Second Year Parenting: Lessons Learned the Hard Way

Back when Brielle turned one, I reflected on my first year as a mom and shared lessons I learned the hard way. Now that she’s over two years old and I have another little one I’m learning from, I’m looking back at this second year and sharing some other insights!  Hopefully you or someone you know can learn from my mistakes, be more prepared than I was or just get a chuckle at my missteps!

• Just when you think you’ve figured out their eating preferences, they change. One week Brielle didn’t like raisins and then next week she did because she has some at her cousin’s house. Another week she was over tots pouches and the next she was sucking them down again. Lesson: don’t stop trying to introduce or re-introduce foods to your kids. Look for an upcoming post with some pinned toddler approved recipes!
• Cous cous and rice are easier to clean off the floor when dried. Brielle loves her “bowl of stuff” as we call it. AKA a grain (rice or cous cous) with a meat (usually chicken or pork) and veggies. She’ll sit and gobble it all up not caring what’s inside (yay hidden veggies) but sometimes gets a little carried away. It took me a while to realize that it was easier to sweep the items off our hardwood floors after they dried instead of trying to do it right after the meal when it was still on the stickier side.

• Bring a foldable tote bag on pumpkin picking hayrides. Upon taking Brielle and Hailey to a farm a few weeks ago, I noticed everyone riding back to the farm from the pumpkin patch with their cute pumpkins in foldable tote bags while I struggled to hold onto a bouncing toddler while wearing baby Hailey in my front facing Ergo and wearing my backpack diaper bag!
• When you have a sick kid, do the sheets and laundry right away. Whenever Brielle got a stomach virus, it only hit at night after laying down. That caused a mess in her crib and thus the need to change the sheets. We had a routine where Derek would wash the messy sheets/pjs and I’d occupy Brielle in the tub as she got clean and tried to relax before another sleep session. She typically would have continuous episodes during that night so it was always great to have more sheets in the works of getting clean. And yes, we had 3-4 sets of sheets for her crib but sometimes that just wasn’t enough for a really bad sick night!
• When your kid is sick, put them in easy to unbutton or unzip clothes. This goes along with my previous point. When Brielle is having what seems to be an endless night of a stomach virus, we found that putting her in zip up pjs was much easier than two piece that we’d have to lift over her head to remove. Eww.
• Sand box play AFTER water play is not the best idea (ahem – Daddy). Yes he was home one day this spring and Brielle was happily splashing around with her sprinkler and water table. She saw the sand box (to which mommy usually say no to opening during this stage of play) but daddy said “sure!” Two minutes later when her feet were then covered with wet sand, she freaked out and wanted it all washed off. One play activity at a time Daddy!
• Choose car friendly foods wisely. I don’t really like to give Brielle food while driving due to a concern over that choking hazard. But sometimes when on the run, she needs a snack and I try to make sure it’s something soft and small enough to not be a choking issue. Things like Happy Family Yogis and Veggie Sticks are great as they dissolve very easily as they’re eaten. Things like yogurt covered raisins are also good… until you find them smashed into the car seat upon taking her out.

• When it’s time to move up to a new diaper size, just take the plunge and do it. Once either of our girls were having a lot of blow outs, like most parents, we just wanted to squeeze in those last few wears of the pack we just opened. This often led to more blow outs, laundry and frustration on our part as parents. There are always smaller babies that you can give that open pack to! (For more tips on disposable diapers, check out this post!)
• Always have snacks. I always make sure to have is some sort of dry snack in my diaper bag that won’t melt or get gross. I pull out this back up item in case I forgot others, was out longer than expected or just have an overly hungry little girl. Goldfish crackers, thin pretzel sticks, Veggie Sticks and granola bars are good options.

• Bring a towel to the playground on a morning after a rainy night. There’s a great local community park by us with lots of playground equipment for different ages. One morning this summer we went to enjoy it’s use but saw that most things were wet. Suddenly two experienced moms came around with their kids and towels which they used to dry off all the tunnels and slides. Thanks moms!
• All kids will learn to take off their diaper on their own at a certain point. While in Disney, Brielle decided to start unzipping her sleepsack, undressing her clothes and getting to her diaper. To combat this issue we moved to onesies and PJ pants as her pajamas or put a PJ top over her zip up PJs. Both these steps stopped her from undressing while in her crib and getting to her diaper!
• Don’t tell a toddler upcoming exciting plans before naptime. If we ever mentioned in the morning we were going in the “water pool” (what Brielle called a regular pool), playground or someone’s house in the afternoon, Brielle would fight her nap so bad. She’d lay in her crib during our regular naptime talking to herself about the upcoming exciting plans instead of actually resting.
• And for some vacation specific lessons learned, make sure you review this post shared after our first trip to Disney in April!