when it came to preparing items to take with us to the hospital for the birth of our second baby, the first thing on our list was my DSLR. yes, i stressed over the perfect going home outfit, made sure the carseat was in the car and packed a well thought out hospital bag…but my camera was the one thing i made sure was ready to go, with bells on. when that moment finally arrived when my contractions sent us to the hospital, we knew we wanted to document every moment of our baby’s birth. well, everything but the actual birth. there are some things that are just meant for you and your partner and all devices were put away once it was time to push. and even though there were half a dozen hospital nurses in the room with us, it seemed like it was just us two. while my husband and i love the idea of documenting our lives, we also are intentional about living in the moment with one another and putting our phones down to live life fully. all that being said, we knew we wanted to create a hospital film for our daughter, documenting her first hours and days.
want to learn how i photograph my babies, from the hospital to their first birthday party? check out my ebook The First Twelve: A Guide To Photographing Your Baby’s First Year.
this post contains some affiliate links, which means i get a commission for items purchased through the link. thank you in advance for supporting my blog so i can continue inspiring you with our everyday.
once that saint of a man, also known as the anesthesiologist, gave me my much wanted epidural and i was finally comfortable upon being admitted to the hospital…it was all just about waiting. if you missed it, i shared our birth story on the blog. while waiting, my husband and i took turns creating video footage with my DSLR. i intentionally brought my favorite lens to the hospital, because it is the best choice for creating film and for indoor photography. i love how our birth video shows both of our perspectives, as he filmed around the room and i filmed my own perspective from the hospital bed. and, just as we did with our first baby, we were intentional about getting in front of the camera together to speak some sweet words to our baby to be. if there is one thing i recommend doing, it’s recording a video for your baby. we have videos of us talking to both of our girls, hours before they were born, and those videos are cherished immensely.
now that i am getting more sleep with our littlest being 5 months old, i was finally able to sit down and edit our hospital footage to create a video. there were tears shed while editing and watching this footage, as film is so powerful. pictures are wonderful, yes. but the movement and sound of film has a way of taking you right back to that moment. back to that moment of how she felt in my arms after birth. back to that moment of how small she really was. back to that moment of what it felt to finally hear my husband tell me, “she’s a girl!”
if you need help taking your own newborn hospital photos like i took mine, check out my 5 hacks for taking your own hospital newborn photos.
Meeting Our Second Baby Girl | A Hospital Film
gear used to create this film : dslr | lens | adobe premiere pro | lightroom for editing
i definitely want to thank my amazing husband for not only helping me take some of this footage, but for encouraging me to do so. as any new parent remembers, having a baby is exhausting for both parents. and our hospital stay was tiring and busy. but my husband was so great about either picking up my camera himself to create some film, or reminding me to do so while i was photographing still shots. even though he knew we were tired, he also knew how much we wanted the final video and he kept our end goal of a beautiful birth video in mind.
i can’t even tell you how beautifully special this video is for us, our children, and our family.
Letters To My Children | June 2018
thursday, june 21, 2018
my babies,
more and more lately, i am enjoying these letters because they help me remember what this particular season of motherhood looks like. i can’t wait for you to read them one day, as i have written them every month since i was pregnant with big sister! right now, you are both sleeping soundly as i edit your beautiful sister session from this month and put my love for you into words. last night, as i was closing my eyes, i said to your daddy, “i just love our girls so much.” to which he replied, “i know, me too!” it’s funny to say it, but it is overwhelming how much i love you. and last night was another late night scrolling through photos of you, while you slept. it’s as if i miss you the second you go to sleep at night and must relive every moment of your life, through photos. daddy will say, “are you looking at pictures of the girls, again!?” and laugh as i nod sweetly back and get nostalgic.
