Dining Out with Twins: From Babies to School Age

Last updated on October 15th, 2023 at 08:23 pm

Check out Nat’s tips and tricks for dining out with your twins from babies to school age in this Facebook Live video with Q&A, brought to you by our friends at ZoLi.

Dining Out with Twins: From Babies to School Age

Hey guys, it is Natalie at Twiniversity and today we are going to talk about dining out with your twins. So while I’m giving everybody a few minutes to pop on and to join us because we’re going to talk a lot. And it’s not only gonna be about babies. It’s gonna be about toddlers. It’s gonna be about school-age kids. So even though you might have some babies now they will eventually grow up and dining out is definitely a good way to spend some family time. So we’re gonna give you a bunch of tips and tricks and also we do have some prizes. Today is today’s live feed is generously sponsored by our friends over at ZoLi. Hi Rebecca. If you guys have never heard of ZoLi today’s the day to tune in because they have been one of my favorite companies for a very long time. I met them years ago at a New York baby show here in New York obviously and they had a little product called a Buzz B at the time. They did have other feeding products but ultimately the one that I was looking at that I fell in love with which was the Buzz B. We’ve done live feeds on the Buzz B exclusively I think we have. And if we have it we really need to so the Buzz B is a little nail trimmer. So ZoLi kind of starts out with you when your babies are infants but really grows with you as the kids get older and older.

And now remember my twins are 13 years old. And if you haven’t met me I should apologize and introduce myself. I’m Natalie Diaz founder of Twiniversity and driver of this crazy ship that we have here. But I really am truly not only am I you know kind of a client of ZoLi’s right because they’re sponsoring our feed. But I am a giant fan and so much of a fan that I took out some of the stuff that I’m still using pretty much I think at least twice a week. In our house we’ve been using these ZoLi thermoses. This is the ZoLi dine this is my son’s and he’s been using this I can’t even tell you how long this has been washed more times than you could ever imagine. And it is crazy to me that the logo that is on it is still as flawless as day that we got it. ZoLi is on with us today which was is really even more exciting so forgive my shininess. The funny part is it’s actually makeup that’s the crazy part of this so I’m sorry for my crazy shininess despite the fact that it’s 80 something degrees in our apartment.

But yeah the ZoLi Pow Dine is my son’s favorite. And then my daughter’s favorite and correct me ZoLi if I’m wrong, this is called the Sumo. So the sumo is kind of like the Toki dine except that it is a two-part thermos. We’re sadly not giving any of these away today although ZoLi you’re on maybe you want to. But my daughter loves to have soup. But she’s a little unusual in the fact that she likes to have her soup portion like the liquid separate from the chunky portion. So that is how we use this. We actually she has soup every once a week from lunch. She always has soup. So we put the chunky pieces in the bottom the soup part in the top and then she pours it in it’s not even like that a flavor thing. She doesn’t like when stuff gets soggy so when you’re making… It’s this and that.Thanks ZoLi. So when you’re like if you’re making like a noodle soup you know when the noodles are sitting in the soup they get ridiculously soggy. This is the way to not have them soggy. So you just pull them out of the soup once they’re cooked put them in the top portion put the broth in the bottom portion and it all connects together. And then has this lid and it always stays warm. So this is the This and That that I have been love with these are from my own personal collection. We have used many of the water bottles as well but I think as the kids get bigger that they’re a little on the smaller side right? So they’re really perfect for toddlers and even young kids but by the age of 13 they’re looking for like the giant water bottles.

So today we’re gonna talk a lot about different tips and I would love if you guys would participate too cuz I get very excited and I want to know first of all how old are your twinnies. And I would love if you guys can make friends throughout the feed. I was gonna say throughout the night but throughout the live feed. I would love if you would find a partner to partner up with probably somebody that has the same age children as you. It’s just very exciting so that’s what we’re all about right? Twiniversity is not only about community it’s about education it’s about fun and it’s about prizes. Hold on one second babe could you turn the fan on above us? The ceiling fan. Yeah thank you very very much. That is how warm it is in our apartment. So thank you for bearing with me for that.

So let’s jump off right away. Once again thanks to ZLii and ZoLi is going to be putting in links to throughout the whole event that we have today but let’s start off with talking about dining with babies. Have you gone out yet to dine with your babies? I’m gonna see a show of paws or thumbs ups or hearts or funny faces or whatever. Thank you very much funny faces or whatever. And if everybody could just say thank you to John since he just turned the fan on. And I feel like there’s a tiny bit of relief now and I will not be sitting here. But fair also the record I have a giant studio set up in our apartment. Oh the Hamilton Lottery just opened in Chicago Julie. I just got a little text from them. So if you have attempted to dine out with your twinnies I want to know what you think were some of the best tips. And Julie is going to be sending us she’s gonna be sending me little messages and we could include some of your tips from this live feed in addition to the items that I already have here. So just so you know kind of like what the lay of the land is. Also over here I have my questions from Julie. So if you look down here you’ll see like if you see me looking here that’s where I’m getting my questions from Julie. It’s tough to follow along with the live feed during our live feed because there’s so many things that are coming in. And on this side. I have all of my tips and tricks to make sure that I do not forget to give you guys any of them whatsoever.

