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    Toddler days.

    Nova's getting to that stage.

    She's 1. Crib has been converted to a toddler bed. Thinking seriously about potty training. And haven't really read any books on toddlerhood. I feel like my knowledge is extremely lacking on how to deal with this stage. I picked up the Happiest Toddler on the Block book cause I remembered Thal recommending the Happiest Baby book and am slowly working my way through that, but still.

    Tips, tricks, and advice for those years?
    We are what we are. Nothing more, nothing less. There is good and evil among every kind of people. It's the evil among us who rule now. -Anne Bishop, Daughter of the Blood

    I wondered if he could ever understand that it was a blessing, not a sin, to be graced with more than one love.
    It could be complicated; of course it could be complicated. And it opened one up to the possibility of more pain and loss.
    Still, it was a blessing I would never relinquish. Love, genuine love, was always a cause for joy.
    -Jacqueline Carey, Naamah's Curse

    Service to your fellows is the root of peace.

    #2
    Re: Toddler days.

    Alcohol.



    for you, I mean.
    Satan is my spirit animal

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      #3
      Re: Toddler days.

      When you say toddler...do you mean the baby is starting to walk?...Duce might have suggested a need...You gonna need eyes of a eagle..I do remember the toddler stage..also remember the terrible twos and threes....been to long for me to give really good advice...
      MAGIC is MAGIC,black OR white or even blood RED

      all i ever wanted was a normal life and love.
      NO TERF EVER WE belong Too.
      don't stop the tears.let them flood your soul.




      sigpic

      my new page here,let me know what you think.


      nothing but the shadow of what was

      witchvox
      http://www.witchvox.com/vu/vxposts.html

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        #4
        Re: Toddler days.

        Are you kidding me, Anu? She's starting to run.

        And Duce, I've got some Patron in the freezer. Might be a good night for a sip or two... or three or four.
        We are what we are. Nothing more, nothing less. There is good and evil among every kind of people. It's the evil among us who rule now. -Anne Bishop, Daughter of the Blood

        I wondered if he could ever understand that it was a blessing, not a sin, to be graced with more than one love.
        It could be complicated; of course it could be complicated. And it opened one up to the possibility of more pain and loss.
        Still, it was a blessing I would never relinquish. Love, genuine love, was always a cause for joy.
        -Jacqueline Carey, Naamah's Curse

        Service to your fellows is the root of peace.

        Comment


          #5
          Re: Toddler days.

          Gives last rites.....running kid...the memories....I think this is when my Mom got a harness on me,with a leash attached to keep me from wandering off...
          MAGIC is MAGIC,black OR white or even blood RED

          all i ever wanted was a normal life and love.
          NO TERF EVER WE belong Too.
          don't stop the tears.let them flood your soul.




          sigpic

          my new page here,let me know what you think.


          nothing but the shadow of what was

          witchvox
          http://www.witchvox.com/vu/vxposts.html

          Comment


            #6
            Re: Toddler days.

            How old is your toddler? My eldest son was highly mobile at 9months and nothing could keep him down. Even now, there's little change.

            It's an exhausting time so my best advice is to be good to yourself. Catch up on sleep when you can. And don't worry too much about toddler-hood because mostly they grow out of it.
            www.thewolfenhowlepress.com


            Phantom Turnips never die.... they just get stewed occasionally....

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              #7
              Re: Toddler days.

              She turned one on Jan 12. She really started walking around Christmas. Now she running and climbing. Cringe.
              We are what we are. Nothing more, nothing less. There is good and evil among every kind of people. It's the evil among us who rule now. -Anne Bishop, Daughter of the Blood

              I wondered if he could ever understand that it was a blessing, not a sin, to be graced with more than one love.
              It could be complicated; of course it could be complicated. And it opened one up to the possibility of more pain and loss.
              Still, it was a blessing I would never relinquish. Love, genuine love, was always a cause for joy.
              -Jacqueline Carey, Naamah's Curse

              Service to your fellows is the root of peace.

              Comment


                #8
                Re: Toddler days.

