But... what about the children?

Oh, right. Those kids that I use all the diapers and changing tables for. What are they up to these days?

Well, growing like the weeds in our yard, for starters. Which is to say, we don't just get your average little dandelions and such, we get entire oak saplings that are half my height before I know it. I've started buying 24-month and 2T clothes for them (I know there has to be some difference there, but to be honest, I'm lost. At this point, I say, whatever fits works.), and although they're partly a size ahead because of their bulkier diapers, they're also just tall.

I mean, how did we get from this itty sockless baby...

...to this giant sockless boy?
(And no, we didn't know he could reach that plug - it was moved as soon as the picture was taken.)

They've started really playing together, rather than playing side-by-side - there's always been an awareness of the other, but it's only recently that they've started making up games together and including each other when they play. Their favorite game is tickling - they tackle each other and say "tickle tickle tickle." It actually took me a while to figure out that word, because Eleanor uses it all the time for everything, and it sounds more like "d'ga, d'ga, d'ga."

Climbing anything and everything is also a favorite.

They also like to answer everything. Phones, remote controls, baby monitors, thermometers, GameBoys, you name it - they'll hold it up and cheerfully say "Hi!" That is, unless there's actually someone on the other end wanting to hear from them - then they both act like they have no idea what this crazy contraption is that you're holding up for them.

Entirely too big for his britches.

They're getting to the age that they get frustrated because they want to communicate but don't have the words - unfortunately, that means a lot of whining, but we're working on "please" and pointing to at least get the general idea across. They enjoy swimming, and are getting increasingly comfortable with the water - I think the general goal is to have them comfortable putting their faces under by the end of the summer. They've each figured out how to blow bubbles, but don't do it very consistently.

And of course, being escorted around the pool like a princess isn't half bad, either.

A De-Cluttering Success

I got a wild hair this weekend to do some de-cluttering and childproofing, and realized that the vortex of clutter in my house has been a pass-through from the playroom/office to the kitchen, where I've been arranging all the things I've taken out of the changing table as the kids have gotten more able to reach them. Thus, I had an empty changing table (which was also less stable, since there wasn't anything on the shelves to weigh it down) next to a crammed pass-through windowsill covered in wipes boxes, sticker books, an ugly Huggies box full of shoes, various toiletries, usually a half-package of nighttime disposable diapers... and all of that visible from both of the rooms we use most in the house. I would post a "before" picture, but (I think understandably) I never took any.

You can get some idea of the cluttery mess here:

Empty shelves that they can climb on, random stuff shoved down behind it in hopes that they wouldn't get into it, diapers thrown on the floor whenever they could reach, basket liners untied because they can't keep their hands off of them...

And what I realized was that we had another changing table upstairs, with drawers that close, completely empty because we'd moved most of our changing activities downstairs.

We switched the tables, clearing up some nice space in the nursery since the open table is much smaller, and my sweet dad put child-locks and a wall tether on the drawer unit.

He did have some help.

Now, everything is contained.

The playroom looks so much neater, as does the kitchen - I can't remember seeing the passthrough this clear since the kids were born, and that black-hole corner is empty and vacuumed for once.

Diapers, pajamas, trash, and shoes are all stashed away in drawers where little hands can't reach them, and wipes and toiletries are easy to reach for me but harder for the kids to try to kick over. And I can have a Scentsy warmer set up where they can't pull it down (the cord is far enough behind the table) but I can actually use it - there wasn't room with the old table.

Such a huge improvement! I was a little nervous to wrestle this beast down the stairs, in case it wasn't worth it, but it really was.

Cloth diaper discovery

I realize this post will be of interest to a fairly limited audience, but I wanted to put the word out there for those who are using cloth diapers or who might be interested in it.

We have a TON of different types, brands, and styles of diapers. But I have one that's absolutely my favorite. It's well made, it's super soft and comfortable, it fits well no matter what, and it's remarkably unstained considering what we put our diapers through in this house.

I picked it up at the local diaper store, and had been keeping an eye out for similar ones there, but hadn't seen any since. Then I noticed a little tag on it with a website, and looked it up.

It turns out, it's a group of Americans living in China who work with abandoned babies and orphans, and sell diapers and diaper-making supplies to help support the kids they work with. And the diapers are super cute AND super cheap! Honestly, if I saw diapers this inexpensive without having already bought one (at a markup, but I'm totally okay with that to support a local business), I'd assume they were crap quality and skip them.

So if you're thinking about starting cloth diapers, go here and order a dozen or so. Can you believe how cute those are? The one we have that's my favorite is the Dino print.

The ________ One

I'm asked frequently which of my kids is "the ____ one." The adventurous one, the smart one, the cuddler. Or, as happened the other day, I'm told by someone: "Oh, s/he got all the personality, didn't s/he?"

Yes. Because my other child, who's sitting right here (and, I might add, who just woke up from a nap and is still trying to figure out who you are), has no personality at all.