So if you’ve dined out with babies we’re starting with babies first. If you’ve dined out with your babies I want to know what you think some of your best tips are. So we have come up with a few and we want to share them with you. And our number one tip that we could give you is start off slow. If they are a tiny infants it is kind of fun to take them out and show them off to the universe but maybe consider breakfast instead of considering dinner. I was thinking it’s funny when you go out with your twins and you go out to maybe like a nicer restaurant than you know like a cozy sandwich shop or something. If you go to a nicer restaurant and there’s like people that are having date night I’m always thinking to myself like am I their form of birth control that they are not gonna have children because they’re gonna be afraid to have twins? So I sometimes want to pass like a new couple and be like ‘enjoy it while you can. Enjoy it.’ It’s still fun to go out with your kids of course but nothing beats a good date night sans kids. We all know that. Every mom and Papa needs some time out so consider breakfast where people also are a lot more tolerant because they probably had a good night’s sleep and they’re ready to go and everything is great. So consider the time of day that you’re going.

The next tip kind of along with that is call ahead and call the restaurant ahead. Excuse me and find out if they have perhaps a private room. Many restaurants do have private rooms and sometimes they’re using them a little bit more in the evening than they are in the daytime. If they have a private room that’s available ask if you could sit there and wheel the stroller right into it. And then you have the room to yourself. You don’t have to worry about you know interrupting any patrons if you’re breastfeeding. You don’t have to worry about it get anybody giving you a look about your breastfeeding. Although that could be a topic for a different day. Oh I don’t think people should be giving your looks regardless. So call ahead and find out if they have a room that maybe they would let you. And like we just said it certainly doesn’t hurt to ask. I love the tips that are coming up. And Julia if you could start shooting me a few because I super dig this. And also if you have done that if you have dined in a private room or called ahead I would love to see your hearts or a thumbs up. It just gives me an idea that you know you guys are already doing this and now will I’m just curious. Thank you ZoLi I love that you think it’s a good idea.

Next tip that I could give you for babies is feed and change them before you get to your table. If you sit down at your table and then somebody has to eat it might be a little bit more difficult depending on if you’re in a booth and navigating them and so on and so forth. So sometimes if they’re little they might just sleep through your entire meal. So definitely consider changing them and feeding them. If you could not feed them before you sit down and maybe you want to feed them while you’re waiting for your food to get there. What you could definitely do is make sure that the bottles are pre-made and you’re not sitting at a table you know trying to mix formula and trying to mix you know add frozen breast milk or breast milk from a bag and it like yeah like. Let’s really have everything prepared before you get to the hospital. Another thing to do before you get there is I really want you to call ahead also and make sure that they have a changing table. You would be surprised at how many restaurants don’t have any changing facilities for you to change your baby. So call ahead and ask and if they do not have a proper changing facility then you might want to consider just changing the babies in the backseat of your car before you go into the restaurant okay. So we got that. The changing and feeding is always a big one but the changing more it’s easier to feed at a table. I don’t necessarily think that anybody’s gonna bust out their changing pad throw it on the table and start changing some babies. Although if you’ve done that I would love to know. I would love to know if you’ve changed your baby on a table in a restaurant. Regardless sometimes maybe your family owns a restaurant.

So yeah so the next thing that I want to tell you is that if they don’t have a private dining room that you could go into and by the way the odds of them having that are slim to none regardless I think you should pick a corner. And pick a corner that is not by the bathroom. If you pick a corner by the bathroom every single person that walks by you what are they gonna say? John do you want to chime out from the peanut gallery? When the people pass you at your table and you’re sitting there what are they gonna ask you John? Are they twins? Says the father of twins? Yes they’re twins and you will be so tired of saying yes they’re twins for the 9,000 time. So pick kind of an area that is away from the general public so that you don’t get asked 18 million times are they twins are they twins are they twins? Yes they’re twins! Or you could choose some of the snazzy comments that we have like oh my gosh I just found this one in the parking lot. I didn’t know what to do. Or no this one’s human this one’s a robot. Those are always fun ones to say. Yeah Theresa saying your hands are full yeah my hands are full. Do you want to hold the baby while I eat my burrito? Another thing that you could say. So pick a corner try to be a little bit out of the way so that people do not trouble you a thousand million times.

Now the next thing that you could do is bring some distractions. The next thing is bring distractions. They sell toys that go across the top of of your infant car seat bar so bring some things like that. That can be made you know they can be used as a distraction. So please make sure that you just bring a few extra toys.

Next thing that I could say is another question. I should have gave you just a list of things to ask your restaurant so we’re already asking them do they have a private dining room? Could we make a reservation? Hello how are you? Because it’s always good to have a reservation beforehand but can their door accommodate a double stroller? What? Not everybody has this problem. This is certainly you know something that only twin moms love but yeah. We I have been to many restaurants when the twinnies were little. I’ve been to many places in general to drug stores and you know grocery stores that my double stroller did not fit. If places were built before the American Disabilities Act occurred, their doorways do not need to be crazy. Just so you know so call ahead and ask them if they know that it can accommodate a double stroller of course I mean a side-by-side. Clearly your tandem is always going to fit but make sure that you could fit a side-by-side.

