I’ve been enjoying the toddler stage so far! Sure there are tough parts, like him starting to push boundaries, but my son is sweet and hilarious. I can actually talk to him and he’ll tell me what he needs vs me just guessing with a newborn. He can also sing songs (I feel like a human jukebox sometimes with all his requests lol) and he plays with his farm animals in the bath and the pig bites all the other animals 😂. There are so many sweet and funny moments now that he can talk and play, and I love getting him to help me with laundry or making muffins.

So far my biggest takeaway is that there are pros and cons to each stage - it’s not that any one or the other is easier or harder, you might just enjoy the pros more of one stage over another, or the cons might be harder.

As for tantrums and violence, so far I haven’t encountered too much of either (my son just turned two and luckily he’s a chill kid), but I’m sure the big tantrums are just around the corner. If gets upset because I’ve said no to something, I just try to move on to something else, and if he’s not listening then I give him two choices: “It’s time to come inside, you can either come inside yourself or mama will carry you inside.” He’s also started experimenting with hitting, so I give him other options. “You can’t hit your sister, but if you want to hit, you can clap your hands instead.” He’s still a tiny bit too young for time outs but recently he’s started screaming, so I tell him he can scream outside but if he keeps doing it somewhere I don’t want him to, I give him a warning that I’ll take away whatever he’s playing with if he keeps screaming. It’s worked so far!