If you have never tried toy rotations you really should! It’s amazing how much more they will play with something when they just haven’t seen it for a while! I rotate 6-8 toys, as well as a puzzle. Her babydolls, play kitchen, some blocks and her gross motor toys stay out full time. I keep the rest of her toys tucked away in her closet. I call our toy display, her play shelf but really it’s just the bottom shelves of the living room bookcases! Also Let me know if you would want to see a toy storage post. You know me I love to talk organization. š
This is our first real month of tot school. Prior to this, I would randomly pull an activity out. I wanted to start slow to make sure that we were both okay with it and not overwhelmed. (to be honest, she’s a pretty chill kid so she would be fine I didn’t want to bite off more than I could chew…lol) So our March Tot School is more or less just a theme for me to work with and maybe a couple of new words for her to hear.
I am all for letting a child have access to as much of the house as possible. We keep cleaning supplies up high or locked away and small choking hazards also out of her reach, but other than that its free for her to explore. It also helps that she has never been a very mouthy baby so I honestly trust her. (most of the time…lol) That said we do have a few special spaces that are all hers. Here is what our toddler play spaces look like at 18 months!
The living/ dining room is our home base for most of the day. This is where her toys that are out on rotation are displayed. We are lucky enough to have a spacious living room with space for multiple toddler play spaces!
With Bitty solidly in toddler land things are changing everyday. Tried and true baby tricks are out of the window and she is ready for more “big girl” activities. I feel like toddlers are a whole new challenge, but they payoff is some real connection and communication and I LOVE that!
TODDLER MILESTONES
Motor skills have never been behind
for this little lady. She was walking at 11 months and has never slowed down.
She dances all the time (and has some killer moves too), we saw the precursor
to jumping the other day and she is climbing her Pikler all the time. She has
recently decided that she needs help getting down off her stools, which is a
bit of a regression so I am trying to re-teach her how to do that.
Her sign language has really been
taking off! She has had all done, more, please, eat, drink and nightnight for
months. Helpā¦she does wrongā¦but she has done it the same way for so long, no
matter how many times I correct her that I give up! She also has dog and cat
and bird and squirrel, and train. We recently added Daddy and she latched on to
that one. Mommy she still wonāt do, but she did pick up on the sign we created
for her name really quickly.
She
has been able to say Mom and Dada for quite some time, but just a week we added
our first other words. Join us, as we have entered the ānoā phase. She very
clearly says no and yup and actually means what she says maybe 50% of the time.
We might also have heard ball, Iām waiting to see if it stays consistent. We do
make a lot of animal noises as well. Woof, Meow, Moo, Neigh, Baa are the most
common.