to my oldest:
every moment of the day is a learning opportunity for you and you crave learning. your current favorite thing to do is look around our environment and name everything that you know, while pointing. yesterday, we sat outside on the ground playing with chalk while daddy washed his truck and you kept looking around saying, “tree!” “truck!” “wash!” “snake!” (wait, snake!?) “color!” “sky!” “sun!” “hot!” “shoes!” “sit!” and so on and so on. and you do this when we are riding in the car, reading a story or playing in the playroom. daddy says that you are experiencing a language explosion right now and it’s so true! you love to talk and it’s simply awesome. lately, all animals have a -y at the end and their noises are repeated when you talk, and you have adopted this all on your own. “puppy, woof-woof!” “horsey, neigh-neigh!” “sheepy, ba-ba!”
last week found us at the doctors office because you stuck a noodle up your nose! you sure know how to make mama panic, and it was a family field trip to see the doctor and get a million stickers from the nurses who just adored every bit of you. by the time the doctor came, you must have swallowed the noodle down the back of your throat because it was nowhere to be seen. good golly, girl. it’s really the only mischievous thing that you do, but i hope this nose phase ends soon.
you are so completely in love with your little sister, it’s so heart warming! this just in, you are obsessed with hugging her. and holding hands with her. and helping her to do everything! and giving her kisses! you love to grab her hand and show her how to grab toys or turn the page of a book. you are such a helper and she loves each and every second that you spend with her. you are the first one to tell her goodnight and the first one to charge into her room once nap time is over. you open her door, run over to her crib and happily chant her name. you are both all smiles when you do that, as you have a little mini reunion from your couple of hours apart.
we are having such a fun summer so far, going out to ice cream with daddy and spending last weekend on the ferris wheel at the pier. you really enjoyed going high up into the air and waved at everyone when we passed them on the ground, before going up into the air again. after, we went to dinner together and, as always, you and your sister created “oooohs and awes!” in the restaurant with your cuteness. we are so proud of you girls and how well behaved you are. daddy and i love taking you out to eat because it is not only a fun experience but it allows us to practice our manners. you are so perfect with your “please’s” and “thank you’s.”
we have started a summer curriculum together and we are loving our time together. once your little sister goes down for her morning nap, we do our calendar, read a story, look at the weather outside and do an activity. right now we are learning about apples and you are having so much fun having one on one time with mama. you are learning your shapes and, so far, you know oval, diamond, star, circle and heart! we just started learning our colors and you know blue and pink. you have learned to say your name and age and can already count to five! you have also mastered sorting! mama keeps trying to give you learning objectives to strive for this summer, but you are quick to learn and master the goals we set for you. and most importantly, you are having a lot of fun learning which makes us so proud.
we are working our way through our summer bucket list and having so much fun! we love playing with sidewalk chalk and you love it when mama draws shapes for you to name. when i draw a smiley face, you say, “happy!” we just bought popsicles over the weekend so we are going to let you try one of those for the first time after dinner sometime this week. we think you are ready for your first tricycle so we are going to get you one for this summer! we are still deciding on the perfect one and can’t wait to surprise you with it!
our days together are just so sweet lately. we play on the floor a lot so your little sister can roll around and you love to come up to me and give me big hugs and kisses. it makes me feel like the most special and loved person in the world when you do that. and then i have to return the love with kissing you only a million times in a row, which you laugh like crazy! love you so so much, sweet girl. you truly are the sweetest.
to my littlest:
happy 5 months! it’s like you are an entirely new baby lately! so many milestones, where do i start!? you are an excellent sleeper! you take two really great naps during the day and sleep long stretches at night before wanting a little feed. once fed, you fall asleep really good again all on your own. you have learned how to roll over from your back to your belly and love to sleep on your belly every once in awhile. you really love to sleep on your side or on your back with your arms up. daddy laughs because when he checks the baby monitor in the morning before leaving for work, you and your sister are both fast asleep with your arms above your heads. and then he looks over at mama, asleep in bed, with my arms above my head too. i guess you girls get it from me!