So we’re gonna call them, we’re gonna ask them those questions and then we’re gonna start off slow. Like I said. Ease into it. Do not plan on going to you know 8,000 going out with 8,000 of your friends to a brunch with your tiny babies. Start off with something really small to see how comfortable the babies are but more importantly to see how you are. You may not be comfortable in a restaurant. It may be too much for you. So I do not want you getting too overwhelmed too quickly. Okay we got a question from Erica and Erica asks do people actually tandem breastfeed their twins there? I’ve seen some mom saying they do this. Like how? Like Erica first of all yes. You could always try to tandem feed your twins but remember space is really kind of a not a premium at a restaurant so you probably don’t have enough space to tandem feed. If you are going to exclusively breastfeed. I may skip the tandemness just because and from my you know super breastfeeders do not get super angry with me. I want you to know that I am a big advocate of breast feeding but I don’t like feeling like a sideshow. And if you’re gonna tandem breastfeed your twins at a park or a restaurant while yes it is 100% natural and I got your back on it and I think you should be able to sadly we have yet to change the world’s perception and they’re always gonna look at us and be like oh my god. Look what she’s doing! I can’t believe this. And then you just want to respond like what? Like keeping my children alive. Like what am I doing? Like what’s happening? I’m giving them food. How was this so wrong? So if they tandem breastfeed if you can. If you’ve mastered the art of tandem breastfeeding then certainly I would say try because listen if it’s gonna keep them quiet and you could have a little bit more time at a restaurant go for it. But it’s only when you feel comfortable.

With Erika there is no right and there is no wrong. Whether it’s in a restaurant whether it’s in a boat, whether it’s with the goat, whether it’s here, whether it’s there, whether it’s anywhere, you could do it wherever you want. But as long as you are comfortable so that was our question from Erika. Angel gave us another question right now and she said suction cup toys that attach to the top of the restaurant table are great as well. 1 bazillion percent Angel. That’s definitely one. They get to be a little bit bigger or toddler or preschool age. When they’re babies you know I wouldn’t say that you have to bring a whole arsenal of toys because they’re still kind of little and all they’re really gonna want is to like chew on their toes, have a bottle, maybe have some boob time, and call it a day.

So the other thing that I see which I think is a no-no and I want it advise you guys against it is I very often see parents eating in restaurants that are wearing carriers and then drinking hot beverages or eating hot food. I don’t know if it’s me but that baby is in the splash zone so I could still spill stuff on this baby. Don’t assume that you’re gonna be that careful or that mistakes can’t happen. Let’s and it’s not even up to you. I don’t even think that you are the issue I think it’s the people that are around you or even the baby themselves. If you’re wearing a carrier and you have this baby there and you’re drinking even like a tepid cup of coffee it doesn’t even have to be like super crazy but what if somebody hit your elbow as they were walking by or what not? I don’t want it to spill on the baby. So please just be thoughtful about what you were eating and drinking when you are out with your twinnies okay?

Guess what? I have some good news! Guess what guess what? Guess what time it is? I feel like we haven’t done this in so long. I feel like maybe you guys are a little bit rusty so what time is it? Hmm. I don’t have a watch on but yet somebody should tell me what time it is. Rebecca Grace what time is it? I’m calling you out directly. Tara’s got. It is prize time. Kids I missed saying that. I don’t even jewel when was the last time that we had a prize time for goodness sake? Did you notice by the way that I got all dressed up? Look I wore a fancy dress for you today. It’s one of the items from my idea box. I love it. It’s like this cool little skater dress and I just wanted to feel like I was going out tonight because if I was going out this is what I’d wear. I put on some you know I always wear my fancy earrings but still I wore my fancy dress today just for this particular reason. So our last my last prize time was December 22nd.

I was having prize time withdrawal. So let’s talk about what we are giving out. I have something I want you to meet. His name is BOT 2.0. Do you remember the bot cups from ZoLi? We definitely gave some away during our last live feed. If you’ve never met ZoLi I don’t even want to call it cuz it’s not really a sippy cup. This is so beyond a sippy cup. Do they have a name for it? It’s a weighted straw sippy cup. They do call it a sippy cup. This is the BOT 2.0. They have taken their old BOT and they have kicked it up a notch. So meet him. We should name him. What should be our BOTS name? John do you have a name for this cup? What would you name this Cup? Rocket is what John is naming this cup today. So it does it’s very flash maybe we’ll call them flash as in Flash Gordon. Did you see that magic that just occurred? So the BOT 2.0 is a weighted right? They say a weighted straw sippy cup. I keep referring to the box the boxes right here because I want to make sure that I’m saying everything to you correctly. So why is it what makes it kind of a weighted sippy cup or weighted straw? And we’re giving two of these away so you guys will be able to win in two seconds. So look at this. It has a literal weight at the bottom of the straw and that way when the straw is in the sippy cup. This is why love ZoLi because they come up with crazy things like this. When your kids are moving the sippy cup if there was a straw typically the straw always stays stationary in the bottom of the sippy cup. But because there’s that weight you’ll notice that the weight will move wherever the liquid is going to be. Guys could we just notice genius when genius is occurring? And here’s why it is the 2.0 because the original BOT had the same thing with the weight but now the weighted 2.0 the BOT 2.0 could handle warm or cold liquids. I certainly would not be giving your baby’s hot liquids but if you want to give them some more milk or if you want to give them any type of warm beverage beverage whatsoever. Maybe they’re sick and you want to give them a little bit of chicken broth. Sometimes people give their kids chamomile tea before dinner. So I mean give their big chamomile tea before bed I know that we did that quite often. So what happens typically is when you put warm liquids in here they will come up through the straw because there’s not I mean this wasn’t made for it and so it’s going to expand. And it’s going to come out through the straw but now with the BOT 2.0 they have this new feature and it is the patented buffer and this is the patented buffer chamber. And you take a patented buffer chamber. You put your cup down. The straw is removable so you remove your straw. We’re afraid to do this you remove your straw and then basically you put this in the top of here. I never want to pull too hard because I’m always afraid to break it. You’re not gonna break it by the way. But you put this here and then you attach the straw here with the weight and that way as the baby is drinking the warm fluids or whatnot it is definitely not going to leak up through the straw. It is very important that you use this little buffer if you’re using warm fluid specifically for that. It is insanely clever. Insanely clever despite the fact also that it’s a traditional cup. So it has the double handle that’s your little toddlers and your little even older kids just sitting there you know and watching Bubble Guppies or whatnot. Or even hello at a restaurant. Have your beverages prefilled in your sippy cups and have something that’s familiar at home that you’re bringing to the restaurant. So have these little puppies ready. You could close up the Flash Gordon top as we’re lovingly calling it now. And that way you throw it in your diaper bag you throw it in the back of your stroller and it is not going to spill.

