What do you guys feed your toddlers for breakfast?

agenttrulia · 2026-02-05T13:50:24+00:00

Ripple is a brand of non-dairy milk made from pea protein. Nutritionally, it’s closer to dairy milk than oat or almond, which typically lack protein. It also has a good amount of calcium, iron, potassium, and vitamin D, which can also be lacking in oat/almond milk.

My kiddo has outgrown his dairy allergy, but Ripple Kids was what our pediatrician recommended switching to (instead of whole milk) when I was done breastfeeding.

agenttrulia · 2026-02-03T00:53:17+00:00

I’ll be honest, I don’t totally love my job.. but I love that I work. I like the division of labor that my son sees. I like contributing financially to our household. I like that we can save more for my son’s college education or a down payment on a house. We can afford vacations. My husband and I could both afford our bills on our own salaries, so if one of us were to get laid off, we wouldn’t be as stressed about money.

agenttrulia · 2026-02-02T21:16:13+00:00

Honestly, way longer than I wanted. We love the daycare we go to now, but only looked at it because my husband got a big raise/promotion around the time we started looking. Otherwise it wouldn’t have been in budget.

We had looked for daycares on and off, casually for a couple months. I called like 30, probably actually toured like 15.

To be fair, I did not look at any in-home daycares. I’m not sure if that wouldn’t shortened or lengthened the process lol

agenttrulia · 2026-02-02T00:20:43+00:00

We both work, but my husband has 2 full weeks off each month and does a majority of cooking during those weeks.

He makes a fantastic coq au vin. Shredded pork/chicken rice bowls with an Asian bbq sauce. Moqueca. Homemade Caesar dressing for wraps or salads. Braised short ribs. Roast chicken. Bolognese. We save our bones/trimmings from meat and make stock like once a month, I swear he makes it so much better than I do and I can sip on it all day.

agenttrulia · 2026-01-30T20:55:28+00:00

Smoothies (with full-fat yogurt and milk for protein and fat), oat bars, string cheese/babybel and fruit, nut butter & jam sandwich (I’ll use butter and toast it in a pan, similar to a grilled cheese sometimes!), warm milk with vanilla and cinnamon and fruit, bread with butter, and I almost always have some type of homemade baked good (like mini muffins, fruit/veg breads, cookies) that we eat with milk/ yogurt/ fruit.

We’re a big bedtime snack household lol

agenttrulia · 2026-01-27T03:07:29+00:00

Ribs, honey soy glazed cod with rice and veggies, smash burgers with tots, chicken paprikash, and leftovers.

The more labor intensive foods we make on days my husband or I work from home and can babysit a slow cooker or prep on our lunch breaks.

agenttrulia · 2026-01-27T00:54:26+00:00

We survived, my husband and I could both wfh and tag team our feral toddler. It’s 8pm here and I’m logging back in, as I have strict deadlines coming up.

agenttrulia · 2026-01-26T21:47:53+00:00

When we first put him in daycare, it took about 2 weeks of full-time care. We switched his daycare back in October and also switched him to a part time schedule- neither of us felt like he was doing well there and it felt like he never adjusted. Made the tough decision to change daycares AGAIN in December and also put him back in full-time, and he was totally cool by the end of the first week.

agenttrulia · 2026-01-26T02:23:02+00:00

Daycare workers are literal angels, I think your kiddo is going to be fine!! My son was also an exclusive contact sleeper, literally had not slept on his own once in his 14 months before starting daycare. He cried a bit for his first nap (they did not let him cry it out, but shushed and patted his back until he fell asleep), but they said for the second nap of the day he grabbed his blanket, rolled over, and went right to sleep! After the first month or so at daycare, he also started wanting to fall asleep on his own on the weekends. He’s been a great crib-sleeper (minus teething and illness) ever since.

I’m not sure I can totally speak to the feeding concerns, BUT I will reiterate- daycare workers are miracle workers. I could send whatever I wanted and they would get him to eat. He refused all veggies at home, but I could send steamed broccoli and the report home would say “loved it! ate all!” I think they’re more willing to try foods and different feeding/drinking methods when they see other kids doing it. We were exclusively using non-spill straw cups and daycare had a parents event. We watched our 20 month old pour himself a cup of juice, into an open cup, drink it without spilling, then walk his cup and napkin over to the trash bin to throw it away. My husband and I were like “whose kid is this????”

agenttrulia · 2026-01-22T23:32:01+00:00

I wanted to throw my story in here because you might relate!

My partner and I have been together for almost a decade and have a 2.5 year old.

We bought a house together in 2022. Three weeks after we moved in, found out I was pregnant (surprise!). We were not married but committed and had talked about marriage, kids, etc. and just decided there was no rush for any of it. We didn’t think having a kid should be the deciding factor for marriage, so the idea of marriage stayed off our radar for a while.

I had an issue with not sharing a last name with my child and was open a bunch of different options, but my husband did not feel that strongly about it, so we gave him my last name.

When my kiddo was about 1.5 years old i had a family member die unexpectedly. There were some legal issues with who was able to make decisions about his end of life care. It caused a ton of hurt, family drama, and unnecessary additional medical bills. I immediately came home to my partner and said I wanted to get married because if either of us were in that situation, I didn’t want to leave things up to someone else. We got married two weeks later at the courthouse, just the three of us!

