Life with a Toddler

I saw this comic on a friend's Facebook page this morning and I had to share it.  It pretty much accurately describes life with a toddler!

We most definitely have a toddler in the house!  It's both a blessing and a curse.  I have to say though, even if it has it's challenging moments, I really like the toddler stage.  I do love babies - there's nothing like a newborn squish - but I think I'm almost better at parenting a toddler.  I think a big part of it is we can communicate now.  And yes, more often than not, the responses I get from my toddler are a big "NO" but I know he understands me and more and more I'm getting to understand him. 

We've learned we can reason with him a little bit.  If he doesn't want to leave the park when we say it's time to go home, we can tell him "five more minutes" to which he says "more minutes" which means he understands that his time is growing short, but he gets to stay a little longer.  We count the minutes down to zero for him and then he doesn't protest getting in the stroller or Burley to go home at all.

He does have tantrum moments, but we deal with them by either telling him to use his words (Thank you, Daniel Tiger) or sometimes we simply walk away and ignore him and he usually calms down. Other times we just remove him from the situation, if the tantrum is happening at the dinner table, then we leave the table for a minute.  He will sometimes do something like bite or hit if he's feeling especially frustrated and those are times we're starting to use a time out.  He likes to test his boundaries by doing things like throwing toys down the stairs.  If he does that, he doesn't get the toy back for awhile.  We're finding by using these methods to combat his behavior, he is slowly understanding what's right and what's wrong.

And the bottom right corner of that cartoon is right - while he has his toddler fits every now and then, he is unbelievably sweet.  I love how he loves.  He loves hugs, he will lay his little head on my shoulder and say "Nice".  He's learning the "Uggamugga" nose kiss from Daniel Tiger (or well it really is from Mr. Rogers Neighborhood if you remember that from childhood!).  He says "I love you" or "I love my mama/dada".  He loves to cuddle.  Some days he just wants to sit on my lap and sing songs.  I think we did that together for almost twenty minutes yesterday while we waited for Nate to get home from work.  He just climbed over to me and asked to get on my lap and then just kept saying "song".  When he had enough he finally asked to get down and went on his merry way. He loves to sit together and read stories as well.  He just seems to really enjoy spending time with Nate and I.  I will eat up every moment because I know that someday that won't necessarily be the case!  

So anyway, while that cartoon pretty much describes every day life with a toddler, I love every moment.  Life is definitely never dull with him around!

If you're a parent, what stage is your favorite?  Babyhood, toddlerhood, school age?  Just curious!