you are such a great swimmer! in fact, both you and your sister are both the best in your class. you have a few more weeks in your swim class before you will graduate to the next level and you are so ready! it’s so great to see how much you love to swim and love the water. and you look so darn cute in your swimming suit!
we started feeding you solids around 4 months but you didn’t seem too eager. we decided to hold off for a few weeks and, when we tried again just before you were 5 months old, you were much more interested! you quickly became good at swallowing your food instead of spitting it out, as you learned to keep your mouth closed once you got a spoonful of food. you like to eat rice cereal and avocado. today, you tried a sweet potato puree for the first time…which you liked! it was your sister’s absolute favorite puree so we are thinking you are going to love it more and more!
you are now sleeping in your own room! we have a bedtime routine of pajamas, feeding, books, prayer and bedtime and you are such a great sleeper! when it comes to books, you love them just like your sister! you love to look at the pictures with wide eyes and sit patiently while you listen to the story. you love story time with mama before bedtime and really love it when mama reads stories to you and big sister in the playroom. you love it when your sister sits next to you for story time and you try to grab her arm and hair, which makes her giggle. even when it seems like you have quite a handful of her hair, she just laughs and laughs. it’s so great how much you get along!
when it comes to breastfeeding, you have completely mastered it! i have both of you girls on such a great schedule that your feedings are naturally timed so that you know mealtimes really well. we naturally came up with the schedule ourselves, as i learned when you liked to eat and sleep. you eat really great, when it is your idea! so i have gotten us on a great schedule, based on your feeding cues. you have been on this great routine for about month and it’s been really harmonious. in the middle of the night, when you are ready to eat you will start talking away in your crib. it is really funny! i will know you are hungry because i will hear you jabbering away! then, once you are full you will start humming. it’s so so funny! it’s your way of telling me, “thanks mama! i am all done now and ready to go back to sleep!”
when you aren’t asleep, you are smiling. your daddy and i are completely convinced that YOU ARE THE HAPPIEST BABY THERE EVER WAS. seriously. you smile so wide that we often wonder how it even possible to smile that big. and you smile all day long. even all night long. sometimes, i have to look away during the night feeds because if i look at you, you will want to smile instead of eat! you are just too happy. i am so blessed to have you. your happiness is just so humbling. whenever i worry about little things that honestly don’t matter, your smiles gently remind me that our family is the most important and that we have so much to smile about. for that, i am so thankful.
being a mama and loving you both is what i was made to do. i love our days together and do everything i can to slow down and savor our time together, daily. thank you both for being the best baby girls and for teaching me too be my best self every day. i feel like, even though i spend most of my day teaching you both new things and skills, you are equally teaching me things. like how to slow down and take it all in. like how to not worry about the little things, but simply enjoy today. like how our family is where it is at!
love, mama
A Letter To My Husband On Father’s Day
.jpg "A Letter To My Husband On Father's Day | Bethadilly Photography | www.bethadily.com")
sunday, june 17th, 2018
babe,
happy father’s day! your third one! i know i tell you often, but i will tell you again. you are the real deal. and the more days i get to wake up next to you, the more i am sure of this. you are the real deal. you were meant to be a husband and a daddy and you take on both rolls perfectly. you are the foundation for our family and i couldn’t put into words how much you mean to us.
a lot of couples look back on their life together and say, “did you ever think we would be where we are today, looking back on it all?” but we aren’t like that. we knew that today would look like this. we planned for it. we worked our butts off for it. we daily made and make the choice to have our life together look the way that it does. so yes, we knew what today would look like because we dreamed it and then made it happen. we talk. we plan. we dream. we do. and in all of this, we do it completely together. one hundred percent.
we were talking just the other day about how we have spent more than half of our life together and it’s truly amazing to think that we were just two kids when we met. i will never forget when i first met you and how i had to pinch myself for the entire first year we dated because i couldn’t believe i was lucky enough to have found you. i was only 15. such a young girl, but i knew. and so did you. and that was the beginning of it all. and truth be told, i still have to pinch myself.