So great news. We are going to give two of these away. And I think all you have to say is it’s dinner time. It’s dinner time. That’s literally it. And the reason why we’re asking you to even say something if anybody ever wonders is because we know that not every product is perfect for everybody. Not everybody wants to enter. We do have more prizes that we’re going to be giving away and if you’re like you know what Nat my kids are too big for these don’t enter. But all you just have to say is it’s dinner time and you are going to have the opportunity to win two new BOT 2.0s. Now please note these are not even available yet. We’re getting to see them before everybody else. I feel a little QVC right now. You’re seeing it before anybody else. How funny is that? These are actually going to be shipped on January 29th. So we have a few days. So please note that if you win today they are not going to start being shipped till January 29th. So you have the opportunity to win some of these. Still go ahead and just keep saying that it’s dinner time if you want to enter. Some hearts if you love this. Some thumbs ups if you love this. But I have good news. If you do not win right now or they’ve been on the market. They’re out of stock that’s what it is. So there it is. They’ve been out of stock. Thanks ZoLi for correcting me. If you do not win these today don’t get nervous. You could still have the opportunity because ZoLi has been so unbelievably generous. They have given us a 20% off coupon code that is only gonna be good for a few days. So this is not only for the BOT 2.0 but it’s gonna be for the This and That that I showed you earlier. And for the Toki dine as well. And I would totally stock up. So if you are interested in going to ZoLi and using this 20% off coupon which is what I would totally do just use Twiniversity 20. Twiniversity 20 will give you 20% off of your bill. It’s going to be from January 23rd which is today. Starting I don’t think we have a time so I guess today any time today going through January 29th at 11:59 you could use that Twiniversity20 and you will get 20% off your entire order. Things that I would buy if I were buying these I would buy at least four of them so that I could have two that are being washed or two in the sink and then two that are in use. So that’s just my two cents. When I buy things I usually think in sets of three per baby so if you want to buy six it’s entirely up to you. But then you would have one in use, one in backup and then one in the wash. Just like with everything else that we recommend at Twiniversity. Um Jewel if you know the cost of this? I don’t have the cost. Oh the retail is $17 so that’s the retail. Now remember you’re getting 20% off and while I’m telling you, you might say that’s a lot of money for this cup. Understand that this is not a typical sippy cup and this is going to last you literally for years because I have showed you what their other products have looked like and we have been using this for longer than I could count. So ZoLi does not make things that are you know made for a year. ZoLi makes things that are made for a lifetime. Guys we have a winner and her name’s Hannah Gordon. Is that a coincidence? I actually think it is. So everybody say congratulations to Hannah. Hannah congratulations! My ZoLi BOT is going to applaud for you. That’s so exciting.

Alright so now we’ve talked about our BOT 2.0, we talked about dining out with top with babies. Now let’s graduate and let’s talk about dining out with toddlers. And we do have more prizes. I love when you guys say congratulations to each other. It warms my little Tweety Bird heart. So next thing we’re gonna talk about dining out with toddlers. While this may be like is this the worst thing I’ve ever done? I assure you that once your kids get into the habit of dining out it’s gonna be fantastic family time for everybody. If you’ve been dining out with them since they were babies they’re already gonna be pretty used to it. So there’s a little there’s a few things that you can easily modify and the first one is if you have not been dining out with your toddler’s I do recommend that you practice at home. Set up your dining room table. Have dinner one night and pretend that you’re at a restaurant and start talk about having table manners. And remember I do know that they’re toddlers and basically that you know we’re lucky they’re not stuffing peas in their ears. But really just if you start modeling good behavior from the time that they’re young it’s all gonna fall into place. Am I saying that this is possible? Am I one of those crazy people that are like take your two-year-old and bring him to a restaurant and explain to him what fork he has to eat with his salad? By no means. Have I somewhere somehow lost my mind and I’m gonna say that to you. But if you start practicing about dining out at home and making things a little bit more official instead of always just having them kind of you know in their high chair away from the dining room table away from everybody else that’s eating they’re not gonna really be able to model like dining behavior off of anybody else. So bring those high chairs towards the table and start having family meals whenever you feel comfortable with that. You know the high chairs like the BabyBjorn highchair is a fantastic one. Fisher-price makes a great space-saving highchair. There was another one that I saw. Oh Oribel makes a great highchair. So there’s some fantastic high chairs that are able to go right up to your dining room table so you could start practicing sooner than later.

