Parenting Toddler Is A Fun And Exciting Time Of Rapid Growth, Discovery, And Development For Toddlers And Parents Alike

Parenting Toddler is to see your infant move into a world where they begin to take their first halting steps using their own two feet.

When this finally happens, your toddler has truly entered their own fantastic world of wonderment and discovery. The best part is that Parenting Toddler allows parents the privilege of sharing in this journey of discovery and wonderment as they get to see the world through their toddler’s experiences and discoveries, all of which are new and fresh and ever-expanding in your child's eyes.

Parenting Toddler and your child's first steps will eventually lead to kindergarten and the wider discoveries made possible through Kindergarten Activities and to an even wider and ever more expanding and far-reaching life beyond.

But this whole big, wide, expansive, and larger world your infant turning toddler is now poised to enter and explore and conquer all starts out with that first, halting, self-propelled step.

Generally defined, a toddler is an infant or young child who is just learning how to walk, which usually occurs anywhere from nine months to eighteen months.

For the purposes of our Parenting Toddler discussion, we will say that a toddler is any child from the age of 12 months to 36 months, or from the age of 1 year to the age of 3 years old.

The act of a child learning how to walk symbolically marks the first steps towards independence for your child; an ability to determine the direction your child will take based on thoughts, feelings, and emotions exclusively that of your child’s own making and determining.

I do realize that I am getting ahead of myself and this Parenting Toddler page here, but you must realize that this march for eventual independence and human autonomy of thought and action that every child yearns and strives for in the process of growing up from a child to an adult, and which you will greatly affect and promote through how you parent your infant child turned toddler, all begins with the taking of those first few steps.

Parenting Toddler is to be enjoyed and held onto as best as you can, since what ‘they’ say about it all going by so quickly is actually all too true.

But what an exciting and rewarding and developmentally critical and essential time Parenting Toddler is going to be for both parent and child, and especially for both mother and child, since forming a healthy and nurturing and loving bond between mother and child between birth and two years of age is essential to preventing later behavioral problems such as Attachment Disorder and other child behavioral challenges.

Bumble Bee Girl - © Flickr

Parenting Toddler and how YOU parent your toddler through the toddler years will set the course and serve as the pattern for the rest of your child’s life. It will also set the foundation on which much, if not all, of your future parent/child relationship, communication, and interactions will be based.

Remember that we lay the foundation FIRST, and that anything we build later on will only be as strong as the foundation upon which it rests.

Setting Limits is a comfort and a safety for all toddlers and should be started as early as possible.

The term ’Parenting Toddler’ has an interesting origin.

The Merriam-Webster OnLine Dictionary defines TODDLER as:

“One that toddles; especially: a young child”

The Merriam-Webster OnLine Dictionary also defines TODDLE as:

“To walk with short tottering steps in the manner of a young child”

So the word ‘Toddler’ as found in the term 'Parenting Toddler' refers to a young child who walks with tottering, or unstable, steps. A more prefect description of how a young child starts out learning to walk could not have been invented, and now you know.

“Is there anyone up for a game of Trivial Pursuit?” OK, I get it, not just now . . .

Since Parenting Toddler does cover a two year span of your child’s life, I will provide you with the major developmental milestones you can expect to see and participate in as your child grows and develops through this toddler stage of life.

But first let me briefly mention some of the Universal Parenting Traits that will help you not only to properly Parent Toddler, but to properly act and represent yourself as a loving and nurturing and effective parent from the point of you reading these words until the end of your life.

Using these Universal Parenting Traits will help you in ALL parental situations and at all times, so their importance cannot be over-stated.

Of course these Universal Parenting Traits are listed here so that when you read the Major Toddler Developmental Milestones that follow them, you can already begin to formulate in your mind and in your heart the best and most appropriate way you may wish to Parent Toddler and help your child through every exciting facet of their toddler child development that shortly awaits them.

Enjoy these toddler milestones. Take the time and share your love to help your child enjoy these moments also.

Parenting, like life itself, is a lot of hard work. Happily, Parenting Toddler contains a disproportionately large amount of happy, satisfying, and soul-satisfying parental moments.

Get ready to enjoy some of the BEST parental two years of your entire life!

Parenting Toddler knowledge IS parental power, and we provide you with plenty of both here.