we’ve been through just about our whole lives together, celebrating just about every major milestone one could celebrate. when you went off to college a year before me is when i truly knew i never wanted to live this life without you. i remember you coming home one weekend to visit and after the weekend was over, you called me on your way out of town. you had only said goodbye to me in my parent’s driveway about 3 minutes before the phone call and i don’t know that you had even made it until the end of the street. “i already miss you,” you said. and i will never in my life forget that phone call. it was such a simple call, only lasting moments. but it was a testament to our future. and i was feeling the same way. there wasn’t a moment of that year apart that i didn’t miss you like crazy and i knew that having you in my life was what i wanted more than anything.
we’ve experienced so much together. you gasped like crazy while teaching me to drive a stick shift car and still prefer being the one who drives us anywhere. 🙂 we spent late nights writing papers together, side by side, in college. you always kept chocolate in your fraternity room for me, because you knew it would make studying that much sweeter. we spent the best night ever surrounded by family in friends in may, exchanging rings and becoming husband and wife. and for you to always tell me that our wedding was so perfect says so much about the guy you are. most guys don’t care too much, but you couldn’t get enough of that day. then later, we spent a week in cabo for our honeymoon, enjoying happy hour and talking about baby names. we both agreed babies wouldn’t happen for awhile, because we just wanted to be “us” for awhile.
we bought our first home and damn were we proud of ourselves. we worked so hard for that first home and we made it everything that it was. it was the perfect place to come home to one another and we spent our first married years sharing a lot of laughter within those walls. we’ve traveled and lived life fully, always putting one another first. we have not only made our dreams come true, but we’ve held hands doing it. i think that one of my favorite things about us is that we talk daily about everything. we are always sharing our dreams about “what’s next” for us as a couple and as a family, and we make sure that we both achieve those dreams. whether they are big dreams or small, we make them happen for one another.
when you turned over that pregnancy test in august 2015, we realized another dream was coming true. we were going to be parents. and you hugged me and said, “i told you everything was going to be okay!” as my hands trembled and my worry about whether i was pregnant or not went away. and when you held our first little girl for the first time, it was the first baby you had ever held in your life. you felt like such a rookie, but to our daughter and i…you were perfect. and when our second baby girl was born, i loved you even more because the look in your eyes told me you felt like the luckiest guy in the world.
by this time, we have lost count of how many diapers we’ve changed. we’ve had sleepless nights. we’ve navigated this journey of parenthood together. some days, we don’t know what we are doing and completely wing it. but most days, we are so dang proud of what a perfect team we make. and although mind reading seems impossible, it seems like you can read mine consistently.
i know we waited to have children so we could spend time being us, but we are still us today. we are still us. you might have a toddler hanging off your hip and i might have a newborn pulling on my hair, but when we look across the room we still see the same person. and i thank you for that. for always putting our daughters and i first, always. i love you for always wanting to be us.
i love that it takes us over 2 hours to watch a 30 minute show on tv because we have to hit pause a million times because we want to talk. i love that we talk about everything, from fears to dreams to what we want next in life. i love that you kiss me every single morning before you leave for work. every single morning. i love that you call me from work, just to check in. i love that we have always gone to bed at the same time. even during both pregnancies, when i wanted to go to bed at 7:30pm…you were walking up the stairs behind me. and sometimes you would watch a movie in bed, while the pregnancy exhaustion had me in a deep sleep, but i love that you just wanted to be next to me.
i love that our daughters see how much we love one another. i can’t tell you how much i love that. i love that your coming home from work is genuinely celebrated each day, as we sit on the front step and wave frantically at you as you pull up to our home. i love that you listen. and not only do you listen, but you take action.
