When my kids were little, I was convinced once both baby and toddler were eating the same real food, life with "two under two" would get easier. In some ways it did, in others, not so much. When my baby was 7 months old, my Baby Bunching friend Cara and I both found ourselves on a similar schedule--so we're assuming this schedule may be familiar to other Baby Bunching moms out there:
- Wake up and feed baby fruit/cereal or etc. (This would take forever and usually last all morning).
- Hear toddler wake up. Leaving baby strapped so tightly in the highchair that the Jaws of Life could not remove her, dart upstairs to fetch toddler. (We are not endorsing this method - just telling you how it ended working for us.)
- Toddler is starving NOW. Make baby a bowl of cheerios and watch him eat 4 bowls full, spilling the equivalent of 3 bowls full on the floor.
- Take a LARGE gulp of coffee. Wonder when/if you will make it back to the cup for a second sip before the morning is over and the coffee is cold.
- Clean up toddler's mess.
- Clean up baby's mess.
- Put baby down for a nap.
- Uh oh - toddler is hungry for a snack - back to the kitchen for mess and cleanup.
- In 30 minutes, repeat breakfast routine for lunch.
- Put everyone down for naps.
- After naps, repeat snack routine.
- Hubby is on the way home. Quickly try to rustle up something an adult who has not spent the whole day being puked and pooped on would find even remotely appetizing.
- Hubby is delayed - feed children and clean up mess.
- Take large gulp of cold coffee from breakfast, feed self, and clean up mess.
- Hubby makes long-awaited appearance. Scarfs down dinner, leaving mess on counter to horseplay with the children before bed.
- Clean up last mess of the day. Have a glass of wine to relax from the day's madness.
- Sleep (if lucky), wake up, repeat.
Do yourself a favor. By this stage in the game (if baby is on solid food), you should be able to feed everyone at once, so please do. If hubby is regularly late for dinner, then train him to heat up a plate and deposit said plate in dishwasher when he is finished. If you prefer, feed the children early and eat with your husband after they go to bed.
If you're dashing out the door in the morning for work or your early evening schedule includes a commute home, you will have to make some adjustments. Speaking of which, try to only clean up the kitchen three times a day - once after each meal.
It might help to review the time of day your kids prefer to eat. To make it easier on you, write down their "schedule." If Baby #1 seems to want to eat/nurse at 11 a.m. for lunch and toddler isn't ready until noon, try to meet each child halfway with an 11:30 midday meal. Again, always get your toddler set up with her full buffet of food and then sit down to feed the baby, whether it's bottle, breast or solid food.
Shove snack mess in the sink and clean it up along with the next meal. Or better yet, take the kids outside for snack to decrease the mess. We love summer, which means popsicles in the yard and picnic lunch at the pool. And for God's sake, whatever you do, don't mop the floors until the kids have gone to bed - at least then they will stay clean for eight hours.
I'd love to hear what tips you have for making mealtime easier with "two under two."
Linda Kerr, who is a Baby Buncher, writes about parenting at Baby Bunching and Monkey Business.
1 comment