this post is in partnership with little tikes

ever since arlo started preschool, he has been growing so much!! he is talking nonstop, he can clean up after himself, he has manners, he’s just so independent in general. he’s 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. 

one of the biggest changes is how he now plays on his own. it’s so nice to not have to watch over him constantly and let him play solo — he’ll do funny voices, sing, come up with what sounds like very crazy scenarios and it’s so insane that his brain has developed like it has and he’s so curious and explorative and hilarious. watching him play and seeing his imagination igniting has become my new favorite thing to do, so i’m excited to be partnering with little tikes 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 “vroom”, now he seems to come up with full on plot-lines. these dirt diggers trucks have become his favorite thing to play with outside while he hosts his make believe truck parties, performs truck themed sing-a-longs, etc. (ps these are the perfect backyard toys if you have a sandbox or a basically “full sand” backyard like we do with decomposed granite)

it seems like there’s 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 this little baby bum farm block set, he named the farmer “madonald” (hey, he’s 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 it’s such a nice change of pace.

generally speaking, arlo has been pretty slow to reach milestones— he was slow to crawl, he didn’t walk until 14 months, he didn’t talk until very recently, he’s still in diapers… and all the while i’ve remained pretty chill about all of it. over the years i’ve gotten so many questions like “are you worried about arlo’s speech?” “will you send him to speech therapy?” “when are you planning to transition to a big boy bed?” and my answer is pretty much always the same for all of them — i’m 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 you’re 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 8 words by the time she said 8 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.Read More