                When she starts dragging out chairs to get into cupboards, tie them to the table. That's what Mom had to do with me.
                Army of Darkness: Guardians of the Chat

                Honorary Nord.

                Habbalah Vlogs

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                  #9
                  Re: Toddler days.

                  In general, I learned two things during the 1 1/2 to 3 age--Learn to pick your battles now (because it never gets easier, it just gets different) and kids have their own time table (and you are the adult, so suck it up). Toddlerhood is when parenting gets real (as in requiring something other than input and output management). Babies (unless your child has something wrong with them that requires extra interventions) are actually a relatively easy time as a parenting (though no one is smart enough to realize this at the time)--they stay where you put them, they don't talk back, and all they do is eat, sleep, and poop (on their own timetable, so it requires giving up a little sleep). But toddlerhood is hard...I think in part because its such a shock on parents--this is when your child figures out that they are their own person with their own wants and their own capabilities that might not match what you want. Toddler-hood is hard because they can't be reasoned with yet (but, on your side, they still want to try to make you happy). Resign yourself now to the simple fact that it never gets easier, it only gets different. If you don't learn to pick your battles now, the next 16 years are going to suck a lot. Also, kids develop at their own pace, and its an uneven development. Don't rush them--if they have a good example to learn from, they will get there when they are ready and able.

                  Practically speaking, I learned that (because of the aforementioned) potty training is the biggest time waster ever. Unless there is something wrong with them (psychologically, physically, mentally, etc), almost no child goes to kindergarten without being potty trained. Why the rush (other than diapers are expensive and changing them sucks)? Supposedly girls are "easier" than boys...supposedly there are all these programs and reward systems, etc you can use...but at the end of the day (barring some physical or mental disability), kids will use the bathroom and stop using a diaper when they want to and are ready to. You might be able to motivate them with stickers, M&M's, just to get them to stop nagging you every 5 seconds, with big girl panties...or you might not (and in my observation and experience, the "might nots" are more likely).

                  I don't doubt that there are wonderous miracle children with overachieving super-mom's out there that have their 16 month old potty trained in just two weeks...sometimes freaks get lucky. My mom claims that I was potty trained around 18-20 months, but my nana (my honorary grandma that babysat me from 10 weeks to 10 years) told me that was a lie...I was about 2 1/2-3, 18 months was when my mom got me a potty seat and stuck me on it every hour or so until I was eventually potty trained a year later. This was pretty much my experience with every child I've ever babysat and with two brothers that are 20 years younger with me. It would have been my experience with my own kids, had I not read the most useless toddler parenting book ever--The Girlfriend's Guide To Toddlers...and then gone to ask my nana (who had practical experience with over 100 kids over 40+ years). The only useful piece of advice I can remember from it was that pretty much that this chick with a gazillion kids worked her ass off with the first dozen and gave up on the second and let them DIY (yeah, I'm exaggerating) and they were all potty trained around the same age anyway.

                  When Chickadee was about 18 months (hey, if I could do it, she could too right? at that point, I didn't know otherwise), we got a potty chair and training pants. She sat on it about 30 minutes after every meal, before and after naps and sleep time. We had a sticker chart and m&m's. After about 3 months of this, lamenting my otherwise genius daughter's seemingly dismal failure (and trying some bizarre "let your kid be naked and shut yourself in your home from 36 hours while giving them lots of juice and making them sit on the potty every 45 minutes for 15 minutes" or something like that...hey;don't judge, I was desperate)--which, of course could only be the fault of my inept parenting (yup, I'm totally engaging in a bit of hyperbole for effect here), I read the most horribly useless parenting book ever and thought the experience of the author was completely and utterly as crap as the rest of the book.
                  Despondent, I turned to the biggest child-expert I knew--I went to have tea with my nana. And she said that the cake was a lie (paraphrased) that potty training was a waste of time, effort, and energy, and added more stress to the care giver and child and to their relationship than was necessary and that, in her experience, kids go on the pot when they are ready to. She also said (shattering my very identity as a genius child that was potty trained before two) that my mom (like most parents in her experience) has a somewhat warped view of the actual timing of events in my childhood.

