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Navigating Emotions

 When you were young, did you ever feel like no one understood what you were feeling? I know I did. In fact, this was a fairly regular occurrence for me, so much so that I began to try to bury many of my emotions. Unfortunately, this doesn't work.  Everyone experiences a wide array of emotions and this includes, especially, children. As our children grow and develop, they will begin to recognize and express their emotions in different ways. For toddlers, these emotions can be pretty wild, from tantrums to obvious excitement and enjoyment. It is easy to notice that a toddler is feeling emotions, and we must teach them that we understand their emotions. If we can't be empathetic with out children from a young age, then it will be increasingly difficult for them to feel comfortable expressing their thoughts and feelings, opening up to us, when they become teenagers.  Just a we would want a friend to say, "I'm sorry, that sounds hard" when we are expressing frustratio
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Discipline

 As a new parent, one of the most difficult things has been seeing my little one upset. Whether he hit himself with a toy or doesn't want to take a nap, his cries are heart wrenching. I always seem to find a way to hold myself accountable for his anguish.  As he is becoming more independent, he is learning how to walk, talk, eat, etc, and he's also learning how to hit, bite, and scream. Unfortunately, he wasn't born knowing which new skills are good and which one's he probably shouldn't practice as much. Teaching him how to behave is something that my husband and I must do. However, this will probably cause quite a bit of distress for my sweet, unsuspecting toddler.  As much as discipline can be difficult, it is necessary for our children. However, let my preface this a little be mentioning that violent punishment is not an effective form of discipline and should never be used. Instead, we really need to be able to respond in a way that will help our children unders
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Your Developing Child

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 Raising kids is hard work. From the time they are born to the time they leave home, they are constantly changing and growing. Knowing what they need and when they need it is a unique challenge as a parent, especially while parenting multiple children. Luckily, there are some major developmental milestones that children reach at similar ages.  You are probably aware of some of these milestones, things like smiling, walking, and puberty are some obvious ones. However, there are dozens of milestones, even things like learning to play cooperativity with others or arguing about dinner plans are developmental checkpoints along your child's growth to full adulthood.   As a parent, it is our responsibility to be aware of, and anticipate these milestones in our child's life. As they  are constantly changing, so should our parenting evolve. We must parent appropriately to each stage in a child's life and realize that something that worked for a sibling, will probably not work for ev
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