i love that you let me cry. and i know that it breaks you to see me cry sometimes, but i love that you thank me for talking to you about whatever worries me. sometimes i just need to be heard and other times i need your help dealing with what is stressing me, but i love that you allow me that moment and then make everything better. i love that you are the first person i want to tell everything to. i am always talking a mile a minute when you get home from work because i missed adult interaction so much during my day and i love that, even though you are surely tired, that you listen to everything i have to say.
i love that you are proud of me. if even for the little things, like taking care of the kids each day. i love that you recognize that motherhood can be hard sometimes and that you tell me i am doing a great job. i love that you encourage me to be myself, when sometimes i don’t know who that is. i love that you tell me that i can do anything i want and be anything i want. and i love that even though you know i am tired and that the late night feedings with the baby are something only i can do because she won’t take a bottle, that you ask me repeatedly how you can help. sometimes you tell me you will wake up in the middle of the night, just to keep me company. and during those newborn days, even though you could have been sleeping, i love that you stayed awake with me.
i love that you ask my opinion on everything and you genuinely want to know. i love that you value me and you think my opinion is important. i love that we have had maybe 3 fights and we can’t really remember what a single one was about.
i love the way that you love me. i love the way that you love our girls.
you are the real deal. you are the best husband and father.
i hope that i am just as much your everything as you are mine because you are my person. and even though there are days when you come home and i am a wreck from being spit up on or my patience has been tested a million times, i love that you are so selfless and instantly go into daddy mode so that i can have a moment to myself.
thank you for everything you do and everything that you are. thank you for yesterday, today and tomorrow.
happy father’s day. this day is for you.
i love you,
bethany
for those of you who don’t know, i have a degree in elementary education and spent a year in the kindergarten classroom. when i was pregnant with my first baby, i brought down a lot of my classroom things that were perfectly organized in storage and dreamed of all that i would teach our little one. now that my oldest is two and ready for a little more formal instruction, i am really excited to tap into my teacher side and set up classroom at home. to be clear, she will definitely attend a formal preschool and go to public school, but i am going to give her a little jump start at home this summer and throughout the next year or two to get her ready. and as boxes show up daily on our doorstep to set up classroom at home, my husband is not only just as excited for us as i am, but he also knows that i am having a lot of fun using all of my past teacher resources as i plan out what summer learning for a 2 year old will look like for us.
many of you asked me to share more about how i will be teaching my little girl this summer and if you are looking to do some formal learning with your toddler this summer, here is what we will be doing and some tips for you for getting started. i am thrilled to write this post; teaching my little one is really fun for me and i am really excited for this summer. we just started our curriculum on monday and we are both enjoying this time together. but this smarty pants has already achieved half of our summer objectives in one week, so i might need to up my game!
this post contains some affiliate links, which means i get a commission for items purchased through the link. thank you in advance for supporting my blog so i can continue inspiring you with our everyday.
truth be told, i wasn’t going to start a curriculum until fall but my 2 year old is really ready now. and i am really ready too. with our 5 month old now baby girl sleeping through the night (well, with one night feeding) and taking great naps during the day, my 2 year old and i have been enjoying mama and me time in the mornings together. i love that we have an allotted amount of time together, one on one, and i want to dedicate that to a new learning routine that we can do together.
Our Summer Learning | Summer Learning For A 2 Year Old
.jpg "Our Summer Learning | Summer Learning For A 2 Year Old | Bethadilly Photography | www.bethadilly.com")
Have A Routine
children thrive on routines. our little girl’s entire day is the same routine and it is remarkable what a good routine will do for behavior. she knows exactly what we are doing next all day long, down to when it is time to wash her hands and brush her teeth, and she really appreciates an organized routine because she knows what to expect and there are no surprises, and that is comfortable for children…especially for two year olds. when it comes to learning, the first thing i will do is create a routine. i am designating my littlests’ morning nap as time for my 2 year old and i to come together for formal learning. (of course, we are learning throughout the day, but this dedicated time will be for more focused learning). this can be as little as 20 minutes or as long as an hour, depending on the activity. remember, toddlers are still really little and cannot take long stretches of instruction so keeping it short and sweet will keep them engaged and having fun. i have also dedicated a little shelf and wall to be our little classroom area so everything can always be ready to go and we can spend more time learning and less time setting up/taking down.
