I’ve said many times that one of the biggest challenges in parenting is that once you’ve overcome what seemed to be the hardest challenge yet, the next new challenge comes along. Every child is extremely different in their developmental timing — that’s another thing I’ve learned about parenting– every child is different, but they all even out in the end! Here’s how it’s gone for Wagon Jr. so far. The ones I’ve starred were (or I expect to be) doozies.

  • *Breastfeeding: 0-3 months
  • Bottle feeding: 2 weeks (Wagon Sr. took care of this one out of necessity since I was in the hospital for 15 hours one day)
  • *Sleep training / Sleeping thru the night: 4 months
  • *Nap training: 4.5 months
  • Solid Foods: started at 5 months, became a challenge when transitioning to chunkier foods around 8 months
  • Weaning/Transitioning to formula: 7 months
  • Transitioning to cold bottles / cow’s milk: 12 months
  • *Table foods: started at 12 months, became a challenge around 15 months
  • *Tantrums / start of the “Terrible Twos”: 18 – 24 months
  • Crib climbing / Nighttime separation anxiety?: 29 months
  • Transitioning to a Toddler Bed: estimating around 32-36 months
  • *Potty Training: estimating around 32-36 months
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As you can see, right around the time Wagon Jr. turned two, we had about 5 blissful months when things were so wonderful. That’s why these new challenges of tantrums and crib vaulting have really been such a big deal for us — other than the pickiness over table foods, we hadn’t had a major challenge since sleep training around 4 months. We can tell when things are really bad because we’ll start to pick up parenting books and do lots of research on the internet. Now that I look the list over again, the starred doozies were the times we actually read books and did research.

Here are a few common challenges that we fortunately did not have to deal with (for more than a few days at least):

  • Separation anxiety: Wagon Jr. has a pretty independent personality and by adopting a lovey, we could leave him in the nursery at church or at daycare with very little problems.
  • Transition into daycare: I was a SAHM until Wagon Jr. was 18 months, so he was definitely ready for the structure of daycare, especially with his independent personality. This transition was actually a hugely positive one for us: he sleeps and eats better at daycare than he does at home, and he spends so much time doing arts and crafts as well as playing outdoors.
  • Sleep regression: Wagon Jr. has always been a fantastic sleeper, and any sleep regressions he went through (due to illness, travel, or developmental advances) lasted less than a couple of days.

Have I missed anything? What were your development doozies?