So next tip is pick a time. Just like with babies don’t decide to you know we’re gonna go to a 7 o’clock dinner with our friends or we’re gonna go to this Super Bowl party. Who’s taking their toddlers to a Super Bowl party and thinks that they’re gonna sit at a table all day? Yes I may want to eat hot wings until the day is done. But it’s not gonna happen so you really do want to make sure that you start out with a good time. Breakfast is always great. Brunch is always fantastic. So yeah pick a good time. And same things call ahead. Ask about you’re gonna ask the width of the doorways where are you gonna change them and don’t forget now we’re gonna ask them also what was the thing that I just forgot. Oh high chairs! We need to know if they have high chairs. And if they don’t have high chairs you may want to consider getting some portable high chairs. They do make them. They are out there. And they even have some high chairs that kind of attach to the top of the table. Of course you have to make sure that you’re using a good table and you can’t do it like on you know a flimsy metal table and a sidewalk café. But you want to consider where you’re going and make sure that you have the proper equipment. If you have the space-saving high chairs some of them are so small that you can take them with you even when you’re dining. So it’s one less thing that you have to buy. And here’s a bonus point – if they’ve already been sitting in that high chair at the dining room table with you and your family when you go to a restaurant it’s kind of that little memories gonna kick in and they’re like oh I know I have to sit in this chair and we’re gonna you know have dinner. So it’s gonna bring back little memories of being at home and it’s gonna have something that’s a little bit more familiar to them in a restaurant. So we got that.

Next thing is sometimes sadly you’d have to wait at restaurants. Babies don’t seem to mind because odds are they’re gonna be either in their infant carrier or they’re gonna be in you know a front-facing carrier. Or how whatever their ages is that’s appropriate for that but if you do have to wait please don’t say like oh we’re gonna sit here on this bench at Outback and wait for them to call our table. They it’s like you have like a tiny window of time to sit and wait. Do not use it I mean I tiny – a tiny bit of time for these babies to sit down and be patient. Don’t use it waiting. So if there is a wait a few things number one, even if they don’t have one of those fancy systems where they give you an old-school beeper that tells you that your table is ready. What you could do is say hey listen please. You know what’s your name? Marnie hey Marnie. I’m Nat these are my twinnies Anna and Johnny. Moni listen there’s no way that they’re gonna stand here this entire time. I am dying absolutely dying for that blue cheese pecan salad. Marnie could you do me a favor and could you just call me when our table is ready? There’s no way that she’s gonna say no. Absolutely no way.

Jenifer Roth is on. We’re talking heart to heart tomorrow. Jen did you ever tandem feed the boys in a restaurant? So Julie texts me what her answer was. If or Jen you could even text me what your answer is but Jen Roth is like Queen of the breastfeeding team. We’re gonna talk to her on Wednesday at 4 o’clock Eastern Time. I think that’s our time right? Which is gonna be 3 o’clock or 5 o’clock Eastern Time. Watch out because we’re gonna talk to her. We’re gonna talk all about breastfeeding tips and other lightnings. She just celebrated the one-year birthday of her little puppies that are unbelievably sweet. I’m curious to know we had a question earlier from Erica who is asking about tandem breastfeeding in a restaurant. Ok so Jen’s gonna put that in there.

I want to go back to the tips. Give your maitre d the hostess whomever your phone number. Run around with those twinnies. So also pick a good location. Look see Erica. She’d never tandem feed in public. She switched them out. Love her. So look problem solved. We already got our answer there so pick a good restaurant that has an area that you can walk around. Sometimes maybe you don’t you that might be a fantastic up-and-coming restaurant in a neighborhood that may not be the best to walk around with twinnies by yourself because you know maybe there’s too much traffic that’s around. There could be a by a giant highway or whatnot. So try to pick a location to that if you did have to wait or did have to leave the restaurant just to get some of their wiggles out you will actually have room to move around. So thumbs up if you’ve done that. If you’ve had to wait, have you ever had to wait for a table with you and your twinnies someplace? So I want to see you know if you have and if you have what did you do while waiting with your little kiddos?

