Out the door

Five months of going on daily walks with a dog and a baby later, I can now tell you my tips on how to get everyone ready to go. It still takes between 10-15 minutes to get ready, but I now have a system, and it works pretty well. 

First: get the dog ready, since he is the most patient of all three (maybe that should be me, right?) and also, he won't overheat in his collar! haha! Basically, I just snap his collar on hold on to the leash. 

Second: get self ready, since I don't mind being boiling hot while I get my daughter ready, and the opposite is definitely not true. We all learn from our mistakes. In order to get myself ready, I need to get everything I need close to me so that I can put my boots on and not make a mess in the house by putting them on first and then looking for things. Again, I learn from my mistakes. So once I have Baby Z's things and my things close by, I put my boots, jacket, hat and scarf on. Oh and I tie the dog leash diagonally across myself so that I can have both hands free.

Third: get baby ready. As I've mentioned above, the timing is crucial here. Go too quickly and she'll wait while I lock the door and get the stroller, go too slowly and she'll already be overheating inside the house. So I put her mitts, boots, hat and snowsuit on. 

Fourth: get out of the house. I grab Baby Z in one hand, open the door with the other, tell the dog to go out and wait for me (did I mention how well he listens? If you forgot, you may want to read about our dog training experience again). I then get my keys, phone and mitts and walk out the door. Just so you know, we are still on the third floor here, we aren't actually outside yet. Then I lock the door, grab the stroller with my free hand (Baby Z is still in the other), and walk down the three flights of stairs, and assume the dog will follow (he does). 

Fifth: Open the stroller with one hand (yes, my stroller is amazing - thank you City Mini GT!), place baby inside stroller, cover her up with the plastic cover because it is somewhere between -10 and -20C outside, clip the dog's leash to his collar, open the door and somehow manoeuvre all of us out the door. 

As I've said, if I manage to get this done within a 10-15 minute time period, we've succeeded and are off for our walk! If it takes longer, we still walk, I just feel tired and discouraged when we leave. It has never been more efficient (unless someone else helps me, obviously), but I hope with time we'll at get better at this - oh and with warmer temperatures it will also clearly be more easy.