Our Classroom Source List
rope baskets (similar ones here)
.jpg "Our Summer Learning | Summer Learning For A 2 Year Old | Bethadilly Photography | www.bethadilly.com")
Have Learning Objectives
as you are getting ready to start your summer learning, think about what you would like to achieve with your little one by the end of summer. if you are unsure, you can always ask your child’s pediatrician about what their expectations are for your child’s age. (i have been using the “sprout” baby app on my phone since she was born, and it gives me an idea of what learning milestones should be met at certain ages). for us, we are currently working on mastering 3 year old learning objectives so our learning goals may be different than yours. make sure you base your goals on your child’s personal needs and learning style. i know that i need to set a little bit higher goals for our toddler because she tends to master things really quickly, so i want to set some harder goals for us to really work towards this summer and may need to add more goals throughout the summer as she achieves the original ones. truth be told, as soon as i wrote these objectives she started mastering them so i had to set new ones.
this summer, our 2 year old will be learning how to:
- say her name, when asked
- count to 5
- become familiar with written alphabet (we love these flashcards!)
- recognize patterns
- identify shapes
- identify colors
- identify the weather each day
- sort objects by color and/or type
remember, your toddler may or may not have the same learning objectives as my little girl. each child is different, so your child may need or want to learn different things. for us, our little one is showing signs that she is ready is do these tasks.
.jpg "Our Summer Learning | Summer Learning For A 2 Year Old | Bethadilly Photography | www.bethadilly.com")
pictured : linen cork board, homemade calendar numbers
Morning Calendar
there are so many things your little one can learn, simply by having a morning calendar routine. we are going to start off each morning with turning over the day’s number, identifying the pattern, counting and identifying the day’s weather.
you can purchase a pocket calendar for real cheap to get you started. i personally decided to make my own, by purchasing a linen cork board and creating my own calendar numbers on my computer. (the bright blue pocket chart was just a little too vibrant for our pastel playroom) 🙂 remember, if you are creating your own that (1) your calendar numbers should be recognizable so choose a simple font and (2) make a pattern with your numbers so that your child can begin recognizing and predicting patterns. for june, our pattern will be lemons and popsicles. i will change the numbers each month and create a new pattern. for this first month, we will be doing an AB pattern and if she does well with it, we may progress to more complex patterns such as AAB or AABB in the following months. if you choose to make your own numbers, have fun and base them off the seasons! for july, we will be doing red and blue stars (another AB pattern).
materials i used to create my calendar: linen cork board, push pins, foam alphabet stickers
Think of Field Trips
we will probably do most of our field trips on the weekend so my husband can join in the fun, but we will also go to the library each week for their story time. our library hosts a wonderful story time with a teacher who plays the guitar, reads a few books and then does a craft with the kids. i love that this allows my toddler some social time with other children and it’s a great learning opportunity for her to learn to take instruction from another adult, besides her parents. be sure to see if your local library offers something similar.
for our field trips, we will be incorporating the summer bucket list that we created for our family to accomplish this summer.
.jpg "Our Summer Learning | Summer Learning For A 2 Year Old | Bethadilly Photography | www.bethadilly.com")
Don’t Forget To Simply Play
above all, remember to keep it simple and let your little one be…little! don’t forget to just play. whether it is building castles with blocks, sorting legos by color, playing dress up or building a train track, there are so many learning opportunities through simple play.
for us, we will do our morning calendar/weather, read a story, and do that day’s curriculum activity. then we will simply play. the power of play is so so important! some days we may only learn for 20 minutes and other days we may spend over an hour. learning is learning!
