! Just a glimpse of life with two busy littles at the moment. They’re all up in each others business all the time. Pushing, slapping, & as of Friday {Zach!} biting each other! We say ‘be sweet’, ‘be gentle’, ‘gentle touches’, ‘don’t hit your brother/sister’ only about a 1000 times/day.
You can see how they do & yet don’t play well together in my attempt at a good 14 month group shot Sunday morning before we met my friend Kelly at church. On the chair together, there were a few smiles, but in typical Zach fashion, he was trying to get out if her way & back to reading!
Lastly, once Dada got home Sunday evening, he was reading Jake’s Perfect Day for at least the third time. They’re fairly obsessed with it & a few others {anyone want me to recite Little Blue Truck or Goodnight Owl?!}. The moment was too sweet to not capture. So please excuse the poor lighting & reflect instead on two sweet kiddos nicely sharing a lap for a cuddle-filled book with their Dad.
Oh Lucy girl. She’s keeping us {& especially daycare} on their toes.
Lucy & Zach moved up to the toddler room at daycare the Wed before our vacation. Lucy was bitten Thurs & Fri by two different kids. Welcome to the toddler class, Lucy!
After 9 days off, we were hoping this biting epidemic was over at school. Nope. Lucy was bitten last Tues {by yet another kid}. & I just got off the phone with the daycare director. Lucy was bitten {by biter number 4 if you’re keeping track} this morning. The director told me she watched the video & saw her teacher literally leap through the air to try to pull Lucy’s arm away, but she couldn’t stop the biter in time.
I’m sadly not shocked to say that after all this time being bitten, Baby girl has learned {as of this morning} to try to bite back. And she’s a fast learner. Daycare told me she’s attempted to bit THREE kiddos so far this am.
Oh y’all, this class of children is going to look like an episode of True Blood {except it seems these vampire babes like arms instead of necks}!
{& in case you’re wondering, Zach, according to daycare, tends to do his own thing while Lucy is the social butterfly in the middle of everyone. I’ve witnessed this as I’m coming & going, & I’m not surprised that she’s in the middle of all the action while Zach does more independent play.}
Any of y’all had experience with toddler biting? What’s your best advice?!
Just getting back to reality after a week long beach vacation. {Did you catch my liberating working moms post on it?!}
I downloaded the photos from our dslr & realized these are all that are on there. I’ll update later this week with photos my sister-in-law took & ones from my cell.
Needless to say, we had a wonderful break from reality. It was a fabulous week full of family- both my ILs as well as my parents & grands.
As you might’ve seen from instagram/facebook, Lucy girl got sick Friday afternoon & we cut our trip a few hours short.
But Jason took these photos Thursday evening of me & my babies.
July 4th OIB Zach, Lucy & Momma
Love the evening light! Love them! {posting from our new mini-laptop chrome book so excuse weird photo errors}
