Baby to Toddler Milestones

As your baby grows and develops, each day, week, and month there are new things that your baby can do, and it is amazing to watch the progress. I can remember at 4 months how my son was able to finally sit up in a reclining high chair and that seemed like such a milestone....to have him sit at the table with us.

Then there is moving from just having formula to starting to eat solids, having your baby start rolling around on the floor, then moving to to crawling throughout the house, and then walking. With each accomplishment I could see my son becoming a little boy.

Now as he is almost 27 months his vocabulary, the way he articulates his feelings and interacts intelligently with the world around him is so much fun to watch. And one big milestone for us that just happened last week was converting my sons crib to a toddler bed. I felt as if it was such a monumental step, as if really acknowledging that my son is not a baby anymore.

This transition was made because Zack had started climbing out of his crib and crawling into bed with me in the morning. The first day he did it he scared me because he just appeared at my side of the bed and I was dazed, wondering how he got there. Before he realized that he could swing him leg over the side of the crib, crawl down the slats and jump to the ground in a flash, he would stand up in his crib and call out to Jeff or I to get him up. But with his new found ability, why wait for us when he can get out himself -- which is what he began to do after that first time.

This caused us to be concerned for his safety as he started climbing out early in the morning and late at night; we didn't want him to fall and hurt himself. So Jeff and I made a big deal out of converting his crib to a toddler bed and how much of a big boy he has become.

To me it felt like a rite of passage, my son was not a baby anymore!