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**Alright, folks. This is my last diaper bag post. I promise! It’s just been on my mind lately, and I had to blog it out!**

Now that Bean and Gracie are getting a little older, the needs of my diaper bag have changed. I don’t really have to carry around bottles and burp cloths and multiple changes of clothes for each kid. Now, my diaper bag is more about entertaining the kids when we are out somewhere. Actually, just this past weekend I cleaned out my diaper bag and repacked it for this new phase.

Though I don’t have to carry bottles for Gracie anymore, I still always make sure I leave the house with snacks for the kids. Not only does it keep them busy when we’re out and about, but it never fails that the one time I don’t pack a snack, both kids start whining for one. Usually, I stick with something simple that both kids can have so that I don’t have to pack multiple snacks. Goldfish are a big hit, as are graham crackers, Puffs, and apple slices. Also, I make sure that their sippy cups are full of water. (This has a picture of a bottle for Gracie, but as of this weekend she is a sippy cup only girl! Go Gracie!)

Because Gracie is still in diapers, I carry this little travel-sized diaper case with me. Inside there are two diapers, a small pack of wipes, and a small tube of diaper cream. If we’re just running out somewhere, I sometimes leave this at home because I have a very similar travel case that I keep in my car. But if we’re going somewhere all day, I toss this pack in the diaper bag. It’s really slim and light, so it doesn’t take up too much room.

A new addition to my diaper bag these days is an old formula box filled with some small, entertaining activities that I save specifically for meals out at restaurants. I just came up with this idea a couple weeks ago, so I haven’t filled it completely yet, but right now I have a brand new pack of special crayons (different than what Bean has at home), a pack of jacks (Bean loves to collect tiny things and put them in piles), and a container of Play-Doh. Bean loves this thing. When we go out to eat, he sits very quietly and plays with all his “new” toys. I think it’s a good idea to have some things that are designated for specific times or places. It makes them seem more important and special. Plus, the formula box is just the right size for Bean to have complete control over what he plays with. It’s essentially like having a tiny toy box that he can dig through at the table.

Another new addition to our “big kid” diaper bag are sunglasses. At first, I used to buy sunglasses for the kids because… I mean, what’s cuter than a kid in sunglasses?

But living in Florida, sunglasses are almost a necessity, even for wee ones. Bean has gotten to the point now where he asks for his sunglasses in the car when it’s really bright. So, I keep these in the outside pocket of my diaper bag now partly for pure entertainment, and partly for practical use. Even little bitty eyeballs need protection.

Other staples in my new diaper bag include activities that will keep the kids entertained. I replaced all the small hand toys and stuffed animals this weekend with activities instead. I put in coloring books, animal alphabet cards, lacing cards, and a few beginning reader sight word books that my mom got Bean for Easter.

I used to carry around a lot of baby toys for Gracie, but all she ever wanted were Bean’s toys, so now I just give her whatever he is playing with. If he has flashcards out, she looks at them with us or Bean gives her a couple cards for her to carry around. If he’s playing with lacing cards, she likes to wave around the strings. We basically just adapt whatever Bean’s playing with for Gracie and that seems to keep her attention these days more than baby toys.

I should also say here that when I go somewhere with just Bean, we don’t take the diaper bag at all. Instead, he has a little backpack that he carries. I put some activities and games in there, along with his sippy cup and snack, and he’s good to go. He even likes to carry it around by himself.

What about you guys? What do you carry in your bag for older babies and toddlers?

6 comments | posted in About Beanie, Baby Products, Out and About, parenting, Parenting Ideas, Siblings, The Romper Room, Toddlerhood, What I've Learned | tags: diaper bags, toddlers

Having two kids so close in age has a lot of pros and cons to it. In the very beginning when we brought Gracie home, we went through a really nice little honeymoon phase with the kids. Gracie didn’t do much as a newborn, and Bean was still really excited to have a new person in the house. When Gracie was around six months old, the sheen started to wear off and as she became more mobile and needy, Bean became less than impressed. He never acted out towards her, but he certainly made his presence known. He reminded us often that he needed attention, too. When Gracie finally started crawling and moving, Bean wasn’t sure what the heck to do. He is meticulous with his toys, always focusing on lining them up, sorting them, putting them in piles, collecting hidden treasures. And then Gracie would come along and with one swipe of her hand, she’d send his orderly little world into a spin.

Bean started to speak very harshly to Gracie, snapping at her or yelling at her when she got in his way. We worked with him on how to speak nicely to Gracie and how to distract her when she starts to mess with his things. And, we worked a LOT with sharing. At the same time, we had to start redirecting Gracie and telling her no sometimes. This did not go over well with Gracie. The past probably two weeks have tested all of our patience, as we learn to live with two kids who are so close in age, and yet worlds apart.

But then today happened. All day, for the first time ever, Bean and Gracie played together. And not just sitting next to each other playing. They were interacting with each other and laughing at each other and sharing things – and all of this without any interference from me or Chris. Bean started crawling around on the floor chasing Gracie, who thought it was the greatest game in the whole world. She laughed so hard that she would have to stop and lay down in the middle of the floor just to catch her breathe. And it was like that all day.

Bean built a fort with some pillows and the ottoman, and he somehow convinced Gracie to crawl inside and sit really still. For, like, a LONG time. Then he ran around outside the fort, yelling like a pirate. He kept calling her a scallywag and she thought it was the most fun ever.