And if you ever find yourself getting less than optimal parenting results while Parenting Toddler or sometime else in your parenting future, then feel free to come back to this list of needed Universal Parenting Traits and see which of these parenting traits you may need to take back up and re-focus on again, or which ones you may need to better use in a more effective manner, for the benefit of yourself and for the children you love and must find a way to properly parent.

Universal Parenting Traits

• A deep and abiding LOVE of -and- for our children
• SELFLESSNESS in the service of our children
• A sense of HUMOR to laugh through the adversities of life
• The willingness to SACRIFICE what we want for what our children need
• The foresight to give FORGIVENESS when others have let us down
• The COURAGE to set rules and expectations for our children to live by
• The CONVICTION to share our morals and beliefs with our children
• The ability to PLAY with our children to create mutually happy memories
• The determination to WORK HARD for the welfare of our children
• A love of LEARNING that we can pass on to our children and grandchildren
• RESPECT for ourselves that our children will feel and emulate
• Deep and abiding GRATITUDE for the blessings of life, family, and children
• NEVER GIVING UP on ourselves, on our children, or on others
• The wisdom to practice TRUTHFULNESS at all times and with all people
• The HUMILITY to see our weaknesses and to work to correct them
• The ability and willingness to constantly engage in honest COMMUNICATION
• The KINDNESS needed to be a loving parent in the face of trials and difficulties
• The WISDOM to accept your children’s need to live their own lives
• The grace to transmit UNCONDITIONAL LOVE to your children, especially when your children are not being lovable

Smile #3 - © StarMama

Major Toddler Developmental Milestones: Ages 12 to 18 Months

• Learns to walk on their own

• Begins to learn how to drink from a cup on their own

• Learns to play ball by rolling it across the floor

• Learns to talk by using one and two syllable words

• Their vocabulary grows to up to 20 distinct, one and two syllable words like “toy” and “cookie”

• Learns to mimic parent’s behaviors such as talking on the phone, turning pages in a book, and covering their eye’s to play “peek-a-boo”

• Begins to follow simple requests such as bringing you a toy or putting down a book

• Begins to make themselves understood, such as their desire for milk, or to play, or to be read to from a book

• Begins to use simple greetings such as ‘hi’ and ‘bye’ in their proper context

Major Toddler Developmental Milestones: Ages 19 to 24 Months

• Can feed themselves with a spoon

• Begins to run and jump

• Can walk up stair and seat themselves in their own chair

• Can help to dress and undress themselves if provided the clothing to do so

• Their vocabulary grows to up to 50 spoken words, and they understand the meaning of many more words than what they are capable of saying

• They begin to recognize themselves as a distinct and separate person from others in pictures, videos, and in their own reflection in a mirror

• Learns to turn off lights, push buttons, work the TV, and to perform other simple, people-independent actions

• Learns to play games with others

• Begins to show preferences for and attachments to certain things like a favorite food, toy, or activity

• Begins to learn how to solve problems like finding hidden objects, organizing their toys and books, and begins the process of discovery and learning through simple trial and error

• They can mimic social behaviors such as hugging a teddy bear and feeding a doll

• They are ready to begin Potty Training

• Their sense of positive exploration and possibility begins to expand, along with the converse reality of negative possibilities as manifested in separation anxiety

Major Toddler Developmental Milestones: Ages 25 to 36 Months

• Ability to fully dress themselves

• Increased physical ability to climb, jump, swing, run, play with smaller toys such as puzzles and small blocks (In essence, the ability to motivate the creation of the term “The Terrible Twos”)

• An increased level of emotional awareness ranging from knowing the difference between boys and girls, the ability to learn and play a variety of different games, and the growth of emotional preferences so strong that they can often be manifested in a toddler’s Temper Tantrums

• Begins to speak in complete sentences and easily learns new words and even begins to remember people’s names and frequently visited places

• Potty Training continues and often is completed by this time, with the usual exception of Bed Wetting, which often takes additional time to master

• Begins to attempt to sing in-time with familiar songs

• Can now identify daily routines and activities

• Begins to demonstrate the use of imagination in game play and speech

• Begins to demonstrate more self-will and the desire for increased independence in small but obvious ways

The above video brilliantly illustrates how quickly a toddler can turn happy, to sad, and then back to happy again. This mother knows and anticipates how her toddler will react beforehand to certain situations, so she is ready with kind words and the wisdom to help her toddler to grow and learn in a healthy and loving and patient fashion.

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