Synergies

One night while hanging out with my friend Ted we discussed how having a 2nd kid doesn't make things twice as difficult.  There are a lot of things that double the amount of effort you have to put out.  For instance, diapers.  Both kids have them and they can't share so you are left changing twice as many as you used to.  On the other hand there are a lot of synergies that does ease the burden of a second child.  You have double the laundry which isn't fun but because kids clothes are so small there is enough extra room with Alyce's clothing that we can throw in Luke's.

One synergy that we are just now starting to enjoy is the two kid bath.  Just recently we started putting Luke in the bath with Alyce and the results have been pretty good.  A few weeks ago we took Luke out of his baby tub and plopped him in the big boy bath.  Mom and I thought why not put them in together.  We asked Alyce if that would be o.k. and she responded with an emphatic "yes"!  So now we have both kids in the tub getting clean at the same time.  Luke still requires 100% attention in the tub so now Mom and I both have to be in there to get the kids clean.  But now instead of two 20 minute baths we have a single 20 minute bath.  Another positive from this is that Luke is not getting more baths per week.  It used to be an immense undertaking to get him clean with the baby tub and pre setting out the towels and clothes.  Which on late evenings Mom and I would just skip the bath as we just didn't have the energy for it.

 
One area I am really looking forward two is the synergies when it is time to go to bed.  Once both kids are semi self sufficient one parent could handle getting  the kids in their p.j.s, reading a single book to two kids, and getting them both off to bed.  That is still a year or two away but it will be so nice when it shows up.