One of the most requested blog posts over the past few weeks has been our new routine now that we have a toddler and a baby. Things have definitely changed a fair amount around these parts since Maia came home but we didn’t want to disrupt Aria’s routine too much as she absolutely thrives on it, so Maia has had to fit in around the routine that we’ve always had… with a few tweaks here and there.  Our evening routine isn’t anything complicated or complex, which is great, and it has worked really well for us over the past two and a bit months, I hope that it can help some of you too!

Dan has always done the bath and bed routine, ever since we brought Aria home from the hospital three odd years ago. It’s his chance to bond and spend time with the girls and honestly, Aria loves it and I know Maia does too. It took a while for us to figure out the bath time juggle but we have it down to a tee now.

We all have dinner together around the table about 6pm. If Maia is awake, she generally chills out in her rocker next to us until we are done. After dinner, the evening routine beings… starting with a bath. Dan takes Aria to the bathroom to start to run the water and get everything ready and I take Maia to her room to get her undressed and take off her nappy before taking her to the bathroom too. Dan lathers up Maia first and then rinses her (with a little help from Aria), and then it’s Aria’s turn while Maia has a little splish-splash.

We’ve been using the new Johnson’s Baby Cottontouch™ 2-in-1 Bath & Wash on both of the girls this past week and so far we are loving it! Made specifically with newborns in mind, this gentle wash is made with real cotton, is free from dyes, parabens, phthalates, sulphates, alcohol, and soap, and has the perfect pH balance for a newborns skin. The wash is really lightweight, even when it lathers up and it rinses off really easily which is great when it comes to bathing a little babe in this chilly weather, you want to get them in and out as quickly as you can! It’s only been a week but we have found that both of the girl’s skins feel really soft and moisturised and we are pretty lax with applying cream, especially to Aria. A tip that I picked up at the launch of the new Johnson’s Baby products is to add some of the Cottontouch™ 2-in-1 Bath & Wash into the bath water to soften it. Johannesburg has really hard water and in winter our skins get so dry so I’m definitely going to be doing this in a few weeks time. Give it a try too and let me know if you think it makes a difference, will you?

We’ve also used the Johnson’s Shiny Drops Kids Shampoo on Aria twice and it really is lovely. Aria doesn’t have particularly difficult hair to take care of, but she does get her fair share of food and mud all dried up and caked between strands, so the shampoo that we use on her needs to work hard! The Shiny Drops Kids Shampoo is also free from dyes, parabens, phthalates, sulphates, alcohol, and soap which is great, plus it’s formulated to be as gentle on the eyes as water is because if your toddler is anything like Aria, washing their hair is like wrestling a drunk octopus! The stand out property of this shampoo for me though, is that it is enriched with argon oil which is renowned for its nourishing properties, as well as silk protein which will help to leave the hair not only smooth and soft, but healthy too.

But back to our evening routine…

Once Aria has been washed and rinsed, and Maia has had her little bit of play time, Dan calls me and I take Maia back to her room where I get her dressed into her pyjamas, feed her and put her into her cot to go to sleep. Sometimes she needs a little bit of a rock and cuddle to drift off to dream land but generally she falls into a milk coma pretty quickly.

Aria enjoys a bit of a longer play time before she hops out. Once she’s back in her room, Dan get’s her into her pyjamas and then she trots over to Maia’s room to give us a hug and kiss goodnight. She is so sweet with Maia, her standard line at the moment is “Goodnight precious girl, goodnight sweetie”. She and Dan then choose a book to read together, she has her story time and then its lights off for her as well. Her sleeping is so much better than it was a few months ago, but every now and again we do still need to sit with her until she drifts off to la la land. I’m excited to dip into the Johnson’s Baby Bedtime Bath once our Cottontouch™ 2-in-1 Bath & Wash is finished. I’ve never tried the Bedtime range before but have heard many mama’s rave about it! Anything for a little extra sleep, am I right?!

Our full evening routine generally takes an hour from the start of bath until lights out, and so by the time 7.30pm rolls around, Dan and I can collapse on the couch and catch up with each other or binge watch some series with the chocolate that we keep hidden from Aria.

In case you’re interested, there are a few other products available in the Cottontouch™ range:

JOHNSON’S^® Cottontouch™ Extra Sensitive Wipes – soft and gentle enough for delicate newborn skin

JOHNSON’S^® Cottontouch™ Face & Body Lotion – a water based lotion blended with real cotton

JOHNSON’S^® Cottontouch™ Oil – ideal for baby massage and to remove flakes of skin due to cradle cap

If you’d like to read up on the ingredients in Johnson’s products, you can do so over here, it’s a really good resource.

All of the new Johnson’s products will be rolling out into stores from May, which one are you most excited to try? Let me know in the comments.

*This post has been sponsored by Johnson’s Baby South Africa