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Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Raising a Toddler...

Yes, Zoey is officially now a TODDLER! What happened to my squishy, immobile, innocent baby girl?? : ) She is now successfully walking, chasing the cats, throwing tantrums, expressing her strong-willed personality, and getting into trouble wherever she can. I'm quickly learning that while this new phase is so much fun and I love watching Zoey grow into an amazing little girl, we also need to adopt some new parenting strategies - STAT!

So far we've had great success using the "Art of Redirection" and the "Art of Distraction". She's still a bit too young to fully understand the concepts of reward and consequence, but distracting her from a potentially dangerous or inappropriate activity, and helping her focus her attention on other, more acceptable behaviors and objects as a form of "discipline" seems to work well....for now.

As we've learned thus far in our 15 month journey of parenthood, EVERYTHING with kids is a phase - both the positive and the challenging pieces. Once you've mastered one stage and begin to feel confident in your parenting skills, you're thrown for another loop! Parenting is both the most rewarding and the hardest job out there, and our little ones keep us on our toes that's for sure! So in preparation for the emerging toddler stage, I've bought this book: The Happiest Toddler on the Block, and I look forward to reading it and absorbing some new parenting wisdom. Because when it comes to raising a baby we've got that down pat, and we can look back at Zoey's 1st year with feelings of nostalgia and success. But our little toddler is already starting to test us, that's for sure, and I'm preparing myself for the adventure! : )

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