                  In the years since, I have tried to heed this advice (in pretty much every area of parenting)--kids have their own time table that is often not amenable (by no fault of their own) to mine as a parent, as the adult it is my job to get over it (which pretty much goes hand in hand in the idea of picking your battles). IMO, the goal of potty training is to have a child that goes to a toilet to do their business when they need to go, and tells you when they need to go with enough time that you can find them a toilet if you are away from home and one isn't handy. A kid is intellectually capable and physically capable of that (in my experience) somewhere around 3...and its not rocket science, its something they can learn through a observation. Before that, if you actively "potty train" (and there are a ton of programs and what-not that *swear* they will have your kids potty trained in a weekend, two weeks, a month, you name it) you reduce yourself to being their potty conscience. Now, if a parent wants to spend all of their time being their potty conscience (hello, power struggle), then that's their business. But when I gave up on potty training Sophie, and just occasionally would mention it (usually when I would go--I mean, kids aren't dumb...they know what you are doing in there), she would either show interest or not--sometimes she would, sometimes not. And, on her third birthday, she decided that she wanted to be a big girl now and she would pee on the big potty...and after that, her only accidents have been time she had a tummy bug and couldn't make it to the bathroom in time, the time I missed the turn for the rest stop on a road trip, and the time she fell asleep in the car and Hubby put her in bed without waking her up after a birthday party. (Potty training with Collin was easy for #1, but not so much for #2--Sharkbait had the problem commonly called "poop holding", which is often psychological and many times can be a child's response to taking control of one of the only things that they have control over (there can be other causes as well)
                  Wonderful Life: The Burgess Shale and the Nature of HistoryPagan Devotionals, because the wind and the rain is our Bible
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                    #10
                    Re: Toddler days.

                    Originally posted by habbalah View Post
                    When she starts dragging out chairs to get into cupboards, tie them to the table. That's what Mom had to do with me.
                    Lol, Sharkbait was an escape artist--he could undo any child safety device invented. Should have been a beta tester for Safety 1st.

                    Oh! Made me think of something else. If you don't want them to find it or wreck it, don't own it (or box it up and put it in the attic or another storage place for a couple years).

                    Seriously...Phee thought white walls were a sin against humanity for about 2 years. If she couldn't find a pen, marker, crayon to make a muralistic masterpiece (my favorite was the "six legged dog running down the stairs chasing donuts" that she drew along the staircase of our (rental) townhouse), that was okay...toddlers are innovative. Mom's lipstick, eye liner, smashed strawberries from the fridge, the edge of a painted toy, those make acceptable drawing implements too.

                    Also, no matter what you do (or where you hide them) your child (if they are normal) will find scissors and cut their own hair. Probably a couple days before you go somewhere where you want them to look nice or get pictures taken....its pretty much the Murphy's Law of parenting. If they don't do it now, it will be in about 4-5 years.

                    A good number of kids will also play with their poop like its play dough. Just a warning. Luckily that is one thing we escaped, but day care had a kid that liked to play with poop in the nap-time crib next to Sharkbait.
                    Wonderful Life: The Burgess Shale and the Nature of HistoryPagan Devotionals, because the wind and the rain is our Bible
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                      #11
                      Re: Toddler days.

                      Escape artist indeed...Driving on the freeway,son safely strapped in the car seat right next to me in the front seat...there was those double crossing straps(Think bandoliers),and a seat belt type one...I look over as I am driving,and my son is standing up in the seat waving like crazy...I pull to the side as safely as a panicked adult can,and strap him back in...

                      Houdini would have been proud of that kid..
                      MAGIC is MAGIC,black OR white or even blood RED

                      all i ever wanted was a normal life and love.
                      NO TERF EVER WE belong Too.
                      don't stop the tears.let them flood your soul.




                      sigpic

                      my new page here,let me know what you think.


                      nothing but the shadow of what was

                      witchvox
                      http://www.witchvox.com/vu/vxposts.html

                      Comment

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