It has been said when you become a parent, your whole world changes. But what you never hear is when your child becomes a toddler, your world changes by the minute. Perhaps this is a precursor to the pre-teen years or some silly test of patience and will, but regardless, as a parent of a toddler, you realize a few day-to-day seemingly “norms” have quickly morphed into that of new meaning.
Cooking
You suddenly become inventive; you have discovered how to make Elmo from a watermelon, disguise cauliflower in mashed potatoes or rename boring food such as spinach, celery and meatballs into fun and catchy names, such as fairy fans, ants-on-a-log or kick-balls. When your child becomes a toddler, your pancakes no longer simply sport mouse ears, but now have facial features and sometimes, become the shape of you, your child or a dog bone. You also have liberty at this time to mix and match various foods all in the spirit of consumption with out waste “yes, Timmy, when I was a kid, I ALWAYS ate leftover meatloaf for breakfast…here, have some toast too.”
Sleeping
Long-praising the return of a full night sleep, you then find yourself waking at all hours for a variety of reasons, including yours, your spouse or your kids’. Who is coughing? Was that the cat I heard or is someone in the house? How many times must I wake up to pee? Oh no, now Timmy peed the bed…and he’s in my bed. When your child becomes a toddler, the epicenter of your world suddenly changes day and night. (Read The Terrible Twos: Helpful Ways to Tame a Testy Toddler)
Drinking
Used to be, when your patience was tested, you could look forward to relaxing with a glass of wine, a shot of whiskey or a refreshing ice-cold beer. Now, you can hardly find alone or quiet time to quietly sip and enjoy that beverage yet when you do get to solace, you find yourself thinking of your child constantly and feeling guilt. Perhaps its because you now have replaced all glass drink ware with sippy cups and drinking your favorite Zin from a souvenir Zoo cup adorned with Gerald the Giraffe.
(Read 5 Ways to Keep Baby Food BPA-free). When your child becomes a toddler, you find yourself ready (and needing) to drink at any hour of the day –6am, 10am, 3pm…. but have the common sense to refrain.
When your child becomes a toddler, you become a newer version of a new parent. You adapt, you grow and you improvise. When my children were toddlers, I found myself focusing less on the “must do” lists of life such as laundry, dishes and cleaning and more on savoring the daily journey of this time. As a parent, we can choose to do things differently or just let things happen and find ourselves doing them differently, all because your child became a toddler!
Do you or someone you or someone you know have a toddler-inspired story to share ? Drop us a line; we’d like to hear from you and possibly, feature your story in an upcoming blog.
Learn more. Visit PersonalBabyProducts.com and PersonalizedKidsPlates.com to stay up-to-date on topics, tips and articles written especially for parents. We welcome you to share, repost and re-tweet our news, ideas and stories with your social media network. Or, simply subscribe to our RSS feed or newsletter below.
