Toddler Development at 2 years & 8 months

Alhamdulillah!

Our toddler is 2 years & 8 months old, still bf!

I must admit, it DOES get frustrating at times! Especially when I wake up in the morning and suffer from severe back aches due to bf for an extended duration. huhuhuhuhuhu

Despite this, we feel extremely blessed with our toddler's development! 

She watches TV series such as Bubble Guppies, Umizoomi, Dora the Explorer, Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood, Super Why and Word World, amongst others.

We consistently have conversations with her and she responds accordingly, we don't really have baby talks with her ... as far as I could remember.

I must admit, her vocabulary at this stage is even more advanced than when I was at her age! Hahahaha ... ie acorn, squirrel, supermarket, camping, building, crown, magic wand, witch, etc ...

She's able to identify colors and even counts to 40 ... with some assistance to transition between x9 to x0 :D

In terms of her choice of toys, she doesn't really play with dolls but prefers blocks and activities which requires skills ie using a pair of tongs to pick up cotton balls and transfer them into another container.

Of course, she's one active toddler, can't sit still and would run around the house at every given opportunity until and unless you give her a task to complete :)

She's incredibly helpful in terms of completing house chores such as doing the laundry, folding the clothes, keeping the folded clothes in the wardrobe, cleaning up the mess and her toys, arranging things etc.

She's very observant too! At one time, she was helping Daddy bake some bread. Daddy had set the dough aside and wait for it to rise. She immediately went to the kitchen drawer to take out a clean cloth and covered the dough. :) Not to mention that she'd take out her apron and Daddy's too before they start baking together.

On another occasion, I was watching a heart-wrenching video so I did cry a bit. She saw me cry, took my face in her hands, kissed me on the lips & face then wrapped her little arms around me ... aaaaawwwwwww what a super sweet moment!!!

Recently, her cousin sister came to visit the grandmother. Since I stayed very close by my parents' house, I brought her to my moms.

Initially, the cousin sister (4 months younger), didn't want to play with my toddler, haven't warmed up to us yet. 

So my toddler took a book where they had animals printed on them and asked the cousin to join her to read. 

Cousin wasn't interested.

She was persistent in coaxing the cousin to play with her ... so I helped out a bit. 

I took the animals and started making animal sounds, asked my toddler to make them too. Then we played with the animals and made the animals run / hop / jump etc.

Not long after, the cousin sister joined us both to play. 

We then moved on to a dancing session since both of them immediately had their attention distracted by "High-5" which was playing on TV. 

So there I was, dancing and jumping with 2 young toddlers ... and laughing too!

There was this one time where the cousin sister spotted my brother's guitar and started to play with it. So I decided that all 3 of us sat down to play with the guitar. 

Suddenly, my daughter exclaimed "I know!!!" and she rushed to the coffee table and took a cloth belonging to her cousin. My toddler wiped off the saliva from the cousin's mouth and when she was satisfied, placed the cloth back in its place. 

I had then asked both of them to drink water. My toddler went to the coffee table again and grabbed my bottle and the cousin's, handed it over to us then only grabbed her own bottle and all 3 of us started to down the water. :)

Once done, my toddler willingly collected the water bottles from us and helped arranged all 3 bottles on the coffee table. 

During meal time, my toddler took her own baby chair and set it at the dining table (with my help, of course). 

Her cousin sister had also dragged a stool and sat next to us. 

My toddler was eating thosai and she started to feed her cousin sister too! 

To return the favor (I guess), the cousin sister offered water from her water bottle and handed it to my toddler. :)

Throughout their playtime, they managed to share their toys (well, mostly my toddler shared her toys with the cousin) and I would occasionally step in to help if they started to have their squabble.

My sister still baby talks with her daughter so we couldn't really hear her pronounce any words clearly. 

When we were watching TV together, I'd have conversations with my toddler, asking her what color was so-and-so, what animal was on TV etc. 

My sister saw how responsive my daughter was and from then onwards, I noticed that my sister started to speak to her daughter properly ... no baby talks! 

At times when hubby & I brings our toddler out, we'd often receive the same questions "How old is she?" When we mention her age, they'll respond with "Only 2-yo? Wow, she can communicate very well! I thought she was 3 /4!"

Alhamdulillah! 

I'm happy with her progress! :)

Different toddlers have different developmental stages so there's no right or wrong method in how you raise your child.

I hate it when people say "She's at x age so she should know how to ..." in the event my toddler isn't able to do something ... for example, isn't potty trained.

All I care about is that she's healthy and happy ... and that WE are happy to just be around her!