You might be counting down the days until Baby hits year three, and it’s okay to breathe a sigh of relief when these early toddler years are over. But over time, you’ll probably start to miss these years despite their difficulty. Ironically enough, it’s the things that drive you up the wall that you’ll also remember for years to come, and despite their craziness, the toddler years just might be some of the best years. And the messiest. Probably also the smelliest. Yep, definitely the smelliest.
- There are tons of exciting firsts
During pregnancy, milestones include things like physical growth, symptoms, and trimesters. But for toddlers, milestones are all about observable development. In other words, if parenthood is like a garden, pregnancy is the time where you plant your crops, tend to them, and wait. Toddlerhood, on the other hand, is where you watch the flowers start to bloom.
At this age, it might seem as though Baby is picking up a new skill every day, maybe even to the extent that you’re having a hard time remembering what they could and couldn’t do a week ago. Of course, toddlers develop at different rates, so Baby might not exhibit this growth right away. But it’s around this time that parents get to start looking for little (and big) signs that their “baby” is growing up. - Toddlers start to interact more with other people
There are going to be at least a couple times where you close your eyes and hope your toddler did not just say that out loud, in public, with other people listening. But there are also going to be more and more instances where you get to watch your toddler interact with other people in the most special and adorable ways, making you more proud than you ever thought you could be. That’s going to be pretty amazing. - They feel more emotions
Toddlers get mood swings and express their feelings in ways that can be hard for parents to understand and address. At the same time, though, this behavior symbolizes that Baby is starting to recognize and express the complicated emotions that they feel inside. You might not love their moments of anger, but there are lots of other new emotions that you’ll get to see them notice in themselves, like confidence, pride, or delight. You have a unique opportunity to teach Baby about these emotions, what they mean, and how they can express what they feel inside in a healthy way. - They have a desire to please
Baby is busy exploring and learning about this world that they inhabits. But at the end of the day, Baby looks to you and their other caretakers for guidance and example. Don’t make the mistake in assuming that just because Baby doesn’t always listen to you or do as you do, that they isn&;t watching how you act, and learning from you. In a few years when Baby is a teenager, you might remember the days that they were so young and impressionable. - They have endless curiosity
As time goes on, we tend to get less and less interested in the tiny details of life. Right now everything is new to Baby, which makes things that you consider to be ordinary pretty fascinating to them. This can get difficult when they want to explore every nook and cranny of a room or when they want to pick a piece of food apart into microscopic pieces and examine every single crumb. But this interest is endearing, and can be entertaining to watch. - You get lots of time with each other
Once toddlerhood passes and the school years begin, the two of you will have less time to spend together, and one day, you’ll look back on toddlerhood as a time that the two of you got to enjoy entirely with one another. That reason alone is a pretty good reason to consider these years some of the best years.
Sources
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“Well-Child Care: 2-Year Visit.” ClevelandClinic. The Cleveland Clinic Foundation, 2012. Web.
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“Toddlers (1-2 years of age).” CDC. US Department of Health and Human Services, Mar 15 2016. Web.
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“Emotional Development: 2 Year Olds.” HealthyKids. American Academy of Pediatrics, Nov 21 2015. Web.
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“Toddler Development.” MedlinePlus. US National Library of Medicine, Aug 19 2016. Web.
