Well, here’s our take on the divide and conquer strategy. We have chosen an evening routine that allows for a couple different things. It gives both of us a chance to focus equally on Kelly and Monica individually, and it gives the sisters some time apart from each other.

At dinner, Zach and I switch which girl we are sitting next to at the table each night. The girls eat at the same place setting but we move. Whomever we sit next to that night is the girl we bathe and read to after supper. So, for an hour, the girls have alone time with one parent. So far so good. We don’t have a set bedtime, although of all the times we’ve tried 8:00 seems to work well. We’ll keep trying that and see how it goes.

Random things: the girls love to play dress-up. our toilet lid lasted less than a week with kids. baby monitors are a life saver. our hall banister is coming off the wall. we need to put latches on doors and safety locks on drawers. “don’t touch” has no meaning. we have too many toys. less is more.

arden lane

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