Toddlers, lots of mess and independence (Toddler Stage in general)

Member Name: adam171275

Product:	Toddler Stage in general
Date:	16/05/09 (95 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Rewarding and lots of fun

Disadvantages: hard work and messy

Being a dad of two children I have and am still going through the toddler stage at the moment. My little girls is now six so obviously has now grown out of the toddler stage, my little lad will be two in August so we are slap bang in the middle of the toddler stage. Although it is truly a lovely stage it can also prove to be rather taxing.

The toddler stage lasts from when they are one and carries on until they are around three; the first thing you will notice is that they go from being a baby into a real little person. My little lad will be two in August and believe me is a total live wire and oozing with character. Here are the main things that I have noticed about the toddler stage.


Independence

Now my son wants to do everything himself and trying to do something for him can prove frustrating for both us and him. Food is one of the first hurdles, they go from you spoon feeding them to them refusing food fed from you. Each meal is a real nightmare! He will sit in his highchair and have his own plastic plates etc with his own mini forks and spoons (haven't been brave enough to give him a knife yet!) he can actually manage to put some of the food in his mouth but most will end up on him and the floor, and sometimes even the walls. When you try and help him he just screams so it really isn't worth the agro in my opinion. He now likes to be grown up and drink from a plastic cup without a lid. This normally will end in disaster as he will either tip the juice on the floor or all over his dinner! This stage can be rather frustrating and messy but they do have to learn these skills and I say the earlier the better. I know from my daughter that the messy food stage doesn't last for ever and soon he will be eating at the table in a proper manner. At the moment he is still very young and enjoying learning this new skill so we just have to let him. At the end of the day what's a bit of food on the floor or him, the floor can be cleaned and he can be plonked in the bath, sorted. This can also be rather amusing to watch, we have many photos in the family album of my daughter and now our son covered in food. I'm sure most parents will have loads of these pictures too, I don't know why but most parents find this amusing, are we just as bad as them! Another thing he is partial to is drinking the last part of the tea in your cup, I would advise parents to do this with caution. The last time my son did this he just lobbed to cup after smashing it everywhere so maybe we will now forfeit this and pass it off as a bad idea.




Role play

He wants to do everything we do now which is rather sweet and again good learning skills. My wife is known for her constant tidying in which now my son will often copy her! If he spills anything he rushes straight away and looks for a cloth to wipe it up. Although I really don't want him to turn into my wife I do feel that again this is a good skill to have as everyone will have to do some degree of tidying in their lives. He will also put his toys away in his toy box at the end of the day; this is great I think as I do feel it is important to encourage them to tidy up all the stuff that they use. The worst thing about the copying is the fact that he loves the saucepans. Obviously he watches either my wife or I cook so at the moment and has a complete obsession with them. From the moment he gets up till the moment he goes to bed they will be out. The bad thing is that they are filled with anything he can find, this can range from leaves and mud from the garden (yes they do get taken outside) or some raisins or crisps he is snacking on. The fact that all the saucepans in our house are all bent out of shape really isn't a positive sign either. We do grin and bear this as it is nice for him to take an interest and at the end of the day what harm is he doing? My daughter has a Wii which he likes to have a go on too. Obviously he doesn't play it himself but if I play one of my football games on it he will grab a steering wheel or controller and sit next to me and pretend to play this will keep him busy for hours. The downside to this is the amount of DVD's and Wii games we have found in the DVD player and Wii console really isn't funny!


Everything's NO

As they grow up you will notice their vocabulary became bigger and bigger, his favourite word at the moment is no and says this to everything you ask him. This can range from, do you want a nap? Do you want a drink? Do you want to go in the garden? To all of these the answer will always be NO. When they start talking even more you will need to watch what you say as recently we have noticed that he has started to copy things we say. They can also get language from the TV so keep an eye on what you watch in their company. When they are really young you don't think twice about what you watch as they really don't understand. All I will say on this matter is I do remember my wife watching a catch up episode of sex in the city whilst my little girl was at home (she was around 2 at the time) This was a big mistake as this programme will often have a few explicit words in it. I won't go into what she said (it was bad) but luckily it was only said by her the once, so be careful, they hear more than you think!



They don't run out of batteries


My son is a total live wire, from the moment he gets up till the moment he goes to bed. At this stage of his development he is interested in everything and doesn't miss a trick. The moment you start something he will want to join in whether you want him to or not. The problem we have at the moment is that he wants to walk everywhere. Whilst this is good for him it isn't often very practical. My wife doesn't drive so in the week she has to walk the 20 minute journey to school each day with my little girl. For him to walk is virtually impossible as they would never get there! We have reigns for him which is proving a no, no at the moment as he will just not put them on, and trying to get him to hold your hand can also prove very trying. This is a battle for my wife most mornings but once he is in his pushchair he will stay in so it's just going through the horrible task of getting him in! The lucky thing about him is that he does have a 2 hour nap at lunchtime and sleeps very well at night so at least we do get some peace to re charge our batteries.



Destruction

I like to regard my wife as slightly over tidy she will do it constantly! With our son she has had to learn that she is fighting a losing battle. She used to constantly tidy up after him but she has now learned I am please to say not to. The lounge will often be a bed of saucepans, toys and food when I get home. This of course comes with the territory and can easily be tidied up when they are tucked up in bed. It may be frustrating to look at it during the day but like I explained to my wife why tidy it up when they will do it all again in the next five minutes. Trust me it really isn't worth it!



You can't look nice


At the moment my son is a constant mess, we will dress him in the morning and in the next ten minutes he will be filthy! This will also include ourselves; he seems to have a thing at the moment where if his hands are dirty he will wipe them on us! He has a cold too so I will often look at my wife when I get home from work and discover that she has snot all over her shoulder and legs, not nice. The thing that you need to do is not worry, Dirt comes with children, we could change him all day and he would still be dirty why make extra washing when you already do enough. I think when you have children you have to except the fact that they get dirty, and you will too.


Tantrums

All parents will notice this one; they do say the terrible two's but in my experience from my little girl and lad is that it starts much earlier, I think most parents will agree. The flinging on he floor and the lashing out is very hard going. Although he likes to use the word no he doesn't like to hear it. He absolutely loves lollies and will ask for them all day. We do have to say no a lot to this which will lead into him throwing himself on the floor. Another favourite strop of his is to bang the oven door open and shut. This can prove very trying but the best thing to do is ignore, they will soon get bored. The only thing we worry about when he slams the oven door is it will come off the hinges! All children will go through this stage and is something they will grow out of. My daughter started around 14 months and by two she had grown out of it. I keep saying to myself hopefully only a few more months for my son. You have to remember that its all about frustration and it's the only way they can show there anger or frustration.



TheT.V. addiction


I have to admit that for ages we were trying to get him to sit down and watch a bit of CBeebies so we could at least sit down for 5 minutes. As I explained before he is very much full on and doesn't stop much. At first we would put it on and barely look at it, now he has it on all day. He doesn't watch it constantly but will have it on the background until something catches his eye (in the night garden is his favourite) the bad thing we have learnt with the T.V. is that now we cannot watch anything else when he is around. The second the T.V. is turned over he will create hell so at the moment we have been accustomed to a life of CBeebies, I have even noticed myself singing to the songs at work! What parents will do for some peace is quite amazing really!


The toddler stage is very hard work, but at the same time very rewarding as this is the time you will actually start to get something back. He will give us a cuddle and a kiss now and is a total joy to watch. The hours of entertainment we have from him are huge like it was with our daughter at this stage. They are learning new things each day and each day is different. Enjoy this moment as it is one you will not get back!

Summary: Great to watch them grow form babies to little people