I’m sure the challenges of having two kids so close in age are not over, but getting just a glimpse of what life would be like in the next couple years today made my heart swell with love and appreciation for my babies. I can’t wait to see where their relationship goes.

11 comments | posted in Playing, Siblings, The Romper Room | tags: Family, fun, parenting, siblings

Up until now, Gracie and Bean have been pretty great together. He really loved showing her his toys and she was crazy about him. But then last weekend, Gracie started to crawl.

And Bean’s life changed forever.

Now, Gracie can get into his stuff. And if he moves it away from her, she can crawl over to it again. Bean doesn’t know what the crap is going on, but he knows he is not happy about it. He’s started doing this really funny thing when he sees Gracie coming towards one of his treasures. He throws himself down on top of his toys and covers them with his entire body, while yelling out, “NO, GWAYCIE!”

Chris and I didn’t really prepare for how to handle sibling rivalry. We had parenting talks about discipline and setting boundaries and potty training and religion and all that other important stuff. But we never really put a game plan together for sibling rivalry. We’ve been shooting from the hip for the past week, and, so far, we’ve actually got a pretty good system going.

Whenever Gracie starts getting all over Bean and his toys, we don’t go remove Gracie from the situation. It would be easy for us to just walk over when Bean starts freaking out and put Gracie somewhere else, but the fact is that Bean and Gracie are going to be playing together for a looooooong time, so Bean’s going to have to learn at some point how to handle sharing with her. Why not start at the very beginning?

When Bean starts yelling about Gracie taking his things, Chris and I usually say to him, “Speak nicely to her, Bean. Gracie is just a baby. She doesn’t understand.” And he actually does. He’ll stop yelling and instead use his sweet singsong voice he uses just for her. And he says things like, “No, no, Gracie. These toys aren’t for you.”

He used to snap at her and say, “No, Gracie! MINE!” But we quickly stepped in on that one. We treat the word “mine,” as a bad word in our house. If he says that word, we sharply tell him, “No, sir. We do not say that word.” That has helped with the temper tantrums this week a little bit because he has to find a different way to tell her to stop. Instead, he usually says things like, “That’s not yours, Gracie,” or “That’s not for you, Gracie.” Both of which are acceptable in our house.

We are coaching Bean verbally as he is talking to Gracie. We don’t go over to them and remove her, but we talk him through fixing the situation himself. After he has told her no, we tell him that if he doesn’t want her to play with his toys, he needs to go get her a toy that she can play with. Or, if he is hoarding all the toys (another thing that’s started happening since Gracie became mobile), we tell him he has to choose one of his toys to share with her. That seems to really help because it gives him ownership over the situation and he gets to make a decision about Gracie playing with his toys.

I know that this is just the beginning of sibling rivalry in our family. I’m sure we have years of this left ahead of us. But I figure at least we’re starting to handle it by teaching Bean HOW to handle it.

How do YOU handle sibling rivalries in your house?

17 comments | posted in About Beanie, About Gracie, parenting, Parenting Ideas, Siblings, The Romper Room | tags: parenting, sibling rivalry, siblings

Bean and Gracie are at a great stage right now. Bean’s two and a half and Gracie is almost ten months old. Up until this point, both of them have been interested in the other, but they haven’t really been able to interact or play together.

Now, Gracie is getting interested in the toys and activities that Bean has. She doesn’t always know what to do when she finally gets her hands on something, but she spends most of her time trying to figure out how to do whatever Bean is doing.

Bean is just as infatuated with Gracie as she is with him. He loves to bring her things to play with and he’s really good about sharing his toys with her. He starts each day by asking where Gracie is and he goes to bed each night asking to give Gracie a night-night kiss.

They just like each other. Now, they are learning how to play together. We still have to remind Bean that Grace doesn’t know how to play with his toys and that he needs to show her. The other day, Bean and I were playing with his wooden train set. We had just put the entire track together and were ready to start playing with the trains. Gracie had been sitting next to us, quietly, for 10 minutes or so, just watching what we were doing. She sat there for a while, watching us work, and then without warning, she lunged! She grabbed two chubby handfuls of train tracks, sending the entire set up flying.

Bean just about lost it, yelling out, “NOOOOOO, GRACIE!!!” And just as he was about to flip out on her, I calmed him down and explained that she is just a baby and she doesn’t know how to play with big boy toys, and that maybe he could show her how. He calmed down a little and then spent the next 15 minutes trying to get her to hold on to a train piece while he pushed it around the track.

I have found with Bean that just telling him he has to share doesn’t always go over so well. But if I give him a job to do when he’s sharing, that gives him a sense of importance and he doesn’t seem to mind sharing with Gracie so much. He also does much better with sharing when I give him the choice of which toy to share. So, if he has a bunch of toys that he’s hoarding, I don’t just tell him he has to share everything. Instead, I’ll ask him to pick two toys to share. Giving him ownership over the sharing really seems to help.

I’m sure that over the next…oh…eighteen years, we’ll deal with sibling rivalry in all different forms, but at this point in time, I am really enjoying seeing my two babies grow and play together. When I was pregnant with Gracie, some people told me that it would be challenging to have two little ones so close in age. Maybe that will cause some issues as they grow up. For now, I have been pleasantly surprised so far that not only do my children bring so much joy to me and Chris, but they also bring so much joy to each other.

20 comments | posted in Family, parenting, Playing, Siblings, The Romper Room | tags: babies, Family, parenting, siblings, toddlers