Life certainly changes as your twins grow from babies to the wild toddler years. Hopefully you’re getting more sleep, and starting to feel more humans you get yourself a twins schedule. Likely you are exhausted anyways from chasing 2 crazy kids in opposite directions. I find that for my sanity, I need a schedule to help me feel organized and keep the kids on track. Here is our schedule for twin toddlers we follow most days!
7am : Wake up!
7am is our “ok to wake time” that we’ve established. Some days my son can be heard singing Moana or his ABCs at 5am, but that doesn’t mean I wake up and hang out with him. He will happy chat, sometimes fall back asleep, sometimes wake up his sister, but unless it is bloody murder screams he can hang out while I get through my pre-7am routine. When we get up, we change diapers (hopefully we’ll use the potty soon!) and read a book or 2.
7:30am: Breakfast
Typically I have good eaters in my house. We have a picnic table in our living room where I let the kids eat breakfast as they wake up. I let them eat breakfast while they watch a quick show (judge me if you want) like Daniel Tiger, Super Why, or Word Party. They rotate between homemade pancakes that I freeze, bagels, waffles, yogurt tubes that I freeze, and eat a banana pretty much every morning.
8:30am: Dance Party & Play time or Morning Run/Walk
After we get dressed for the day, we love to crank up the Bose with the Trolls or Frozen soundtrack or some classic kids bop. We dance it out, they love to get swung around, and gives me the opportunity to get a little mid morning exercise in. If the weather is nice, we’re off and running (ahem walking) around our neighborhood or the bike path in town. They also love to help with chores (whaaaaat?), so some mornings we work on emptying the dishwasher, folding laundry or cleaning up around the house.
9:30am: Daily Outing
For my sanity and theirs, we try to get out most mornings. We go to playgroups at our local children’s museum, toddler open gym at a couple gymnastic studios, the library or sometimes just to Costco. Snacks are involved at some point in this adventure. Pouches, animal crackers, fruit, or things that travel well are usually ready to go! I know that having them running around, playing with other kids, and burning off some energy is a HUGE reason they take such amazing afternoon naps. If we do stay home, we usually use this time to make craft projects or bake together.
12pm: Lunch
Between 11:30 and 12 we eat lunch. A strong preference for Annie’s Mac & Cheese usually dictates lunch, although I try to switch it up most days. Lunch is never complete without fruit like strawberries, kiwi, pears, and nectarines, and they love veggies like cucumbers, red peppers, and carrots. While I finish up making lunch, they sit at the table “reading” books or play with each other. So freaking adorable.
12:30pm: Naptime!
Afternoon nap is an amazing time!! I can count on my daughter to nap for at least 2-2.5 hours and my son for 3-4 hours. We go upstairs to their room, change diapers, read books, and then it’s lights out with the white noise machine and light blocking shades. I know that having the best sleep environment possible really helps them to get those quality naps in. We’ve also been sticking with our sleep schedule from an early age, which has helped set the nap time expectation. They typically fall asleep within 5-10 minutes of laying down after happy chatting to each other across the room.
3pm: Wakeup and snack!
Depending on when they wake up, we have afternoon snack and play together. Sometimes if they are still a little groggy we read books or watch a show and snuggle. If the sun is out, we play in the backyard or if we didn’t do a planned activity in the morning, we do one here like letter matching, sensory bins, craft projects, painting or coloring.
6pm: Dinner
By this time, Dad is home from work. He plays with the kiddos while I cook dinner, and sometimes my daughter helps me in the kitchen after begging repeatedly. I don’t make the kids special food for dinner. I cook dinner for the family & they eat what we eat. This helps to cut down on work for me, I can’t be bothered to make 2 separate dinners. I’m just too lazy/tired.
6:30: Bath & Bed
We have a bedtime routine in place that we’ve used since they were about 5 months old, which we developed with our sleep consultant. If it’s a bath night, we take baths before getting into jammies. Then we brush teeth, read 2 books, say our prayers, sing “our song”, and give kisses all around before getting tucked in.
7pm: Lights Out
At 7pm, the lights are out, everyone is tucked in, white noise machine on, and they are typically asleep within 5-10 minutes. Sometimes on days where they had a longer nap, they may stay awake longer happy chatting to each other or singing songs, but we try to keep a consistent time so they know what to expect.
Whew! It’s a long day to entertain twin toddlers all day! Losing morning nap is a blessing and a curse. You’ve now lost that precious morning time to get things done like showering and drinking coffee in peace, but you’ve gained more freedom to get out of the house and enjoy activities without being a slave to nap schedules (I am definitely strict about naps).
What does your toddler schedule look like? If you want to see us in action, check out our instagram to see the boring, funny, and fun things we do! Have twins a little younger? See how we managed the first few months for a few tips!
Are you working outside your home? I thought I remembered you working as a pt after they were born…
Hi Cheryl! Yes! I still work outside the house 2 days a week as a PT! This is our schedule we follow on the days I’m at home. The other days, they go to “school”, which is a toddler room at a preschool from 9-4:30!