Category Archive

toddlers

5 things to make your life easier when traveling with a toddler

My kid has wracked up more airline miles than I did at her age. And recently I went traveling with my toddler BY MYSELF. So, my fellow toddler-minders: Learn from my mistakes. Here are some things that I’ve found that could make your life easier when traveling with a toddler.

8 easy pumpkin decorating ideas for lazy parents

I am unafraid to admit to the masses that I am the laziest of parents! And the last thing I need this Halloween is another mess to clean up. So here are some easy pumpkin decorating ideas that won’t leave you covered in seeds and despair…

Working parents: how to magically “level up” during quarantine?!

I am a working mom. I love my two-year-old daughter more than light, but ever since she was 11 weeks old, my husband and I have had help of one variety or another… that is until COVID-19. Now we’re all at home, alone together, working, and trying to wade through this mess…

Is there an overall toddler handbook?

I, surprisingly, am a little late to the game on books about toddlers (12m-4yrs). Everything I am Googling is either about toddler discipline, toddler brain development, etc. All of which I am very interested in, but isn’t there just an overall toddler handbook?

Do my interactions with strangers shape my toddler’s view of gender?

Three years and a thousand miles away from my graduate program and the endless discussions on what it means to resist dominant discourses of heteronormativity, I find myself tempted to cut the curls I adore. I believe that little boys should be able to have flowing tresses and that rosy cheeks and pink pajamas are not the property of femininity. And yet, I get tired of correcting all the well-meaning strangers who compliment my child with the wrong pronoun. And despite myself, I wonder what message Morgan learns from their confusion.

I never planned to breastfeed a toddler, and now I do all the time

I don’t know how it is in other countries and cultures, but breastfeeding brings out a lot of emotions in this country, mainly of discomfort. The idea that breasts, the symbol of female sexuality, should provide the ultimate nourishment to babies, the symbol of innocence, just seems, so, well, unnatural. Before I had children, I thought I was OK with nursing babies, but the idea of a toddler nursing was, if not obscene, at least weird — a kid being able to ask to nurse! I vowed to be discreet, not to make anyone else uncomfortable. I still remember my cousin feeding her baby during a wedding reception when I was a kid. While she was talking to my father! I wouldn’t do that in front of any of my uncles.

This is what happens when Radiohead fans have a party for their two-year-old

Sebastian’s parents love music, and it was so fun seeing that influence in his wonderful personality. Our friends brought their pug Kong, which was a big hit with everyone, and Sebastian got to end the whole shindig with a little dance in the kiddie pool wearing his red chucks!

We’re beginning our journey as home schoolers

When I was pregnant with my son I felt as though there was an almost innate need for him to be home schooled. I had forgotten about it after I went through a very stressful birth with him. When he was 18 months and in Early Intervention for speech I revisited the idea. When I couldn’t find a curriculum or school system I agreed with in public, charter or Catholic school I ended up walking through this door of infinite possibilities — home schooling! Many people started to emerge and extend their hand towards us, offering trips to conventions, curriculum, catalogs, websites and help.