Next thing I want to say is plan to eat and run with little toddler twinnies. They might not sit for the entire meal. So order if you’re going to order like a series like a like a whole meal. Like we’re gonna order an appetizer to share and then we’re gonna order an entrée. Before you even get to the restaurant. Go online and look at the menu and know what you’re going to eat. Please don’t go to a restaurant and be like ‘Oh what do they have today?’ Let me see. Oh I’m gonna start out I don’t know why Outback is so on my mind I’m gonna start out with a bloomin onion please thank you. And I’m gonna have you know Seltzer with lime and then I’m gonna have the steak and shrimp with a sweet potato. That would be what I would really have in real life by the way with the salad. So know exactly what you’re going to have before you get there. There is no way that you’re gonna be able to peruse that. Yes I’m still listening to the specials, let them run through the specials, but if like the cat’s trying to get out of the bag and the kids are losing their mind just go in, order and just eat as quickly as you can to get out of there. You also want to order I think Tiara just said this order your kids meals with your appetizer. Start feeding the kids as soon as you get there. You may even want to give them an appetizer of some delicious puffs or just some other type of snacky things that they’ve already eaten at home. You could put on their tray and then that way you will be able to kind of pacify them. Get them started. Start filling their little bellies. Start giving their hands something to do. And this is where those suction cup toys come into play.

So Angel was saying before about the suction cup toys this is the perfect time to start using those. So yes you got to figure out what you want ahead of time. Start ordering your food. If they can accommodate your double stroller and maybe you really want to be like have a lot of movement to get around and you just want to leave quickly you may want to just bring your actual stroller into the dining room or even the back room that we’ve had. And if your stroller has the option of having snack trays just wipe off the snack tray and put the snacks right in front of their babies. Don’t forget to have their beverages like in this fantastic BOX 2.0 which will keep their beverages warm and I’ll keep their beverages calls. So make sure that you have these.

I do want to introduce you to another cup that Zoi has because this is this is really the one that’s gonna keep everything warm or cold. This is called the POW Squeak. The POW Squeak is also a sippy cup and it’s perfect for tiny little hands. Why it’s so fantastic it is totally drip proof because of the top that it has and it has this little button. Boom! And once I press this little button which anybody could do it does not take a massive amount of amount of strength it pops open the lid and the straw is right there. And there’s even a little vent to make sure that the fluid is going to come out. So this is called the POW Squeak. Notice please also you guys could see it’s powder coated. Like a fancy hot rod is the way that I look at it. But why it’s powder coated is in addition to being unbelievably stylish and fancy, it makes it for a better grip because if you’re holding on to a sippy cup that doesn’t have kind of a texture on it it could slip out of the kiddies hands. So when you’re buying sippy cups in general I would always make sure that it has some kind of texture on the outside. So this is the POW Pal Squeak. And the inside, this is why I love this, it has stainless steel walls. So this will keep beverages super cold or super warm. And I may or may not have used this for coffee. I will let you be the judge of what I have done with this and I could assure you that it really held its temperature. So once again I’m not saying that we’re gonna drink soup out of this but this really like it’s amazing. They use whatever technology that they’re using and they’re thermoses. It’s in this POW Squeak. I absolutely love it. So one thing though that I wish ZoLi could do is I wish that everything was dishwasher safe. However, it can’t be because of the unbelievable coating and the way that these things are built, you do have to hand wash them with a little soap and some warm water. Now me queen of the people who hates washing dishes and ironing they’re my two least favorite things. I never mind hand-washing these products because I know what we get out of it. So this is the POW Squeak sippy cup. I want to introduce you to this if you haven’t seen it this is one of the items that you could get the 20% off of on this ZoLi website just by using Twiniversity20. Julie I don’t know how much this is so if you could tell us what the prices are. ZoLi if you could tell us what the price is. This does have a 10-ounce capacity and what’s super cool is because it does have this wide mouth it really is super easy, to clean super easy to dry as well. That’s always a big one it cuz if you wash it and then just put the top on it’s actually gonna lock the moisture inside of here. So when you do hand wash it make sure that you keep everything in a position so it could dry. And another little tip that I am going to give you is when you are washing sippy cups if you wash a straw cup like this you should always detach the straw so that you could wash in this little thing here. But when you’re finished washing this when you rest the cup onto the counter rest it on top of the straw because if you rest it on top of the straw it’s gonna create a little vent so that air could get in here. These things are made so well that if you put it right onto the counter no air is gonna actually get in there and it’s never gonna dry. And you’re always gonna have condensation. So when you’re washing sippy cups or even bottles or anything, please make sure that it is resting upon something to have a little ventilation to make sure that it is getting as clean as possible and drying as much as possible.

So going back to our toddler things I think we have gotten all of our toddler tips. So just to reiterate what we said we’re gonna pick a time. We’re gonna call ahead and we’re gonna call ahead not only for a reservation but to find what tables are available and stuff like that. We’re gonna kind of practice at home and get them used to eating at home. Thank you ZoLi $22. Thank you very much. Thank you ZoLi and Julie who are responding to me at the same exact time. And remember as I told you that yes you can find less expensive sippy cups. But you know by the way and you guys know me and really anybody who knows me personally or professionally knows that there is no way that I would just talk about a product because they’re part of our family. I asked them to be part of our family and they said yes. But when I’m not saying that you know break the bank and spend the twenty two dollars but I’m saying that when you buy sippy cups that are five dollars or eight dollars they’re not gonna last you years. There’s no way. This will last you from the time that your kids are using a straw from around one. This will easily last you like no joke until they’re six or seven and you’re putting this into their lunchbox. So really think about making some good investments into their lunchboxes. But you also have to be willing to care for it. Because you can’t just expect this to look like this without being taken care of. These items require hand washing and all that and it’s worth. It’s worth it. This I mean I’m not saying that I take impeccable care of these of these Tokidine. I’m not saying that I am the most cautious with them but I am really careful to make sure that everything is washed and dried and ready to rumble.

