From One Child to Two

The world has great heaping helpings of advice -- for parents-of-two.

*Make use of the baby bjorn. You can strap your mostly-dormant infant to your chest while freeing up your two arms to manage your toddler. So you are like a bleary-eyed puppetmaster; you have two hands free to control the toddler-marionette (or to try to).

*Keep one foot in the working world. During nap-times, just send out that resume! Check in with ex-colleagues. This way, when your spouse loses his or her job, in a shocking twist, you can don your cape and just keep rolling, rolling, rolling along.

*Brace yourself for Year Five. This is my favorite "tip," and one I hadn't even considered. When your toddler is especially difficult, just push your mind forward to Year Five. Imagine: You think it's challenging now? In Year Five, you will have *two* continuously-mobile creatures, and neither will be anywhere close to anything that resembles self-control.

I'm not complaining. I'm really not.

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