Oh, toddlerhood. It’s a never-ending cycle of giggles, squeals, tantrums, learning, and more tantrums. We’re having a blast with Jackson in this phase of life, but there are definitely times where I find myself wishing away the time until he’s old enough to express himself a little better and we aren’t so limited by his young age. However, I’m incredibly aware of how fast this time goes, and I want to soak up every sweet second that I possibly can, so I came up with a little “bucket list” of things to do with Jackson before he stops being a tiny little toddler and turns into a big kid. Some of these we have already accomplished and some we still need to do, but I definitely think that this might help us slow down a little and make sure we get the most out of every second of this phase in our lives!
- Go to the beach
- Go pick some fruit (berries, apples, anything close by!)
- Go to the zoo
- Learn a few chores
- Get him helping out in the kitchen
- Go to every splash pad we can
- Have dance parties in the kitchen. Do it daily, if possible.
- Bake cookies together
- Explore life at his pace as much as possible.
- Watch him learn. Revel in it.
- Play in the rain
- Teach him the joy of being scared – Jackson loves to play hide and seek and have me jump out and yell “boo.” The bigger I make him jump, the harder he laughs.
- Let him feed a baby animal
- Go to the library as much as we can. Story time is great, but so is just checking out new books!
- Go to a football (or other sports) game. We may not last the whole time, but it’ll be a fun adventure!
- Go camping
- Play in the rain
- Get some really good videos of all the adorable toddler things he does/says (like his belly laugh and the adorable things he mispronounces)
- Go to a petting zoo
- Carve (or maybe just paint) a pumpkin
- Make gingerbread houses at Christmas
- Visit a farmer’s market
- Have a picnic
- Go to an outdoor concert (bonus points for a kids’ concert!)
- Let him ride a pony
- Let him choose his own clothes
- Ride a train
- Go hiking
- Visit a farm
- Take a class together (I’m dying to try a toddler yoga class!)
What’s on your toddler years bucket list?
wonderful olive / 19353 posts
That’s such a great bucket list! I let DS play in the rain a few months ago (when it was raining all the flipping time in North Texas); and he absolutely loved it!! It was more of a constant drizzle than a down pour, but he enjoyed it none the less. Especially playing with the water that came spewing out of the gutter spouts. lol!!
We just got him a learning tower so hopefully we can incorporate him in the kitchen soon and fruit picking is on our list this year too!
honeydew / 7504 posts
Concert and sporting event are definitely on our bucket list!
pomegranate / 3225 posts
great ideas!
kiwi / 659 posts
Great idea and great list! My DS is almost 20 months, and we’ll definitely be borrowing a few of these items!
kiwi / 635 posts
Awwww I need to do this too!! They are little for so short!!!