Toddler Month by Month: 32
Hi everyone and welcome to Month 32 with your baby and Month 32 with my toddler Bracey.
How Old is a 32-Month-Old Toddler?
You might be asking “how old is 32 months” in terms of years? A 32-month-old toddler is 2 years and 8 months old or 2 and 3/4 years old. In four months, your toddler will be 3 years old.
Average Weight and Height of a 32-Month-Old Toddler?
Here are height and weight standards for a 32-month-old as established by the the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Average Weight of 32-Month-Old?
The average weight of a 32-month-old toddler boy is 30.5 pounds (13.8 kilos) and of a 32-month-old toddler girl is 29.4 pounds (13.3 kilos).
How tall is the average 32-Month-Old?
The average height for a 32-month-old toddler boy is 36.5 inches (92.7 cm) and for a 32-month-old toddler girl is 36.1 inches (91.7 cm).
32-Month-Old Toddler Developmental Milestones
Although there is a huge range of “normal” and children vary greatly in terms of what they do when, experts advise that a toddler who is 32-months-old should be approaching the following developmental milestones. Rather than focusing on whether your toddler masters these milestones perfectly, which can cause anxiety, allow the milestones to guide you regarding the range of activities you’ll want to engage in with your child. If you are concerned with your child’s development, speak with your doctor.
32-Month-Old Toddler Speech and Language Milestones
You might be asking yourself “How many words should a 32-month-old say.” Here’s what’s typical for a 32-month-old when it comes to speech and language.
By this age, many toddlers can:
- Say well over 100 words (after the age of 2.5 or 30 months, many children witness a big leap in their language development).
- Utter 3- to 4-word phrases, including with an action word like “Big horsey run.”
- Say pronouns ( like “I,” “me,” and “we”).
- Begin to understand the basic aspects of a story in a book and relate these to their own experience, like saying “No, night night,” when a character is going to bed in a book.
- Invite you to notice what they are doing by saying “Look” and then say the word for that thing. “Look, Mommy, horse.”
Language Activities to Promote your 32-Month-Old Toddler’s Speech
Here are some easy language activities for your 32-month-old toddler:
- Narrate what you do, using intonation to emphasize words.
- Pick up on what your toddler is interested in. Build on their natural curiosity. If your toddler is playing with a train, talk about the aspects of the train and help them organize a fantasy train trip.
- Encourage your toddler to converse. Rather than engage in baby talk by cutting out connector words and saying things like “Bracey, brush teeth,” articulate the full sentence, speaking on their behalf and say: “Mommy, may I please brush my teeth?”
- Articulate the names of colors, numbers, body parts, vehicles, household items, furniture, and buildings. Point these concepts and items out and try to get your toddler to repeat what you say.
- When your toddler articulates a new word or name, give them a high five and celebrate the moment.
- When your toddler says something incorrectly, such as “neigh, neigh” for horse, rather than repeat that or say “no, that’s not it,”say the correct word.
Physical Development Milestones for a 32-month-old Toddler
In terms of gross motor skills, most 32-month-olds can walk, run, hop, jump, walk up and down the stairs without support, kick and throw a ball, climb the jungle gym, go down the slide (quickly), and bounce steadily on a see saw. Don’t worry so much about how well your toddler is doing these things. Instead, focus on getting outside and encouraging your toddler to engage in these activities as much as you can.
Physical Developmental Activities for a 32-Month-Old Toddler
When it comes to physical developmental activities for toddlers, the basic mantra is keep moving, whether inside or outside. When outside, take short jogs and bike riding trips. When inside, allow your toddler to roam as freely as possible around the house, to ride a bike, jump, dance, climb onto and off of the sofa, and (if you’re set up for this) to play soccer and living room tennis with a medium-sized soft beach ball.
Indoor Gross Motor Activities for 32-Month-Old Toddlers
When it comes to gross motor skills activities for toddlers, ball activities are great because along with encouraging gross motor development, these activities encourage your toddler to refine their balance, coordination, and arm and leg strength.
