21 months old DS what should we be doing for his development?

[sharond101]

DS is 21 months old. He is a good speaker and understands commands and likes to help around the house. We play alot and I talk to him all the time telling him what colour things are, where we are going, what we are doing, how many of something there are etc. He has been sitting on the potty and doing a pee. No number twos as yet. We do the potty always at bathtime, in the morning when he is getting dressed and when he is getting his nappy changed. He is still in his cot and uses a dummy to sleep with, no other time. What else should I be doing for him developmentally? Should we be transitioning to his cotbed? Should he be drinking from a normal cup? How quickly and how do we move on with potty training? I get a bit paranoid when friends do things with their children and I haven't (friend moverd her DS into a bed a few weeks ago). Just worried I should have more of a structure to make sure things happen for him.

You should be relaxing and enjoying these precious earl days because they are gone in a blink and you'll look back and wonder why you tried to speed it all up when really you should have been treasuring each stage whilst you had it.

Deep breaths! Childhood is about having fun, he'll learn in his own time.

Fwiw DS had the sides taken off his cotbed at 2.0 after a head first dive attempt out. It was horrific. 6 weeks of return to bed for 2 hours every night. So my advice would be to leave him in a cot as long as possible. My friends dd moved at 3.0 with no problems at all.

He started with a normal cup at about 2.5 ish, just water at table times, there was a lot of spillage. Again, I wouldn't rush.

There's quite a few bits to them being ready to potty train. I'd really recommend potty training boys for top tips and pirate Pete to read to your DS. Pushing too hard can set you back a long way, but missing the window of opportunity makes it hard too.

Overall, don't worry. You sound like a great mum. Try to avoid comparing with friends, their child is not the same as yours. Kids develop all by themselves, with just exposure to day to day life activities and the presence of a loving parent.

I am not trying to rush things, sorry if it came across that way. Just don't want to miss something I should be doing by now.

I really dont think you are missing anything. You seem really tuned into him and engaging with him at his level byt encouraging development. He is only very young still and unless you think there is a delay of some kind then really really dont worry about his development. Take your cue from him- if he's curious then indulge him and introduce him to things you think he'll enjoy but be careful if putting pressure on him or yourself. Pressure to develop at a fastet rate than he's ready for can actually cause problems for when he should be ready.

• Leave him in the cot as long as possible. We moved DTs at 2.7.

Leave him nappies until he shows absolute signs of readiness so you can crack it in a couple of days instead of weeks.

Let him drink out of a lidded cup / sport bottle - far less mess and portable too for taking out and about.

Makes life so much easier to do things when they are really ready and not be pushed, they 'get it' then and understand what they need to do. I am quite lazy though and opt for the path of least resistance / mess!