this is a page for
Browsing Tag: Toddler
When most people think of toddlers, they don’t find them to be very helpful. And they aren’t. But toddlers love to help and for a long time, they won’t be able to tell if what they are doing is actually helping you or not. Sometimes I give Mac a “job” like putting all of the socks in the laundry basket. It isn’t something I actually need done, but it makes her think she is helping. But there are some toddler chores that are helpful. We recently discovered that Mac loves to help feed our dog, Ralph. Here is how she helps us.
(P.S. Everyone wave to Andrew, the Nerd. He doesn’t feature prominently on the blog very often. Also, if you didn’t see my Facebook post, my dryer broke which is why my drying rack is living in the kitchen for the time being.)
Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. That means if you buy through my link, I may receive compensation. Check my disclosure page for more information.
I try to do some art with Mac because I’m all for fine motor development with a side of creativity. But sometimes I don’t want to deal with messy crayons, chalk, or paint. (Plus Mac is teething right now, so all art supplies seem to end up in her mouth.) One art medium that parents don’t tend to think of is stickers. Doing stickers with toddlers takes supervision, but is otherwise so easy. We have them available on the art shelf in our Montessori toddler room and I have started to do them with Mac. Here is how I keep my sanity while doing stickers with toddlers.
Toddlers have no sense of time. That can make mornings afternoons all of the time really hard. How do you let your child know you are going to be leaving the playground so that they’ll understand? How do you get across that an event will happen, but not yet? There are three phrases I use to help a toddler understand time.
These phrases will seem really obvious, but let me tell you that I don’t hear them used often enough by parents. I tend to hear “We are leaving in 5 minutes” or something along those lines. Let me clue you in: toddlers have no idea what that means. So here are the phrases that really work.
Hi, my name is Mikki and I am a recovering TV addict. As a child, my family lived in the country and only had an antenna. We got 6 channels on a good day, 3 if it stormed. There wasn’t that much to watch so it wasn’t a problem. Fast forward to college and I was let loose into a dorm with cable television and a lot of time on my hands. Suddenly the colorful world of television was at my fingertips. I watched hour upon hour of any show I thought was remotely interesting.
As I got older and got more responsibilities, my television watching kept up, just after work and weekends. The screen was constantly lit up. When I got pregnant (and sicker than a dog), the television was a great distraction. Those early months of maternity leave were spent binge watching shows on Netflix. But then Mac got old enough to start paying attention to the television and I knew something had to change. So I came up with my rule about electronics.
I am a laid back mama. I have worked with kids for so long that not much phases me. I have dealt with the gamut of gross stuff and frustrating stuff so having my own child is no biggie. In fact, I tend to get along better with the second and third time moms I know vs. the first time moms like me. Maybe that is why I am so comfortable having a free range toddler.
I was at the park the other day and while Mac was exploring, she fell a couple of times. No major spills, but enough to make the other moms gasp. They were amazed that she got up, brushed herself off, and continued on her way. She came to me a few times to show me she fell and ask for a kiss or a hug, but mostly she was fine. The other moms remarked out loud how resilient she was compared to other children. How did I get such a resilient child? Well, there are three things I do when my toddler falls down.
On Monday, I posted about our trip to the zoo without a stroller. We had a blast, even when we had to carry Mac for a little while. In the car on the way home, Andrew and I were discussing what made our trip so much fun. We came up with 3 tips to have happier toddler outings for everyone, toddler and adults.
I know people already think we are weird because we went out and about with no infant bucket seat. What would you say when I tell you we go out with no stroller either? And Mac is only 16 months old. So how in the world did we survive a morning at the zoo with no stroller? And why? It actually wasn’t too hard and we had a blast.
You know what is one of the worst things in the world? Trying to put a diaper on a squirming toddler who absolutely does not want to be on their back. They kick you and it hurts and at the end of all of it, no one is speaking to each other and everyone needs alone time to breath. It is all around an awful experience.
So imagine my surprise when I started in a Montessori toddler room and was told they did their diapering standing up. Umm, what? That seems like an absolute disaster, but I can tell you now that it is so easy. That is because I know the #1 trick to stand up diapering that no one seems to know. And yes, it does work with cloth diapers also.I If you are interested in cloth diapers, check out cloth diapering 101. (And PS make sure you read about what cloth diapering accessories I think are critical to success!)
If there is one thing all moms hate, it is that darn baby weight. I had come to accept that those 5 extra pounds were here to stay until suddenly I had a toddler and those 5 pounds (plus a few more!) were gone. I didn’t consciously change anything I was doing, but I realize I adopted different habits once Mac was older. Here are the three things that helped.