i hope this post helped you get an idea for how i am approaching learning and curriculum for a 2 year old this summer. remember, each child is different so make sure you design your learning plans around your own little one. and it’s okay to make adjustments throughout the summer! make sure you keep an eye out for what is working and what isn’t and change things up, if needed!
happy summer!
with our first family vacation this month and more vacations scheduled for the year, i put some major time and thought into how i would keep everything and everyone organized while traveling. packing children for travel is a big job…babies have a lot of accessories. and to be honest, they need all of their accessories in order to keep themselves happy and content. and we are all about keeping everyone harmonious while traveling, the best we can. as we were packing for our first road trip with our two baby girls (2 years old and 4 months old), i initially found myself a little overwhelmed with the amount of things we needed to bring in order to be away from home for just a few days.
this post contains some affiliate links, which means i get a commission for items purchased through the link. thank you in advance for supporting my blog so i can continue inspiring you with our everyday.
when it comes to packing children for travel, it is really hard to travel light. and nor do you want to. because it is the worst to get somewhere and find that you left something critical to your day/schedule at home. yes, sure you can run to the store and buy whatever you forgot. but when you are on travel, you want to make the most of your time sight seeing and not at the local target. (let this be the only time i admit that i don’t want to be at a target).
for us, one of the easiest ways to keep vacation enjoyable is to stay as organized as possible when it comes to prepping and packing. if you ask my husband, he will lovingly tell you that i run a tight ship at our house and everything has a proper place. and even though he laughs at how happy organizational baskets make me, he does appreciate how hard i work to keep the house organized. it just makes our days with two babies run smoothly, as we always know where everything is at any given time. the same goes for travel. i like to keep everything as organized as possible in packing cubes so we can quickly grab what we need, whether it is a sippy cup, diaper, or fresh pair of clothes.
Packing Children For Travel | How To Keep It All Organized On Vacation
like me, my husband is a amazing list keeper. he keeps a list on his phone for “baby travel” that we made last year when we took our 9 month old to cabo for the first time. when we initially made the list, we literally sat down and went through her entire day, writing down each and every thing she used and, therefore, we would need to bring. it’s now a great reference list that we use, each and every time we begin packing for travel.
i purchased both girls a set of packing cubes for our trip to the outer banks and our future trips this year, as a way of keeping some harmony in the suitcases. and let me tell you, packing cubes are a game changer when packing kids. i love that they keep everything separated and organized so that we can find things quickly and easily when we are away. i love that shoes can be packed seperately from clothes so that the dirty shoe soles don’t get on their clean clothes and that all the bows and hair accessories are all in one spot. i love that each baby has a cube for diapers so we aren’t looking for the right size diaper when we need one or so we can quickly grab the cube of diapers at a rest stop for a quick change.
this was my first time packing for two babies for a trip, so it took some additional thought and planning as i did everything times two! i also really like the girls to either match or coordinate in outfits each day, not only because it is really darling but because i love getting candid family photos while traveling and having everyone coordinate is a simple way to ensure a cute picture, no matter where you are!
i started by laying out all of the girls outfits, and placing the coordinating bow on top of each one. laying everything out is just a very visual way for me to quickly see what i am packing. then i added pajamas, a pair of tennis shoes and sandals, some sweaters in case it got chilly, and their brush set. of course, then a cube for each girl for their diapers and ointment.
i then separated everything into individual cubes, putting all clothes together, bows and brushes together, shoes together, diapers together, and beach items together. these packing cubes made packing children for travel so much easier! and while we traveled, it made everything so easy. we never wasted time looking for anything, although i forgot the girls’ beach hats at home so that meant a shopping outing in the middle of vacation!
Packing Children For Travel Source List
while you don’t want to bring everything but the kitchen sink when traveling, it is also important to bring enough items to keep your children on their normal routine while traveling. in my opinion, if you are going to spend all the money on travel, you might as well ensure that your children are happy during vacation!