The truth of it is, while my kids have very different personalities, they can't be summed up in superlatives. They're both the "independent" one. They're both mama's and daddy's boy/girl. They're both super snuggly, they just pick different times of day or circumstances to do it.

They're both good eaters, except when they're not, and then they usually trade plates because they're picky about different foods. Eleanor has been the first to crawl and walk, and is more intrepid about exploring new places, and Steven is bold around water - we took them to a splash pad today, and she wanted nothing to do with even the little mist sprinklers, while he took off on his own to explore all the different ways the water would spray.

They take turns not-napping and keeping each other up, they both love to dance, and they both love books more than anything.

So really, the answer to "which is the ____ one" is:

I have the smart two. The independent two. The full-of-personality two. The mellow two. The utterly unique two.

Reasons I've been yelled at in the last hour:

Because I left him in the playroom to go get her.
Because she wanted water instead of milk.
Because she wanted milk instead of water.
Because he tried to sit on my toe and fell off.
Because she tried to sit on air and fell off.
Because she gave me a book and I read it.
Because she gave me a book and she wanted me to read a different book.
Because he gave me a book and it had the wrong words in it.
Because she gave me a book and I didn't read it.
Because he gave me a book and it wasn't the book she wanted me to read.
Because I tried to read both books at once.
Because she wiped her snot on my shirt and then couldn't get it back.
Because I said "ow" when I got four elbows to the stomach simultaneously.

Because I put them back in bed, since clearly they weren't ready to get up yet.

The Truth About Toddlers

Here's my confession: I've always been a little afraid of toddlers. Or at least uncomfortable around them. Babies I could handle: they want to be held, they want clean diapers, they want to be fed, they want to sleep. Their needs are straightforward, they let you know when something's not right, and when you go through that checklist you've got a 95% chance of fixing the problem.

Toddlers, though, are a different story. They can get around on their own, they invent intricate little games involving using toys in ways they were never intended to be used (I still don't know why there are little piles of alphabet tiles all around the play room today, and I don't know that I ever will), and while they know exactly what they want, they're discovering new things that they want every day and don't yet have the language to communicate them. I just never really understood how to interact with toddlers. I didn't speak the language.

What no one told me (and I suppose I never asked, so why would they?) is that your own toddlers are an entirely different thing.

Because you're part of their world. When they develop their funny games, you're part of them. As they start to communicate, you recognize what they're trying to say or trying to get across because they're mimicking something they've heard you say or they've seen you do. You know, somehow, the difference between a "wet diaper" dance and an "I just spilled milk on myself" dance and a "this is a really good meatball" dance and an "I love this song" dance. You discover that it doesn't actually matter if you don't know the point of the game; they don't really know either, they're just playing, and when you participate you just add another element and it's that much more fun.

As it turns out, the sheer delight in the realization that you do know what they're trying to ask is immense. I'd also never realized that toddlers are always trying out jokes. They're regular little comedians. Nearly everything they do is hilarious to themselves or each other, and all they really want from nearby adults is a laugh (but not too much of a laugh, otherwise Eleanor won't understand why you're laughing more than she is, and think you're laughing at her, and get upset - she has a very nuanced way of seeing the world already). Even though they don't have many words at this stage, they're amazing communicators. "UH-oh" conveys a multitude of things, mostly having to do with dropping something, which happens a lot, or planning to drop something. "Doddy" and "Daddy" somehow get across half the things they want to communicate, since I suppose the doggies and daddy (and mommy, who's also "Daddy" for now) make up most of the world they see every day. They're also already fluent in Whinese - irritating, but effective. Mostly at telling me it's time for a nap.

The truth is, if you'd asked me before I had kids what stage I'd love the most, I'd have said babies. Squishable, sweet-smelling, snuggly babies. If you were to ask me now?

I wouldn't trade toddler-time for anything in the world. I don't even have that nostalgic "oh, wouldn't it be nice to have another squishy sweet baby in the house?" thing. Which may be partly because I've got a sweet, squishy (but growing every day) nephew to snoogle, but is also because my toddlers are so. much. fun.

Take It or Leave It?

So we're a year and change into this parenting thing, and I have a lot of friends having babies (a lot of them their firsts), so I thought I'd revisit my post about baby products from almost a year ago, since the kids have outgrown all those things and I'm now consigning/selling most of them.

So first of all, which of the things on that original list are we still using? The diaper caddy, we still use daily - and will till they're potty trained. I still use my ring sling sometimes - they now sit in it swing-style, with their legs hanging out, and it's pretty convenient. I also have an Ergo, which I love, but it's only useful if you have another adult to help you put it on.

I can sometimes manage to use it in a front carry, but most of the time I can't reach far enough behind my back to fasten the clip to keep it on. They're also pretty expensive - they show up infrequently at consignment stores, and I got mine pretty cheap on craigslist, but had to drive across town and then wash it half a dozen times to get a funny smell out.