Here are 5 ball activities for a 32-month-old toddler that encourage gross motor skills. I recommend a medium-sized, beach ball, especially if you are doing these activities indoors.
- Have your toddler lie flat on their back. Hand them the ball. Encourage them to throw the ball up and to catch it as it comes down while not moving. Your toddler will end up twisting out of their initial position. This activity encourages your toddler to control the trajectory of the ball and develop the coordination to catch it.
- Have your toddler spread their legs and toss you the ball backwards while upside down from between their legs.
- Have your toddler throw the ball with one hand while aiming with their other hand.
- Toss your toddler the ball from increasing distances. Start from close by and move further and further away.
- Toss the ball to your toddler from different angels, the front and the side, so that they need to turn to catch it.
- Have your toddler throw the ball while balancing on one foot.
Your Toddler’s Social and Emotional Development
By 32 months, your child is either potty trained or in the middle of potty training. My girls tended to potty train earlier at 2.5 whereas my boys potty trained a bit later at around 3. With Bracey, I have a strict deadline since his pre-school wants him to be fully potty trained, including for naps, when he starts this fall right around his 3rd birthday.
How to Start Potty-Training
As with everything else when it comes to babies and toddlers, getting organized around potty training will make the whole process run more smoothly. Whether you’re potty training a boy or a girl, the basic elements you’ll need remain the same. Having these ready to go will make the potty training process run more smoothly.
Potty Training Checklist
As with most things when it comes to parenting, the way to embark on your potty training journey is to get organized, gathering all of the items you need.
Here are some basic items you’ll need for potty training:
- Training pants or underwear (I like the ones with a bit of absorbency)
- Plastic, portable potty. Pick a color your toddler likes.
- Toilet Insert for an adult potty (this is good for when you are out and about – brings some wipes to clean it up with and some clean plastic bags for transport).
- Washcloths, paper towels, wipes and ziplock bags (because when your toddler is out of the house, they will have accidents).
Take up rugs and take away fancy cushions or anything else your toddler might damage with an accident. Potty training at the beginning involves repeated accidents.
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When to Start Potty Training?
Experts advise that the ideal age for potty training is from 27-32 months. I’ve found that my girls potty trained earlier than my boys, at around 2.5 years old, whereas my boys potty trained more towards the age of 3.
How do I Know if My Toddler is Ready to Potty Train?
Many parents ask themselves “How can I know if my toddler is ready for potty training?” Here’s a handy checklist to help you figure out whether your toddler is ready to potty train. Any of the following elements indicates that it might be time to start.
Potty Training Readiness Checklist
Your toddler:
- shows an interest in wearing training underwear
- Shows an interest in sitting on or going to the potty
- wants to watch you “go” on the potty
- seems resistant to putting on a diaper
- appears uncomfortable in wet or soiled diapers and anxious to be changed
If any of these signs are present, many experts advise taking the plunge and starting the potty training process. Why? Well, in my experience, when I waited, my toddlers sometimes lost interest and that made embarking on potty training later all the more complicated.
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Bracey’s Potty Training Experience
Here’s is how Bracey began his potty training journey. I had bought some potty training underwear a few months ago and this past month, Bracey saw them. He tried to take the underwear out of the package and to put them on. I took off the diapers that day. Honestly, I was dreading the whole thing but I have a deadline since his day care this fall insists that he be fully, not even partially, potty trained. That means during the day time and naps. Since that day, we’ve had one or two proud pees in the potty, and many more accidents per day, but we’re on the way.
Don’t Start Potty Training and Stop
Once you’ve started potty training, you’re on the train and I don’t recommend hopping off. Friends who have done this encountered a resistance later on that was difficult to overcome. The one exception I would make would be diapers during naps and at night (look at that as a stage two) and a diaper during a long airplane flight.
32-Month-Old Social and Emotional Development
Here are some tips when it comes to your toddler’s social and emotional development that I’ve picked up over the course of raising six toddlers.
What do I do when my Toddler Hits?
