This post is sponsored by Little Tikes.
Ever since Arlo started preschool, he has beenĀ growingĀ so much!! He is talking nonstop, he can clean up after himself, he has manners, heās just so independent in general. Heās like a little man suddenly and we are loving it. There have been so many chapters in his almost 2.5 years on earth, it seems like he is doing something new weekly.Ā
One of the biggest changes is how he now plays on his own. itās so nice to not have to watch over him constantly and let him play solo — heāll do funny voices, sing, come up with what sounds like very crazy scenarios and itās so insane that his brain has developed like it has and heās so curious and explorative and hilarious. Watching him play and seeing his imagination igniting has become my new favorite thing to do, soĀ Iām excited to be partnering withĀ Little TikesĀ because they make some of his all-time favorite toys.
While he used to play with cars and trucks by just driving them around and saying āvroom," now he seems to come up with full-on plot lines.Ā These Dirt Diggers trucksĀ have become his favorite thing to play with outside while he hosts his make-believe truck parties, performs truck-themed sing-a-longs, etc. (P.S. These are the perfect backyard toys if you have a sandbox or a basically āfull sandā backyard like we do with decomposed granite.)
It seems like thereās a big developmental milestone when kids go from not playing with little guys to being obsessed with little guys. I guess because they sub in for mommy/daddy, school friends, or his favorite cartoon characters in a world where you can tell he feels free to get silly and weird and creative. Immediately after we gave him thisĀ Little Baby Bum Farm Block Set,Ā he named the farmer āMadonaldā (hey, heās only got a small set of references haha), and he introduced him to the cow and sheep in a very formal ceremony. This world of make-believe is such a leap from where we were, and it not only makes him seem more independent, but me too. I am worried about him so much less these days playing on his own, and itās such a nice change of pace.
Generally speaking, Arlo has been pretty slow to reach milestones — he was slow to crawl, he didnāt walk until 14 months, he didnāt talk until very recently, heās still in diapers ā¦ and all the while Iāve remained pretty chill about all of it. Over the years Iāve gotten so many questions like āAre you worried about Arloās speech?ā āWill you send him to speech therapy?ā āWhen are you planning to transition to a big boy bed?ā and my answer is pretty much always the same for all of them — Iām not worrying about it (OK, obviously I need to worry about the potty-training soon, lol, but the rest is pretty much out of my control). I did spend the first year of his life on the apps checking what was coming that month and making sure he was hitting his milestones and when youāre a new parent with zero experience this makes total sense. But our pediatrician always helped ease any concerns for us — she is really matter-of-fact and never made us worry much if he was behind (granted he was never super behind, actually. He had eight words by the time she said eight words. They just happened to be animal noises, hahaha). He has always been super smart in comprehension so I was less worried about the verbal skills.
I feel like parents place a LOT of emphasis on reaching new milestones all the time. Whether theyāre so excited about feeding them solid food, theyāre changing the nursery to a big kid's room, etc. — everyone seems to be obsessed with reaching the next chapter. I agree those moments are fun and exciting and new and great, but it also all goes by so quickly as it is that I donāt want to rush anything. I feel no need to switch him to a big-kid bed until he explicitly asks for it — if it aināt broke!? He sleeps so well in his crib so why would I introduce the concept of getting out of bed!? I didnāt worry about Arlo not talking much because everyone warned me that once they start talking theyāll never shut up, so why rush it, hahaha. It was true.
Heās now at the age where he doesnāt want to play with the neutral minimal wood toys that do nothing. He seems to want to only play with real toys, and Iām not going to deprive him of it. I guess thatās just another milestone š Little Tikes makes it really easy toĀ shop for toys by age groupĀ — which makes it so helpful knowing what heāll truly enjoy playing with and what is too young or old for him. I know Iāve struggled with that in the past.
Anyway, the point of my post was not to preach about how relaxed I am as a parent, because Iām actually a super controlling crazy type of mom, but I do believe that if youāre always focused on the next milestone, you might be missing the fun things that are happening at that exact second.Ā Thereās something to appreciate at every single milestone.
Molly MadfisĀ used to spend her days working freelance as a designer and TV editor, and now she's a work-at-home mom, and the writer of Almost Makes Perfect.