That's actually all from the original list we still use - the Burt's Bees diaper ointment sometimes, but I tend to rotate through three or four types that we have on hand.

In the stages we've experienced since that post a year ago, we've found some products to be very much worth it, some not at all, and some worth it but for such a short time you're better off borrowing.

Worth it:

Cloth diapers. I could write a whole post on that, but really, Amalah's already done that for me (for real, that is pretty much the most comprehensive-yet-understandable-and-also-funny set of information about cloth diapering in the world). I guess the big difference for us is twins - but I don't think that's made it any harder. I don't even feel like we have that many more diapers/covers than she seems to. I wash every other day, hang out the covers to dry, hang out the diapers if it's sunny or toss them in the dryer if it's not, and it's all good. We do use disposables for nighttime, because we never could find a good cloth combination that wouldn't be soaked by morning, and didn't really have the dedication to invest in an entirely new system just for nighttime. We started out with two of the basic Newborn Packages from Nicki's Diapers, and ordered a couple of extra sets of bamboo prefolds  - and actually, looking at that link just now, I realized that we're still using the Small size. To be honest, we've stretched a lot of our covers way past when they were supposed to have been too small. As they've outgrown covers, we've bought more at our local-ish diaper store. We use about half and half covers/prefolds and pockets/prefolds. We don't really mess with the various specialized inserts that come with some of the pocket diapers - prefolds work fine for everything.

One thing that's been a complete life saver is our discovery of flushable diaper liners. They make it so much easier to be sure that everything solid goes into the toilet and doesn't end up clogging up the drain pipe of our washer.

Also worthwhile: the big plastic Rubbermaid bin that I repurposed from storage to use as a toy bin. No, it's not terribly cute, but it's so easy to clean up the play room. Just throw everything in, tuck it under a desk, and we're done. I'll probably replace it with a proper toy box some day, but one thing the kids like about it is that it's lightweight enough that they can push it around the room for whatever games they're making up.

Two other things in that photo that are great: good sturdy shutters for peek-a-boo, and the push toy that I picked up at a consignment store. I was sort of regretting getting the plastic noisy one instead of the fancy Melissa & Doug wooden one, but the 450th time one of them ran over the other's toes or mine, I was really glad I hadn't gotten the heavy one. And the music's not so bad. It gets them dancing every time.

We have 2 different high chairs, which are both worth it in different ways: we have the Ikea Blames chair, which is great-looking and easy to clean, but the tray is a pain in the rear to take off and put back on. We recently took the trays off altogether, though, and moved the chairs up to the table, and it's perfect for that. We also have the slightly older version of this Graco high chair, which is great as well - the tray is easy to get on and off, and when we moved them to the table, I took the legs off the chair entirely and now it's a nice booster on a regular kitchen chair. It's a little more complicated, with more straps and the cover and legs and things to keep track of, but in the end I like it as much as the Ikea one.

OMG look at those bald little heads!!!

What else do we love? Bean bag chairs, our play table, and our water table. Oh, and a set of simple musical instruments they got for their birthday - I think it's actually a couple of sets from a couple of different people, but anyway, all the musical instruments are a huge hit.

Leave it:

I'm trying to think of anything we had recommended to us or felt like we needed that ended up just not being that useful/fun. There's not much - I did spend too much money on breathable mesh crib bumpers, which seemed like a necessity at the time to keep the kids from sticking their legs out and getting stuck, but they're almost impossible to keep in place - they got scrunched down and messed up almost immediately. I can't think of much else, really.

Borrow it:

A Bumbo seat. Everybody knows somebody who has one sitting around taking up space because they can't sell them at the consignment store because they were recalled. They only use them for a month or two when they want to sit up but can't on their own yet, and they're not actually unsafe if you're using them correctly, so find that friend who has one in a closet, borrow it and get the free safety strap kit, and use it for the month or two that you need it. Then, bonus, when your friend has their next kid, the safety straps will be all ready for them.

(Or, you know, talk to my family.
I think we have about half a dozen
floating around by now.)

A baby bath tub. Another one that takes up space, and you'll use it for a little longer, but if a friend has kids the right age and has one to pass along, go for it. They're just so basic and so completely cleanable, there's really no reason to buy one new.

Yes, this is pretty much my favorite picture ever.
That's why it keeps showing up.

I'd better wrap this up because I think the kids are about done with their nap - please feel free to add your own recommendations (or anti-recommendations) in the comments!

Oops, one more to borrow: a shopping cart/high chair cover. I liked ours a lot for similar reasons to the Bumbo - they gave the kids a little extra support and cushion when they were aware enough to want out of their car seats, but not quite steady sitting up on their own yet. But that's such a short window of time, it's much better to borrow one or pick one up cheap at a consignment store.

And one last cutie. You're welcome.