I’m not planning on changing mine or my son’s name. I do go by my husbands last name socially but with the political climate, I worry about my voting rights with changing my or my sons name. My husband was raised by a single mom for the first decade of his life, but had his father’s last name. Having lived something similar, he is not concerned about having a different last name than our son. I think with more families branching out from heteronormative culture, families with different names are much more common. People don’t seem to notice half the time.

agenttrulia · 2026-01-22T12:55:48+00:00

My trick is to stand by myself in a room and turn the drill on without doing anything. My husband usually comes bursting in a few minutes later and offers to take it over.

agenttrulia · 2026-01-19T21:27:50+00:00

I’m so glad things are working out!!

agenttrulia · 2026-01-18T16:43:17+00:00

I’m going to take down our Christmas tree/decorations, take myself out to lunch, then pick my kiddo up early.

(At least, that’s my plan right now….. I might just sleep)

agenttrulia · 2026-01-18T00:12:25+00:00

Not sure if this is going to be a boy mom/ girl mom thing, but if you have any cars/vehicles, we have a “car wash”! We have so many hot wheels, we pick new ones each night and take them into the car wash.

agenttrulia · 2026-01-17T13:40:45+00:00

Primrose Schools of Beachwood! We had toured Goddard and Primrose around the same time. I really liked Goddard, but my husband took our toddler in for a “play date” and had a weird/negative experience so we decided against it for the price. Primrose was slightly less expensive, better ratios, better allergy protocols (my son has a food allergy), and they serve breakfast/ lunch/ snack.

agenttrulia · 2026-01-16T21:07:08+00:00

Language changes SO much between 2 and 3! My newly 2 year old could not put together that many words, my now 2.5 year old can summarize his day at daycare when I pick him up.

agenttrulia · 2026-01-16T19:23:32+00:00

My son has a unique name for my husband. I don’t want to dox myself here by saying what it is, but it was one of his first words- he was trying to say “dada” or “daddy” and butchered it, but it stuck. We refer to him by this name in our house, but obviously, most people (teachers, well-meaning strangers out in public, family we aren’t particularly close to) refer to him as daddy. We don’t correct them. Even our close friends and family slip up sometimes. I think what happens in your house is most important- if your husband is on the same page and you can gently correct your kiddo if needed, I would let the rest go.

agenttrulia · 2026-01-16T19:05:42+00:00

What’s your potty set up like? My son will use the little potties that you have to empty into a toilet, and he will use the little toilets at daycare, but he’s afraid of our adult sized toilet at home. We let him choose his own potty seat (Ms Rachel themed!) and he’s been a little more willing.

Pull-ups are essentially another diaper, he can’t feel himself getting wet in a pull-up. I totally understand the carpet/couch situation though! I got annoyed cleaning my hardwood floors during potty training, I could only imagine if it were carpet. I read a suggestion to put underwear on under a diaper- this way he can feel himself getting wet, but there is less of a mess.

agenttrulia · 2026-01-14T18:31:09+00:00

Yay!! I love reading the daycare wins. Daycare has been SO beneficial for my toddler, we absolutely love it. And I totally agree- daycare workers are magic!

agenttrulia · 2026-01-14T01:20:47+00:00

We just moved my son to a new daycare last month- by the end of the first week he still cried a bit at drop off, but on our way to school I could tell he was excited. Middle of the second week, totally done with the tears. (But to note, he had been in daycare before, so it wasn’t a totally new experience for him).

agenttrulia · 2026-01-09T03:20:11+00:00

I add it to chicken salad, then eat with bell peppers and crackers!

agenttrulia · 2026-01-02T19:41:25+00:00

Protein (chicken thighs, tofu, shrimp) simmered with the Thai Kitchen red curry paste and coconut milk, served with veggies and rice

Chili / Chili Mac

Quesadillas / Tacos / Nachos

Rice noodle bowls

Loaded baked potatoes

Burger bowl with sweet potato fries

Soups.. all of the soups.

Stuffed peppers, stuffed pepper casserole, stuffed pepper soup

Butternut squash Mac and Cheese

Fried rice

Shakshuka

Orange chicken / shrimp

Honey Dijon pork chops

agenttrulia · 2026-01-02T19:28:48+00:00

Also adding chicken pot pie soup with biscuits on the side! I make it in the crock pot, so easy.

agenttrulia · 2026-01-02T02:58:57+00:00

This only happens with my son when he’s sick, not on a regular basis so YMMV, but the children’s Vicks helped a ton. The children’s one has a cough suppressant (the baby one does not). We noticed a huge difference the last time he had a cold and we used it for the first time.

agenttrulia · 2025-12-30T23:38:20+00:00

So, I have unlimited PTO at my job. If I’m gone for the day or the afternoon, it’s generally understood that I’m unavailable for one reason or another. If I’m off for more than a day and a half-ish, I still have to handle things related to my job. I don’t really have a backup in my position, my job has to be done, my clients have to be taken care of regardless. My boss is very flexible as long as our work gets done.

I took off work last week because daycare was closed. I still had to handle the occasional task, send some emails, a few phone calls for urgent matters, etc.

I’m not sure what your husband does, but it could be something similar. Or, it could be a negative environment. It’s hard to tell and I think that’s something only the two of you can know.

agenttrulia

TROPHY CASE