Hellobee

Lion just hit 2.5 years and I have to say that this was a really fun stage! Yes, there are challenges, but toddlers are just so adorable!

Biggest Challenges:

• Tantrums. Tantrums, again. We have entered the terrible twos! Although the tantrums subsided dramatically between 18-24 months, they came back with a vengeance around age 2. They’re not as frequent, but they are often much worse.
• Stubbornness. Lion has definitely learned to assert himself and dig his heels in. If we try to get him into a shirt he doesn’t want to wear, the entire world will hear about it. We’ve had fights over amazingly trivial things and have definitely had to learn to pick our battles. Often, when we just give the issue a little bit of time (often just a minute or two), he’ll change his mind . . . it just has to be on his own accord. Other times, we’re in a rush or it’s a non-negotiable issue and we enter meltdown mode.
• Potty-training. We are in the midst of potty-training right now and I am at my wit’s end. I really wish we had made more of an effort to potty train before he turned 2 because Lion was showing all the signs of readiness and was doing a much better job than he is now. I think if we had tried the three-day method when he was 20 months, he would have been fully potty trained very quickly. Now we are dealing with his stubbornness and lack of interest. I really regret not seizing the opportunity when it presented itself earlier.
• Preschool transition. I wrote about his preschool transition in this post, and it was a bit tougher than I expected. I thought Lion would be overjoyed to join the rest of his friends in preschool, but he resisted. It’s fine now, but it was a tough couple of weeks when he was adjusting to the larger classroom and new teachers.

• Singing. I’ve always enjoyed toddler singing, but now that Lion knows all the words to many different songs, including ones we’ve never heard of, it’s even better. When we are on longer drives and he starts complaining, we can ask him to sing us a song and this usually distracts him.
• Complex sentences. Lion has been talking in complete sentences for awhile now, but in this stage his sentences became longer and much more complex. He is able to speak about complex things, follow longer trains of thought and tell stories to us.
• Even more growth in imaginative play. Lion’s always enjoyed imaginative play, but I really like that not only is he pretending to do things, like playing in the kitchen or having a tea party with his stuffed animals or pretending to be a dragon, but he’s actually giving voice to his animals and toys. Recently, he was playing with two monster trucks and I overheard him say, “Wah! Wah! I’m so sad because I can’t fly,” then turn to his other truck (a Superman monster truck that has a cape) and say, “It’s okay! I can show you how! You can try!” So so cute to watch him give his toys conversations and emotions.
• More independence. I absolutely love watching Lion become more independent. He’s become much more self-sufficient, which is not only fun to watch but also really helpful because he can get himself ready while we get Panda ready.

What were your favorite and least favorite things about this stage?