Figuring out what to do when your toddler hits you, which most toddlers do, is a toughie. Bracey sometimes gets frustrated and swats at me, his siblings, or his little friends. I take a pretty stern approach with this. I take him out of his situation, bring him to another place, and try to talk to him. At first, I was saying “no hitting, we do not hit,” but lately, I say instead, “when you hit, you hurt Mommy, and Mommy feels sad, and I make a sad face”. I learned this philosophy of the “I message” years ago from a parenting expert named Julie Ross who advises that we explain to children the effect they have on others. I notice Bracey hitting more when he is exhausted and hungry, on those nights where he is still awake having dinner with all of us after 9pm. All the more reason to get your toddler to bed early. Keeping your toddler’s naps, bedtimes, meals and snacks consistent will help keep tantrums at bay.
What do I do when my Toddler Says a Bad Word?
According to my 12-year-old, Marielle, Bracey has somehow learned a bad word in Spanish. I won’t repeat it here. This isn’t the first time I’ve seen this. The doctor who delivered my first five babies (who actually was a close friend of mine from high school) had a toddler who had learned the F word. They got on a plane and her son said loudly “F***, f***, f***!” The situation became so uncomfortable that they sought professional advice, and were told to not react. So on that plane, they were literally burying themselves behind books and pretending that that their toddler belonged to someone else. In Bracey’s case, we are going to ignore the word and pretend it isn’t an offensive word. The thinking is that the more you react, the more your toddler will say the word in order to get a reaction. Cross your fingers and hope they forget about the word. You might also ask yourself what smarty pants used that word around your kid.
What Should My 32-Month-Old Toddler Be Eating?
How much and what should a child who is 32-months-old should be eating? Give your toddler a wide variety of foods from the basic food groups. Pay special attention to protein, calcium, and iron to make sure your toddler is getting the daily required amounts: for Vitamin D, that means 600 IUs, and for calcium, 700 mg or 2-3 servings. Your doctor likely is recommending low fat milk by this point. Portion sizes for toddlers should be ¼ to ½ of an adult portion. For a comprehensive look at great food to give toddlers this age, check out my Month 27 post.
Schedule for Breastfeeding or Milk Feeding Babies at 32 Months of Age
Your toddler will need about 12.5-14 hours of sleep over a 24 hour period. That means 11-12 hours at night and a 1.5-3 hours nap. Bracey sleeps 13-15 hours a day, 11-12 hours at night with a nap of 1.5-2 hours. Use this schedule as a loose framework to encourage your child to get regular meals and rest periods to keep energy levels consistent.
- 7am feed* & breakfast
- 10am snack
- 12pm feed & lunch (1-3pm sleep)
- 3pm feed & snack
- 6:30 pm dinner
- 7:30 pm final milk feeding
- 8pm bedtime
*Start the schedule when your toddler wakes up. If you are no longer breastfeeding, give milk or its alternative after the meal.
My Toddler Refuses to Nap
Some toddlers will begin to resist napping at this point. Try giving them quiet time with books or toys. Play around with when your toddler goes down for his nap and take a look at snacks and meal times. Your toddler might be better off napping earlier at 11:30 or 12 and then having lunch when they wake up. Or it might work better to give them a lighter mid-morning snack, lunch, and then put them down for the nap. Although some people favor a lit room for naps, I’ve always turned the lights off and closed my black-out shades and drapes.
Room darkening shades for your Toddler’s Room
Black out shades and black out liners to drapes helped my kids take long naps during the day. I have a dual-approach here: black out shades in the windows of Bracey’s room and drapes over these that have black out liners. That said, his bedroom is a former terrace that gets alot of light. When the room is especially dark, he sleeps later.
Make sure your toddler is awake by 3pm since if you let them sleep later, you might have trouble getting them to bed at night.
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Bracey update
During his 32th month, Bracey attended his brother Lachlan’s high school graduation. His oldest brother Hedley turned 19, which made for a fun celebration. Pottery-training was exciting for Bracey and challenging for mom. We had more accidents than reasons to celebrate but we’re sticking with it.
Can’t wait to see you all back for Month 33.
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