Mom Blog and Baby Blog | Baby Bunching

gymboree dropout: accept it and move on

Like we mentioned yesterday, the motive behind baby/toddler classes isn't solely for baby and tot's development. They also are for moms to socialize and commiserate. We wish establishments would understand that and hone in on making their classes more Baby Bunching friendly.

Once you are ready to leave the house (and believe us, you will be), in the early days of Bunching your activities will likely center around your older child’s interests and possibly the younger one’s schedule.  Your oldest may still be registered for Gymboree, KinderMusic, Little Gym or some other seemingly simplistic baby classes. And like we all did, you'll make at least one attempt to continue on as business as usual.

We’ll be honest with you, most of these classes are more fun with one baby than two and you might find yourself reassessing and begging off from Gymboree for a while. There’s nothing like sprinting through Little Gym to catch your toddler as he tumbles off the side of the slide, only to jostle the baby awake from her nap in the Baby Bjorn. And nothing says a fun music class like an infant screaming her head off in the middle of the morning “Hello” song.  Do you see where we think someone might jump on this for a business endeavor?  Even the ones that do have sibling options usually don’t start until the youngest sibling is a little older, and we found the same super-sweet teacher who just loved teaching your Big’s class at six months old does not appreciate having a six-month old in the two-year old class.  Not to mention that most places charge for double duty registration.

Welcome to the wonderful world of “Baby Bunching is Not Cheap.”  All of the sudden $400 a semester for two people who aren’t verbal to take singing classes starts to feel a little silly.

Take our advice, even though we know brochures are compelling and may lure you into enrolling both kids, take a mini hiatus from structured activities that require payment and a complex refund process. Believe us when we say saving that money now will be SO worth it later when you can enroll both kids in the 4 to 6 year-old tumbling class at one time and sit in the park having a coffee while both kids are supervised and entertained. Ahhhhh.....those are good days to look forward to so hang in there.

We'd love to hear your stories about managing baby and tot during some of these structured classes. We've heard some pretty amusing ones so I'm sure you all have some fun ones to add.

how's your social life?

This week on Baby Bunching, we'll be devoting the week to your social life. Yep, that's right ladies, your social life. If you're new to Baby Bunching, you may wonder when you'll get your social life back in between finding time to pee. If you're an experienced Buncher, you'll recognize that your social life is really centered around your kids and their interests. And I'm here to tell you that at 7 and 6, my social life is still 99% wrapped around school, soccer, music lessons and swim.

We are the first to admit the #1 reason we dragged our kids to the playground or some silly library story time when they were young was because WE needed the socializing. And we're pretty sure anyone who sees two Baby Bunching moms trying to cram 2 toddlers and 2 babies into a booth at Panera with all the usual whining, crying, fussing and overpowering gear, must certainly not be a parent. Because any Buncher will tell you we're not trying to go to lunch for our kids to eat expensive mac and cheese--it's for us to be around other moms.

This week we're going to talk about socializing, as well as organized activities, unstructured outings, mom's night outs and finding ways to just get out with your brood even if it's just to Starbucks. We know that once Baby #2 arrives whatever fabulous things you're doing with #1 will be more difficult to do with two. Now that you have two nap schedules to work around and various feeding needs, you'll most certainly have to readjust your activities and expectations.

organizing school papers

The school year is in full swing now that's November. In fact, the first grading period is officially over for my kids. I feel like the older my kids get, the quicker the time flies.

This past weekend, I found myself among mountains of paperwork. Not my own, but my kids. I wish I could say it was just limited to art "projects," but there are journals, weekend updates, letters and science tests. Some I want to save and some I have no idea whether I should save or not. One of the side effects with Baby Bunching is all your kids' stuff comes in bunches as well.

We're into second grade with my oldest so I figure this is only the beginning, but since we're living in a small house, we need to find a way to get this in check sooner rather than later. There are probably lots of solutions out there--binders, crates, filing, bins, drawers--but I need one that involves very little effort on my part since I have very little extra time and very little space.  I found this fabulous idea through one of my mom's online groups from iHeart Organizing, and I'm proud to say I managed to get it all organized in one afternoon.

Supplies:

1 crate/large document box per kid

13 (or more if you want to include preschool) hanging folders + same number of file folders

Jen from iHeart Organizing's cute downloads for labels and cover sheets

Photo of your child for each year

And happily, that is is all you need. I hit the Container Store and picked up two clear crates as I find if I can see what's inside I do better and colorful file folders (green for my son and turquoise for my daughter). The kids had a great time looking through all their old papers, report cards and letters from the past few years. Best of all, I am relieved to have a place for everything now.

How do you organize all your kids' school work?