In some ways a toddler is easier to care for than a baby. In other ways it’s a lot more complicated. On the one hand, a baby’s needs are simpler, but on the other hand, a toddler can tell you much more clearly what she wants or needs, and a toddler can actually take responsibility for their needs to a surprisingly large extent.

Sleep is a case in point. Ingrid was a lousy sleeper for a long time. It was really hard for her to fall asleep, and it took a long while for her to understand that falling asleep is not a terrible thing to be avoided at all costs. Now she knows that sleep is good, and actually wants to go to sleep. When she starts looking tired, I ask her if she wants to sleep. Often she says yes and runs towards the bedroom, waiting for me to follow. If she says no, I try again 5 minutes later, and again, until she says yes. She always does, after a while. I think there was one evening when we came home really late and she was really cranky and was saying no to everything, so I carried her to the bedroom despite her NOs, but once there, she was happy to go to bed.

Food has always been simple with Ingrid. I’ve never had to worry much about her eating habits or weight gain. She’s been happy to breastfeed and happy to eat, and especially happy to feed herself. There was a period when I thought she ate too little, but I could see that she still had more energy than she needed, so obviously she got enough food somehow. And then I read that 50% of parents think so about their toddlers, so I stopped worrying. (I still don’t understand how she can get by with so little food, though!) In any case she now eats without any fuss, and eats a reasonably varied diet, too.

The one thing I’m struggling slightly with is potty training. From what I’ve heard and read, she seems old enough for potty, but we’ve had very little success. We tried in May to let her go without a nappy. She peed on the floor lots of times and was very distressed every time it happened, so we gave up. We tried again in June, and while she was still peeing on the floor all the time and not much on the potty, she was no longer unhappy about it. We tried again in July, and still most of it ended up on the floor. She never says when she needs to go. When I suggest that she should sit on the potty, she generally refuses, or sits for a while and then runs away, and then pees on the floor two minutes later. (Luckily she points out where the puddle is when I ask her, after I notice that she’s all wet.) It is getting a bit tiresome to dry up all these puddles. I don’t know whether there’s any point continuing or whether we should take a break, go back to nappies, and try again in a month’s time.