Toddler

It's a shocking realization that washes over every first-time parent: As your baby grows, so does the number of things they can touch, taste, and get into. From the first moment that your baby goes from an adorable stationary object to a wiggling,…

I'd like to think I'm pretty good about cleaning my kid's highchair and bath tub on the regular. But the stroller? Eh, not so much. I've turned a blind eye to, shall we say, "stroller hygiene," so it's safe to say some rogue Cheerios have lingered.…

Our resident advice-giver-outer Jenny True provides shouty, full-hearted answers to your niggling questions about pregnancy and parenthood in her column Dear Jenny. Warning: This is not a baby-and-me singalong, this is about yelling into the cosmos…

Decorative gourd season is upon us, and I have so much I want to show my kids, and so many costumes I want to put them in (young Harrison Ford; the guy from The Darkness; Carrie Fisher looking unimpressed by her salad at Tavern On The Green). But…

"Just wait": two words I hated hearing more than any other words in the English language after my first child was born. For some reason, people love to torment new parents by gleefully warning them of all the awful things their baby will allegedly…

A truly beautiful season, autumn is all about enjoying the cooler weather outdoors. But first, your kid needs to dress the part. Thankfully, these fall clothes for toddlers will have your little one all set to take on autumn adventure in no time.…

As I wandered through my house this morning looking for my lost cup of coffee, I couldn't help but notice how many toys were in my home. So, I stopped to pick up my toddler's blocks off the living room floor, which I do several times a day, then I…

Dear Mom With The "Perfect" Kid: If you're worried I might be talking about you, I probably am. If you're not sure, imagine the following situations: a harried parent struggles to deal with an unruly kid, a fellow mom's toddler is going through a…

Prince George is the most important toddler in my life. His public appearances make my day, and I definitely got emotional looking at his first day of school pictures. Sigh, they grow up so fast. I imagine this will change when I have kids of my…

OK folks, it's been a tough week (month? year? presidential term?) for womankind. But children's publishing has a salve for all that burning rage, giving us a wealth of children's books that lift up some of history's greatest women. It's a facet of…

The minute you hold your new baby in your arms you search for traces of yourself in them. If you're genetically connected to your child, you're literally in the building blocks of who they are. But I think the act of being their parent is more…

Written in 1934 by theologian Reihold Neibuhr, the serenity prayer has been used in sermons for generations and was later adopted in short form by Alcoholics Anonymous and other 12-step programs. It has provided comfort to generations of folks in a…

Look into my preschool classroom, and you'll see a colorful space where a group of 4-year-olds are happily playing. Some are making towers out of wooden and foam blocks. A few are "cooking" dinner in the play kitchen. Students are painting with…

It's no secret that making friends as an adult is hard, but there seems to be a lot of pressure on making friends as an adult when you're also a mom. Will your kids play well together? Do they even want a new mom friend? Are you supposed to just…

If you've ever popped your head inside a Justice or Claire's store, or pretty much any store, for that matter, you know what's hot in girl fashion these days: hashtag slogans, reversible sequins, and unicorns, unicorns, unicorns. White, pink,…

Oftentimes, there's a certain stigma attached to sending a child to daycare so that parents can work — that they're willingly "allowing strangers to raise their kids." Add this societal pressure to the guilt some parents already feel, and a family's…

Parenting is full of bittersweet and emotionally complicated milestones, but few have ever matched the maelstrom of feelings that swirled within me when I sent my kids to school for the first time. Even though my kids had experienced day care,…

Halloween is just around the corner, and if you have a tiny baby, you may be wondering what to do for their first Halloween (or if you even should venture out trick-or-treating since they obviously can't eat candy and it's really all for you).…

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that I'm probably not alone in thinking the toddler stage is one of the most frustrating times as a parent. Because these little people, while undoubtedly adorable, have some serious feelings — and they…

Every day the struggle is real to keep the hair out of my toddler's eyes. When I try to slip in a barrette, she's dodging and weaving like a ninja. And when I try to tie up her hair into a Pebbles-inspired top pony — cue the crocodile tears.…