7 Things I Love About the Early Toddler Stage

While there’s (understandably) much fanfare surrounding baby milestones, like dedicated baby book pages and dedicated doctor questions, I can’t help but feel like the firsts of the early toddler stage fade into the background.

But my baby’s gradual plodding from one to two is seriously a favorite era of mine. She’s learning so much and doing brand new things! Imagine thinking you know a gal inside and out but daily she seems to be revealing new features! And she displays these exciting new features with the boundless energy and gusto of an espresso addict! But in all of the craziness, it’s so fun.

Here’s what I love about late baby/early toddlerhood:

1. I love how she’s started saying new words

This was an obvious choice, wasn’t it? It really is a revelation when you go from having a little being bopping around making sound effects to a little being forming understandable English words!

(For the record, I also love her adorable incoherant babble.)

But every day it seems there are strides made in our communication.

2. I love that she started wearing shoes

Call me crazy, but I didn’t see a reason to buy my nonwalking child shoes. That seemed like an unnecessary expense.

After our daughter started walking, we introduced the footwear. And almost like in a hyperbolic shoe commercial, the second we strapped her little feet into those sneakers, something sparked within her. As if waiting for the essential tool to carry her onto gravelly sidewalks and through muddy yards, she zoomed off and away, confidently stepping– almost running– in any direction she fancied. This was it!

The shoes have been a total game changer. I love how mature she looks sporting them. There’s something undeniably cute about a very young person wearing normal, adult-looking clothing items, kicks included.

3. I’m thrilled she’s paying more attention to books

(….that is, the contents of the books, and not just the tasty covers and pages!)

I’ll admit that at times I reminisce about my daughter’s sweet earlier phases, like when she was a six-monther constricted to her quilt on the floor gumming any item that came her way, including any books that were unfortunate enough to cross her path.

But this new phase in which she’s interested in the words and pictures, if only sometimes briefly? Nothing short of magic for this book lover mama!

Around a year or a little after, our daughter started bringing books to us. This request to read was often accompanied by an attempt to settle into that warm hollow of a lap.

Now, no matter what position I’m in at the moment, she’ll insist she needs to sit in my lap. And it’s the darndest.

Lately, she’s been able to say “book” while making this request, which is also so fun. Her time actually in dedicated attention to the book waxes and wanes based on mood, other distractions, and the weather, maybe.

I’ve had to perform book readings on repeat and I’ve also snuggled in for a good story only for her to dash off after page 1.

But having a little one finally resting in my lap listening to me read aloud a book, for varying lengths of time, is surely one of my favorite features of motherhood.

It makes me so glad we’re here at this stage.

4. I love how she started incorporating pointing and other gestures

Since the day I found out I was pregnant, I looked forward to my baby pointing.

There are few things more adorable to me than seeing a single little finger confidently extending, showing, communicating!

So, yeah, baby pointing was a BIG milestone in this house. I bet many don’t even think of it. But I dare you to resist a stubby baby finger waving in the air! It simply cannot be done.

Other darling gestures she’s started to incorporate include bye bye, clapping hands, and holding hands out with palms open and shrugged shoulders to say “What?” and “Where is it?” and “I don’t know, Margot!”

This is a time I’m appreciating my daughter’s ever-growing cache of body language and gestures. Maybe one day there will be ones I don’t so much appreciate, so I’m relishing the moment.

5. I dig her maturing eating habits

I have fond memories of our breastfeeding journey, I do. (Actually, it was a combo feeding adventure!) But after my daughter’s first birthday, it was so much more convenient to be able to give her a sippy cup of whole milk instead of mixing formula or nursing.

Gone were the days of triple feeding, mind-boggling milk math and toting an inordinate stash of bottlemaking supplies every place we went.

I could be a truly unencumbered mom– running our daily errands became that much breezier! A diaper, bag of wipes and sippy of milk was all we were tethered to, baby!

I also enjoy the fact that by one year, my daughter had been introduced to all the kinds of food we could think of. And she likes most of them!

Finally, our daughter is getting pretty adept at using her teeny tiny fork, and that is really cute! It’s special to see her grin with pride at having successfully obtained a bite with her tool, and I can’t help but think of what a little lady she’s growing up to be.

6. I’m excited she can entertain herself for a little bit

Too bad you weren’t in the living room one October day. The audible gasp emitting from my mouth reached some dramatic and resounding heights.

One evening, my daughter found a book, plopped down on the carpet, and silently flipped through the pages. She was engrossed in the story for fifteen minutes. (What!)

Though she’s not always or even nearly always occupying herself, the celebration here is that she’s started! Now that my daughter is 1.5 years, she manages to fill at least some portion of our day with independent play. And I think that’s amazing, because then I can just watch her and the games she’s created.

One of my favorite memories of teaching was watching the children at recess and the games or dramas they came up with— now it’s my turn to witness this creativity in my daughter, and bless, I am here for it.

7. We’re both more comfortable with outings

It took me a while to gain comfort bringing my daughter out places. Her sheer amount of supplies often made it not worth it (see eating point above).

But when her dietary needs got easier to accommodate travel, travel we did!

We love going to parks, libraries, zoos, aquariums. If I have an errand, I’ll sometimes take her. She likes to go grocery shopping with me and eat her free banana. She enjoys walks and I enjoy drives. I actually consider it a great treat to have my daughter happily buckled in while I drive and play a podcast.

It’s also nice to have arrived at the playground stage, the one in which she actually appreciates this setting. My newborn who liked to sleep, eat, and spend waking hours people watching didn’t necessarily appreciate playgrounds. As a crawling, older baby, she didn’t like parks either because of all that mulch splintering into her hands and knees.

Now that she’s walking, my daughter has discovered the simple joys of swings and slides and the other playground equipment. And I’m happy for this phase.

Why I love the early toddler phase

Sure, I miss my daughter’s earlier stages. But only a little bit.

Having a daughter who expresses herself more, shows her personality, bounds up slides and down long stretches of sidewalks with the vivacity of a chased chihuahua is quite fun.

And, honestly, if I can pat myself on the back a bit for this, I think I’m doing better at accepting my daughter’s trek into unknown territories like these new stages. Before, I might have been a weepy sentimentalist refusing to wash her last milk-stained burp cloth.

But now? I’m pretty much taking it all in with gratitude and maybe a few wistful walks down memory lane here or there (I have the 8,000 photos to remind me!).

I’m glad we’re here. And I’m glad you’re here! Thanks for reading!