Well, don't I feel like Polly Popular? Wow!
Another Amy (can you believe that my mom thought "Amy" was a unique name when she named me??) mentioned bath time. I've got this down to a fine science. Allow me to elaborate.
The key to a successful bath is preparation. You want to have every single thing you're going to need in the bathroom with you, so that you don't have to leave your kids for a second. Yeah, sometimes I listen to Oprah, because sometimes she's right. Our local channel had these horrible PSAs on last summer about drowning, and they said that babies don't make a sound when they drown - they don't fight at all, they just slip under the water, try to breathe, and drown. Needless to say, this is NOT one of those theories that I am willing to test, so I never, ever, ever leave my kids unsupervised in the tub.
So, how do I bathe the two of them by myself? I get their jammies, towels, clean diapers, and lotion and take it all into the bathroom with me. Then I run the bath (Claire has just started to stand at the edge of the tub and throw the toys in). I take the bigger kid's clothes off first, and put her in the tub. Then I take the little one's clothes off and put her in. I pile the clothes up on the floor and try to remember to stick them in the hamper later. The dirty diapers (pray God that they're just wet, otherwise you're going to need the wipes that you forgot to bring in with you!) go in the bathroom trash.
I hold on to the little one (Claire) and get her clean while the big one (Mary Grace) plays with the tub toys. Then I pull Claire out, dry her off right there on the bath mat, put her lotion on, put her clean diaper on, and put her jammies on. Then she can crawl around our very small bathroom (she generally stands up at the side of the tub and laughs at her sister) while I wash the big one. When the big one is all clean, I pull her out, get her lotioned, dressed, etc. Then we all leave the bathroom together.
Yes, this means that the little one gets a much shorter bath than the big one, but she's not complaining, yet, so who cares?
As with most "two under two" skills, the key is preparation.
All this is much easier, of course, when Daddy's home, because he can supervise the bath while I fold laundry. Then I come and get Claire when she's done, he finishes up with MG, and then we put them both down for bed at the same time.
Any other two under two questions?
2 comments:
Just to set the record straight, Amy was not a very much used name when you were born in April of 76, BUT in May of 76, Jimmy Carter skyrocketed to fame and the front of the presidential race for that year, and his daughter was named Amy. Alas, a candidate I didn't even like all of a sudden had every mother in America naming her daughter Amy. I'm sorry. :(
YOU on the other hand, were named after Amy in the Louisa May Alcott book, Little Women, as was your sister Megan. It was one of my favorite books growing up. Chuck got left out, sorry Chuck.
Thanks for this. Any tips on feeding two under two?
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