Yeah there’s literally no winning 
Latte was super advanced physically and I was (and am) like no no no please not yet slow down ahhhh. But then she was speech delayed and naturally I was stressed about that. Child development is a rollercoaster.
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Basically unless they are a unicorn that is 50% in everything you’re worried or are unprepared as the parent
Except even then you’re comparing to the 1%er babies in play groups of babies you didn’t realize were like way older and are like oh no we’re behind.
For anyone worried about not having your kid be in a high percentile on motor skills and what this means for their future physical abilities, I was walking at 9 months and am the clumsiest, least athletic person in my family and my sibling didn’t walk until 19 months and does a bunch of martial arts at a pretty high level so like don’t stress it too much.
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Yes! When eldest started crawling I was like “I’m supposed to have more time! I am not ready for this!”
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I have generally tried to track less things in my life, both personally and as a parent because I tend to get obsessive and the tracking ends up harming rather than benefiting.
Our kiddo seems on track for now, I’ll keep a general list (I made one just off the top of my head) and see if I need to be more careful of tracking after the next dr appt.
I just get stressed when people are like “my kid knows 32 signs and 24 words and 12 animal sounds” I’m like….and? Is this a competition?? Super excited for your kiddo but also I don’t need to feel like a bad parent if my kid doesn’t have the same???
I have tried to look at all of the milestones in the same way that they measure height/weight/head circumference, as a percentile. Like walking, normal is 9-18 months. So if you walk at 9 months you’re in the 5th percentile and at 18 in the 95th. It’s a range!! And my doctor can tell me when it’s time to be concerned.
Thanks for helping confirm I should loosely track to make sure I’m in the ballpark of normal, but if I miss a few, it’s NBD. I feel like for his age right now, we communicate pretty well. We narrate our days and read lots of books and sing many songs.
I can’t control how many words he knows but I can control how much we talk/read with him. If there is a problem later, we can do other interventions then!
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Does anyone have good resources for helping guide kids through difficulty sharing? I know it is very age appropriate (1-2) for this to be an issue but and tips and tricks would be appreciated!
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This is a hot topic in my irl parenting circles with some parents who think it’s important to intervene and model appropriate behavtand other parents who think you should almost always sit back and let the kids work it out even if it doesn’t look “fair”. In my household each spouse leans a different way haha.
So, there is no one answer and you’ll have to middle through a bit!
I do intervene a bit but don’t use a lot of “sharing” language. I use language like “it looks like Pipsqueak is using that right now. Are you trying to ask for a turn when she’s done?” Or “Pipsqueak, we don’t grab from other kids. Let’s find something fun to do while we wait for a turn to play with that”.
If we have friends at our house, we do coach her beforehand that other kids won’t have their own toys and we try to be generous as a host. I put away things that I know will be extra difficult to share (or ask her which thiiwe should put away now that she’s older).
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J1 loooved bananas, so every time they were given one as a snack, I’d cut it in half and “one for you and one for [sister, daddy, mama]”
This doesn’t help with sharing toys, but I hoped that it instilled a sense of caring for others
Edit - I felt like the act of cutting it in half in front of them was more likely to make an impact than handing them two and saying one was for the other person. Ie. If they were still hungry, I’d cut a second one
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We had a dacyare teacher who was very good at this. Her standard trick was, uh oh, we have two kids who want to play with the same toy. Let’s set a timer! We did this consistently for a few months right around age 2.5.
With my own kids I sometimes have luck replacing one toy with something of equal or greater value. So if the younger one wants to snatch a toy, I say “oh, let’s find you something else that you will like” and sometimes the older one helps me.
My mom says the kids share better when I’m not around.
Daniel Tiger has a few good episodes around this, too.
+1 to @sunflower’s comment, the word “share” doesn’t mean very much to them right now!
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I do turns and timers. I’m just starting to explain sharing now to 4yo. He knows what playing together is now. He can’t do it, but he knows. So I explain that unless they can share, they take turns.
And my household rule is loosely share everything with everyone except if it’s super special. More toys have a protected status where you can’t do something mean (i.e most stuffies except a few can be attacked by dangerous stuffies) than no sharing. That might change.
I expand this into the community but also express that other people don’t HAVE to share theirs/let us play with theirs and we do have to ask. But we will let others take turns with ours.
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Is it OK for my kid to graze on Cheerios for an hour each morning? I think he wakes up hungry like me, but he gets breakfast at daycare
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Definitely.
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Absolutely
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Both my kids require pre breakfast before they go to daycare/school. Usually it’s some sort of cereal or fruit but they definitely need pre breakfast. They still fully eat their breakfast at school or daycare.
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Cool cool. I realized I never really gut checked it with anyone else, and an hour seemed like a long time, but he maybe only eats liiiiiike, 1/3-1/2 cup each AM
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If that’s wrong, I don’t want to be right. We did a bottle before daycare and are trying to wean off of it and snacks are the only way! We do cheerios, muffin, cup of milk, etc.
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Ohhh I forgot we made muffins on Sunday! Shoot where did those go…
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Muffins freeze super well too! We batch cook muffins and waffles and pancakes. Just microwave like 30-60 seconds depending on which one and bam, food.
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Haha yep. The muffins WERE indeed in the freezer.
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No one asked but we have been LOVING these muffins: Blueberry Oatmeal Muffins - Sally's Baking Addiction
We had a bunch of rhubarb and replaced the blueberries with rhubarb cut to the same size and they are incredible. We make 24 at a time and freeze them.
I’m glad you found your muffins Noodle!!
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Muffins are great! I love making muffins and the wiggler has just discovered that he likes eating plain ones, so I am excited to ramp up my muffin baking.
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