Toddlers are a fun and exhausting group of tiny humans. I always loved learning about child development as soon as I got pregnant because I found every step of the way fascinating, especially as I was watching my own tiny human get bigger and bigger each day. While Kaia has been developing more of her own unique personality and traits, there are some things that just seem to be universal to all toddlers:

*Babies and toddlers tend to learn and say “no” and negative phrases (“don’t want/don’t like” or “don’t wanna!”) before they learn “yes” and positive phrases.

*Toddlers can go through a day of eating all of X food, then be completely repulsed by it the next day and refuse it, even throwing it off their table.

*Babies and toddlers absolutely love repetition, whether that’s of the game “Peekaboo” a hundred times or the same book read 10 times.

*When toddlers go through their tantrum phase, it’s like something innately goes off in them that forces them all to lay on the floor, face down, and just kick and scream.

I would love to hear the scientific or data-based reasons for why all the above tends to be universal?