Search Results for: blog connecting with your toddler

Teaching Toddlers Empathy

One important skill that we as parents can help our children to learn is empathy. Empathy is the ability to understand and experience the feelings of others, and to respond in helpful ways. No child is too young to begin learning about empathy. In fact, you have probably been modeling empathy for your child since the moment that she was born by being sensitive to her feelings and responding to her needs. As your toddler grows, she can begin to build on the empathy that you have shown her by reaching out to others in a caring way. Of course, … Continue reading →

Life With A Typical Toddler

The other day I saw a hilarious e-card on Facebook. Well, it would have been hilarious if it weren’t so eerily true. It said something like “All these stay at home moms are on Pinterest making their own soap and reindeer shaped treats, and I’m over here like hey, I took a shower and kept the kids alive”. I am not sure how long I have felt this way, but I know that it goes back even to before my second son was born. Some days I manage to get a few things done, but much of the time I … Continue reading →

Toddler Diaper Rash

One of the challenges that toddlers and their parents navigate as they grow is potty learning. A couple of months ago, Dylan decided that it was his time to graduate to big boy underwear. He did great for a few weeks, even on a six hour long car ride to Maine. For some reason, he then decided to abandon his undies and go back to diapers. When Dylan changed direction and went back to wearing diapers it confused me, so I did a little research on potty learning and regression. I learned that sometimes, toddlers will master using the potty, … Continue reading →

Connecting With Your Toddler

It has been said that a toddler who feels a strong connection with his or her parents is more likely to be happy. Fortunately for parents, there are many ways that you can strengthen the connection that you have with your toddler. Even better, there are not likely to be any adverse effects from nurturing that connection as frequently as you can. Perhaps the essence of building a connection with your toddler can be summed up in two easy to remember words, time and attention. If you are anything like me, you may feel that time and attention are two … Continue reading →

Traveling with Toddlers: Layover or Not?

When I took my 20-month-old daughter on a 10-hour flight to Hawaii the last thing I wanted was to have her fall asleep right as our connecting flight was about to land. The thought of having to switch planes and tote a sleeping toddler around the airport while juggling my carry-ons was all the incentive I needed to shell out extra money to book a direct flight. But that’s just me. If your toddler is not a napper, then a layover provides the chance to have your son or daughter run off some steam. The break also allows you to … Continue reading →

How Do You NOT Know When Your Child has Gone Missing at an Airport?

A real life version of the big screen hit “Home Alone” took place in Canada on Monday and despite hearing the story multiple times I still don’t see how a 23-month-old boy could be “inadvertently” left behind in a gigantic airport. So here’s the deal: According to The Vancouver Sun, a family immigrating to Canada from the Philippines claims the mix-up occurred during a last minute scramble to a catch their plane. Jun Parreno, the boy’s father, told the paper he, his wife and the tot’s two grandparents were desperately trying to make their connecting flight from Vancouver to Winnipeg … Continue reading →

Staying Present, Staying Calm

When you are the parent of a toddler, your mind might spend much of its time engaged in gymnastics. It leaps forwards, backwards, then stops briefly to notice something that your child is doing right now only to dart off again in another direction as you think about things you want or need to do or ponder things that you have already done. With all of those mental gymnastics going on, it’s no wonder that you are exhausted by the end of the day. Sometimes, I find myself so mentally exhausted by the time the boys go to bed that … Continue reading →

Exploring the High Seas with Kids

In a previous blog I detailed some of the extraordinary amenities offered to families on Disney Cruise Lines’ ships. In addition to being able to dine with Mickey and crew at sea, the company also provides a feature that’s exclusive to their vessels. It’s called a rotating dining system and it allows pint-sized passengers and their parents to can change restaurants every night, but keep the same servers and tablemates. Unlike its competitors Disney Cruise Lines also offers a bath and a half in most staterooms. This is a huge bonus when you are traveling with young kids. The bathtub … Continue reading →

Playing with Fire

Actually, dirt. Make that fecal matter. And not with it, IN it. Your kids are rolling around in germ-infested, dung-covered areas of filth each and every time you allow them to frolic in fast-food playlands. Or so says a take-charge mom of four slash doctor with a specialty in child development. Erin Carr-Jordan did what most parents refuse to do: she broke out of her bubble of blissful ignorance and exposed the real dirt that lies within the often-sticky, always smelly, bastions of filth that are fast-food kiddie playlands. After seeing clumps of hair, rotting food, ink and what looked … Continue reading →

Simple Weekend Pleasures

Who says you have to splurge on a Disney getaway or a Six Flags splash-fest in order to make your kid happy this summer? In the few years that I have been a parent I’ve learned that children care more about the amount of quality time you spend with them rather than the amount of money you spend on them. Of course, my daughter is only six, so that theory is subject to change once she hits tweendom. Still, there’s nothing quite like bonding with your child in the great outdoors on a bright summer day. Just you, your kid, … Continue reading →