If the thought of dining out with your little one brings to mind images of ketchup – covered tantrums or macaroni meltdowns, know that while those things can and do happen it is also possible to have a fun dinner out with your entire family. While it is not possible to guarantee a successful restaurant outing with your toddler, there are things that you can do to increase your chances of having a good time. First, choose your venue carefully. Look for a place with gracious staff, an inviting atmosphere, and food that you know your toddler likes. Also, plan … Continue reading →

Parents of toddlers often have a dilemma on their hands at meal time and snack time. There’s a hungry little person who needs something to eat. That hungry little person may regularly change what he or she will and won’t eat. Also, as the person responsible for the health of that hungry little person you have your own ideas and plans for what kinds of things you will serve. Feeding your toddler right can be a challenge. Fortunately, summer time is here and there are quite a few nutritious foods available that most toddlers love to sink their teeth into. … Continue reading →

Many parents of toddlers have trouble with bedtime. Bedtime battles come and go throughout toddlerhood, and it can be the most trying time of day. By a certain time in the evening, you are ready for your toddler to go to bed – especially if he or she did not take a nap earlier in the day. Dylan has been pretty good about bedtime for the last month or so. I start to set the stage for bedtime by having dinner on the table by seven each night – or as close to seven as possible. If Dylan did not … Continue reading →

On a recent trip to the library, one of the books that Dylan picked out is “Olivia”, by Ian Falconer. He has asked me to read that book to him so many times that I have lost track. You know what, though? Even if I have read it to him fifty times I could read it to him fifty more. I just love that book. Why do I love “Olivia” so? I probably have as many reasons as the book has pages. One reason that I love it is that the main character, Olivia the piglet, reminds me so much … Continue reading →

A few weeks ago, I wrote about how Dylan was going through some tough adjustments as he became a big brother. Now that Blake is almost seven weeks old, we have all had a chance to get used to the way our family is now and things are settling down a bit. I am proud of how far Dylan has come in the past few weeks as far as understanding and working through his feelings about the experience. One thing that I am very happy about is that he no longer thinks that I am going to go away and … Continue reading →

Today I did something that I had been worrying about ever since I returned home from the hospital with our new baby about a month ago. I left the boys in the care of others for the first time. Dylan stayed at our house with his aunt, and Blake went to be with his grandmother. You would think that I was more concerned about leaving a newborn baby than a toddler, but that was not the case. When Dylan’s baby brother arrived and I was away from home for a few days, Dylan was very upset. Since I returned, he … Continue reading →

If you are the parent of a toddler, chances are that you sometimes feel like your child can not hear what you are saying to him or her. Most toddlers can hear quite well, and that is usually not the problem. The problem is that they are not listening to the words that they are hearing from you. If this sounds like a familiar situation to you, you may want to take some time to think about how you say things to your child. It is possible that there might be some room for improvement regarding the clarity of the … Continue reading →

The past few weeks have been a little crazy around here. Bringing a newborn home is a challenging time for parents, and when there is a toddler involved the challenge is even greater. A period of adjustment is to be expected, and every toddler will react differently to his or her new brother or sister. Although we tried to prepare Dylan for the arrival of his baby brother, he has had some trouble adjusting to our new family situation. What has been especially hard for him is sharing his Mommy with another person who has very big needs. While the … Continue reading →

At this time of year, many little noses run and sniffle. It can be difficult to discern whether your toddler’s runny nose is the result of a cold or allergies because the two conditions have very similar symptoms. For the past couple of days, Dylan has had a very runny nose and I have been wondering what is causing it. Since it has only been a few days, it is too soon to tell whether the duration of Dylan’s runny nose is being caused by allergies or a cold. A cold lasts for a few days to a week, but … Continue reading →

As I mentioned in the last post, I am not sure what my husband and I were thinking when we brought our son to the hospital with us. We may not have been thinking, as the whole situation was rather chaotic. Even though there was a bed in the room for my husband and Dylan, it became clear to us at about two o’clock in the morning that we had made a very big mistake. I was in my hospital bed hooked up to an IV. My husband was trying to get Dylan to sleep in the other bed. We … Continue reading →