Aviana is not a toddler just yet, but she is not a newborn baby either. She is just a baby…but she is on the very verge of becoming a toddler. I started to feel this more apparent recently as she has begun to learn how to communicate her needs to us in a variety of ways, including what seems to be the tantrum – crying because she can’t have something her way. This is something new to me!!! With a newborn baby crying can be stopped by feeding, sleeping, playing, soothing or distraction. This kind of tantrum is surely a sign of her getting closer to toddlerhood. Perhaps this is just the worst of the last leap she has been through and it will end tomorrow or not. Either way, I’ve felt like I’m out of my depth on what’s next for my 9mth old as she begins to enter toddler-dom.

So as any typical analyst would do, I went to the book store and selected a couple of books about parenting toddlers to start my research. How will we parent our toddler? Of course the bookshop houses many different publications claiming they have the best technique to raise a happy toddler. But with all the many publications about raising a newborn, this time we are a bit more aware of what our style might be and what might better suit Aviana. So I selected the baby whisperer for toddlers-it was helpful for when A was a newborn and seemed to work well. I haven’t read it all yet, but it started out explaining that if you already read the first book, you already have foundations for following his one. Which is kind of a relief! But the one thing that struck me is that the Baby whisperer explained that a toddler is like a teenager in the same respect as that they are going through a huge transition in their life moving a big step/leap towards independence. And that’s to be expected to be hard on both the child and the parents in many ways.

So here we are on the verge of this transition! I’m looking forward to it, but a bit nervous too! Isn’t this the stage where we make or break our children’s future??!! Hehe…OK a bit melodramatic, but I’d like to get a head start on learning a bit more about toddlers.

What have you found to be useful resources (books, websites, groups, people) in helping you understand your toddler better???!!