Toddlers

This post may contain affiliate links, which just means that if you purchase items I recommend here I may make a small commission. I am careful only to recommend products I like and use. I would be remiss if I didn't start with this: my daughter loves being outside. Every morning, after we are dressed, we take our dogs (Birdie and Goose) for a walk around the neighborhood. We look at flowers, birds, and clouds. Freya often reaches out and takes one of the leashes, and she mun

Each morning, after a diaper change and a cup of milk, I come downstairs with my sixteen-month-old daughter. When she was an infant, I would put her in her bouncy chair while I made breakfast and tea. When she was a little older, she wanted to be in the kitchen with me, often glued to me, sometimes strapped to my chest as I made toast, or coffee, or fed her blueberries. This post contains affiliate links to toys that my daughter loves. If purchased, I may make a small commiss

There are toddlers who play quietly… and then there are toddlers who don’t stop moving. I remember when my mom brought over a tiny table and chairs for my daughter, and she immediately took off at a run, pushing one of the chairs up and down the hallway over, and over, and over. Yep. High energy . If you have a toddler like mine, you already know — they don’t need more toys. They need the right kind of movement, the kind that lets them climb, push, balance, and burn energy i

Toddlers are not meant to sit still. My daughter will pause during play for increasing amounts of time (we’re talking from 10 seconds to 30 seconds here, y’all), but for the most part, she is moving. She is talking, singing, dancing, exploring. And she wants ME to be included in all of it, which I love. Having a baby was groundbreaking for me, but this phase? This tiny, expressive, brave, curious phase? This is FUN. And exhausting. Toddlers are built for movement, curiosity,

(Screen-Free, Simple, and Sanity-Saving Indoor Toddler Activities) Some links in this post are affiliate links, which means I may earn a small commission if you purchase through them — at no extra cost to you. Thank you for supporting Joy Realm and the work I create here. There’s a specific time of day when it happens. Usually around 4:37pm. My toddler starts climbing the couch. Then the coffee table. Then me. I haven’t done anything wrong. She’s not “out of control.” She nee

I am of the generation that had the pleasure of reading Harry Potter before the movies existed. We had the illustrations on the cover, and that was it. I can still see Harry, Ron, Hermione, and every other character in my mind, the way I originally imagined them. The same goes for James of James and the Giant Peach , Aslan and Lucy and Turkish delight from The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe , and Nancy in the Nancy Drew series. By now, you may have gleaned that this is a