So do you know what time it is? I can’t hear you? I feel like a little Hulk Hogan-esque. Anybody getting that vibe of Hulk Hogan today? Oh my gosh to change my position. Oh fix my hair just myself because it’s that time. And if you know what time it is you know what time it is. I love it. We have another prize. And this prize is going to be I’m gonna say it’s a little young for toddlers but it’s fantastic for school for preschool and it is exquisite for school-aged kids. Are you ready to meet my next item of the day? Are you ready? I need a thumbs up kids because this is something super special. It’s called a Toki Maddie. Meet my Toki Maddie. I already started coloring it. This is perfect for I would say what would I say would be the age? ZoLi do you have an age on this puppy? This is a silicone mat to say easily that we’re gonna go from ages 2 to ages 13. I’m skipping it. I’m gonna say 2 to 41 since that’s how old I am. I know I look like I’m 22 get over it guys. You could look like this when you’re 41 – John I am 41 right? I’m not lying to them not 42 yet okay. Just how to double-check there with the husband. So this is called a Toki Maddie. I was first introduced to this back at a trade show that we went to I think it was the JPMA trade show and I got so super excited that I literally went online. I went on live with you guys and I just couldn’t get over it. Here’s why I love this. Number one when you go to a restaurant it’s always a good idea to bring some kind of mat with you because we don’t know how those tables were cleaned. So I typically get someplace and this is for kids that are a little bit bigger that are out of the stroller that in the highchair. I take a wipe and I wipe down my counter or I wipe down the table that’s in front of me and then I put something on top of it. A lot of people buy you know you spend all this money on dishes and such. But for this all you have to do is you really just bust out your Toki Maddie. And it is a silicone mat that’s easy to wash and it comes with four markers as well. I’m hoping – goodness gracious that that’s not the furniture guys that I have cancelled. I don’t know if you guys just heard them. A bell ring but the Toki Maddie comes with four markers so green, yellow, blue, red pick your favorite color. By the way everybody what would be the color that you would go you would pick first? And what would be my favorite color? That’s always the question. I know what my favorite color was that I picked first cuz I actually picked it first at the trade show. I picked it first today when I was coloring so notice that the Toki Maddie is their little tiles of different Toki characters. They are not for boys. They are not for girls. They are literally for everyone. It is a mat and the silicon allows us to basically take our dry erase markers and guys did you see what color I went for? So yes me and Holly you’re on the same vibe. You take your dry erase markers and we are able to just color in the pictures. You could use any dry erase markers but of course they’ve given you a few right there in your box. So these Toki Maddies they come in a bunch of different patterns that are on this Toki Maddie and they come with a bunch of different patterns. So if you’re like oh you know I want a simpler pattern for my kids to color or if I want you know something more complex like this. This is not only good for your twinnies. This is good for you. I love when I go to a restaurant and they give me a coloring book. I’m coloring more than the kids are half the time. So this is the way that I could interact with my kids. Create a little bit of a family bond. Break out some of that little creativity that’s sitting inside of me you could have a coloring contest you could do whatever you want but remember you don’t have to stay within the lines. So if you want to use this for tic-tac-toe, if you want to use this for hangman, if you want to use this for you know find the stars, count the stars. We could play a game just called count the stars in this. How many stars? So look I found a bunch of stars there I found a button a star right there. There’s more stars I have a hunch. Oh another star on my tiny unicorn. You could play games like this. And having something that’s so versatile that’s gonna stay with you for so long is really great.

And now when you go home you wash it all of the non-toxic markers are going to wash off right so it’s all gonna wash off and has this little hole at the top which allows you to put it on something so we could dry because if you left it on your counter and we talked about that. It’s not gonna dry kids. We already talked about that count the stars. Come on ZoLi. You know I got a thousand games. We’ll play it at the trade show the next time I see you. But this little hook here gives you the opportunity to hang it on to something whether it’s a hook in your kitchen or whether you even want to get one of those little I rings and put the I ring in this corner. I would not leave the ring in this at the table with the kids because the kids are just gonna pull the ring and it’s gonna fall all over the place. But yeah put a little you hook this someplace in your kitchen so that it washes. And when you have a bunch of them you could hang them all from that place you could get a little ring and have all of your Toki Maddie’s hung there.

