When did you notice your baby was actually a toddler?

[TheABC]

Just that really. I went to a tinytalk baby class on Friday, filled with gorgeous squishy babies sat on the mat. Looked at my 1 year old DS busily rummaging away in a toy bag and realised he was twice as active, with the proportions of a toddler. Felt rather dumb for not noticing before!

When did you realise?

I think they suddenly start looking older when their teeth become noticeable - not when they first appear but when they grow down to look like proper teeth! Suddenly their smile is that of a child, not a gummy baby!

DS is 20 months and has seemed like a lovely squishy chubby baby for such a long time. It's probably only been in the last few months that he's looked like a child and not a baby, even though he's been walking for ages. It's something about his face...I get glimpses of the child he's growing to be be.

It's lovely when they smile with teeth! DS is a late teether, so we got used to the gummy grins. Now he blows raspberries on my stomach and I wake up to winking teeth in the morning.

I'm rubbish at grasping it. I get thoroughly reprimanded by my DS (2 last week) when I call him 'Baby'. 'I not baby I a boy''...

asleep awwww so cute :)
My dd is suddenly wanting to be independent and explore without mummy

Well at the time it was when they started cruising around rather than crawling but looking back they really were still babies even then. I think they seem so grown up compared to the tiny dependent newborns they were, but they are still so so tiny and just babies really till they're 2.

Then I still have a year to go of babydom? Yay! Miaow, I miss the chubby feet! I wanted to smooch one particularly Buddha-like baby at the class, but he did not need my germs, the mother would object.

When I put shoes on him. About 15 months I guess. He was walking at 9 months, but didn't have the sense to walk anywhere with me holding hands til then. There was no need/point in him wearing shoes until he was going to be outdoor walking.

So he started wearing shoes and toddler clothes suitable to go with shoes (rather than all in ones etc!) around 15 months, and that was when he felt like a toddler to me!

About 18 months. Until then she just seemed like a baby who was walking.

When they started toddling and generally wanting to do their own thing a lot more than be done to. So around 9 months for the first three (all three were walking at 10 months) and about 10 months old for the fourth.

Miaow- a very good definition I feel! I stand by my original ages for my children!

Mine is just transitioning to toddler now. He's in his first pair of real shoes and keeps giving me slobbery open mouth kisses and trying to copy his big brother in everything. He puts everything back in its place and shuts all the cupboard doors and the dishwasher if he finds them open! Every morning and evening he does about 50 Laos of the kitchen with a very serious expression on his face. I love him so much I can't stand it!

Wait, what's this about disappearing squidge?? Nooooo

Mines 13 months and is transitioning I suppose. Lots of babyish things about him but I see a toddler emerging.

Coughle - Your toddler sounds completely adorable! I remember several ages with mine where I just wanted them to stop there and not get any older...! (Luckily they just got better and better the older they got.)

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D'you know I had high hopes for DD3 staying a baby a bit longer than her siblings, but when they're doing this at 5.5 mo there's not much you can do really to stop them becoming a toddler.

Just now! Dd has always been a gnarly baby. A whingebag in fact but just recently she is making herself understood more coherently (to her stupid parents!) she can get things she wants now she is steadier on her feet. Also, because she's walking a lot she's stretched out and has lost her squishy plumpness and she sleeps better due to all the exercise! She's 17 months.

Duchesse - your baby is beautiful! But is she really only five and half months?!! That is amazing to be standing up at that age!

She has beautiful eyes and a lovely little face!

I'm just realising now. He was 5 in May. It's awful. everytime i look at him i get so sad that he's not a baby or even a toddler or preschooler anymore. He's a school boy who can dress himself, get his own drinks, wash himself in the bath.

Yup, was 5.5 mo exactly give or take 2 days. Photo is date-stamped digitally. All of mine have done this. I would love to have had a baby that stays still but was never to be.

She's nearly 5 now and on the go all.the.damned.time.

When DC1 was 15 months I went into hospital to give birth to DC2. When I left DC1 at 5 in the morning she was a baby. DH brought DC1 into hospital five hours later. In those five hours, she'd turned into a hulking great toddler.