So these are really fantastic little silicone mats that you’re able to take with you. I told you already like ZoLi does not just think of the babies right? Because they had the Buzz B and all that great stuff but it’s they’re really evolving with us. This is a brand new product that came out. When I saw it I fell in love. I could not wait to get my hands on it. So in addition to being creative it’s also a way that thanks babe. It’s also a way that I’m gonna bring the whole family together and it’s gonna provide a clean environment for my twinnies to eat off of. So if I want to put bits of chicken so if I want to put you know whatever put it on there and then you’re good to go. And if you’re worried about it if you’re like oh I don’t want you know I’m afraid that the babies are gonna eat where the markers are then you know what you do guys? You flip it over and you just eat on this side so there’s always a way. Where there’s a will there’s a way. And my favorite part – come on guys it folds up into literally next to nothing. And when you have it I mean this is it. That is literally it. Fits in the palm of my hand. You can’t even see it and then you’re ready. I want a David Copperfield this so. If you would like to win to Toki Maddie’s all you have to say is I see the star right? Because we played the whole game of seeing the stars there. So yeah are they sold out ah though they’re in stock right now. That was a problem last time that we did our live feed. So all you have to say is I see the stars. I’m not gonna ask you to count the stars although you know I do want to play this game. But this is the entire Toki Maddie and I would love if you guys could win one. So you’re actually going to win two so that your twinnies do not have to fight. And like I said I don’t know where the box is. Here’s the box that it comes in. You could even use it to store it in. I would never do that. I never keep a box in pristine condition. I’m not one of those people. I’d love to be though. But it is it is odor and water-resistant. So if you put something on here let’s say you put you give the babies Brussels sprouts you don’t have to worry about this forever smelling like Brussels sprouts because that of course could be a problem. And that does happen with some of the other food mats that are out there. So that’s why you always go with quality and ZoLi to me really always means quality. So I do want you to win. Julie will pick a winner or maybe even ZoLi wants to pick a winner. Jule if you want to talk to them and see if who wants to pick the winner? But I do want to give you guys two Toki Maddie’s and I know that our time is almost up but I did want to give you a few more tips of dining out with your kids.

Now if your kids are little bright oh Addie! You won? How exciting! Congratulations! Everybody say congratulations to Addie. She won the two Toki Maddie’s. That’s so cool Addie George congrats girl. I’m so happy for you. Even though Addie was the big winner of the day we are all winners right? We all get a second-place trophy by having the 20% off of by just using Twiniversity20 on the ZoLi website. And I really do that hope that you take me up on this offer because I don’t ever recall there being the time maybe on Black Friday they might have had a sale but I don’t really ever see ZoLi stuff ever go on sale. So it’s like an honor that they’re giving us the privilege of even having a discount code so I’m pretty excited and I love that. Even ZoLi saying congrats to Addie.

So before we leave today I want to give you a few more tips and I don’t want you to think that I’m crazy but as the babies get older they eventually will turn into you know school age kids and then into older kids. I want you to never lose sight of the fact that dining out is family time. While you may be very quick to give the kids a tablet or whatever and I not against that. I am NOT saying to pacify the kids so you could have if that’s the only way that you’re gonna have a meal outside and you’re like I can’t cook again or whatever or just to be with your spouse. I understand that totally. You can give them some kind of tablet or something to watch. But really try to remember that going out as a family is meal time and it’s fun time and it’s family time. It’s quality time and use that quality time in a way by you know asking questions about their days. And there are so many games out there that are specifically made for mealtime out with children. So they have little cards, they have flip books, they have a million things that you could use that are out there. Maybe Julie could put some links. I should not. I should have given her a little bit of warning. They have we just bought these dining cards that we pull out and like the question is you know if you had to have a pet animal outside of what a normal animal would be what would it be. And then my daughter would be like I want a sloth. And then we talked about sloths an then we’ve even googled you know different things about sloths at the table and while we were still using smartphones we were really using it to build on the knowledge of sloths. Like did you know that it could take up to 40 minutes for a sloth to poop? I’m pretty sure that that was the time but I remember I looked that up with my daughter. And I was like yeah I like when I take the dog out to poop I just want her to like poop immediately. I couldn’t imagine like him literally taking 40 minutes to poop. So ya know no pet sloths for us. My son of course wants something like a little bit more exotic like a Jaguar or whatever and then I’m like it’s gonna claw your whole face off or whatever. So think about using that time as family time and you do not need to dine out in another place to have a dining out experience. You could order takeout and dine in with outside food that you did not have to cook. Make as many opportunities to have exquisite family time together. It’s so important and if you start out when they’re little it’s just gonna be commonplace as they get bigger. And then they’re gonna pass those skills on to their friends and they’re gonna pass their skills on to their spouses and their children and their children and their children. So you are breeding generations of good diners by starting out when they’re babies and then just being consistent as they get older.

I want to thank again our friends over at ZoLi. I honestly am honored every single time they give me the opportunity to come out and talk about them. They are a fantastic partner of Twiniversity in addition to being a woman-owned company and being a part a big part of the JPMA. And being a board member of the JPMA there’s so much that they do that it’s it’s a company that you may not have heard of before but once you know they exist you can’t go back. And this particularly the This and That with the dual chambers. Forget it forget it. It’s just crazy and I did find out we did this over the summer. I did find out that if you take the bottom off of the This and That that you could literally just keep stacking. I know that ZoLi did not know that but we discovered that. If you were having a family picnic I don’t necessarily think that I would do this for preschool. I don’t think this is gonna fit in anybody’s backpack. But they just they really they think a lot about the things that they do when they do them right? So thank you very much for hosting today’s live feed ZoLi. Everybody give a big shout out and say thank you – ZoLi and also a big shout out of course to Jules. So Julie has been the wizard behind this curtain of Oz this whole time and been sending me questions and doing all sorts of great stuff so thank you very much Jewel. I love you as always and thank you again ZoLi. And guys till we meet again. I am already looking forward to our next live feed.