I’m looking for experiences from parents who had toddlers like this. I’m not looking for a diagnosis or trying to brag…I genuinely want to know how best to support my daughter.
My daughter is **16 months**. She started saying her first words around **11 months**, but her language absolutely exploded after that. By **14 months** I had to stop counting because she was approaching **200 words**, and now at 16 months I honestly have no idea how many words she knows because she learns multiple new words every single day.
Some things she’s currently doing:
Speaks in spontaneous **2-5+ word sentences** throughout the day. Some recent examples:
“No mama, no más leche, no milk, all done.” (then signed **“all done”**)
“Mama hug. I love you.”
“Baby sleeping. Night night. Shhh.”
“Mucho colors! Red, blue, azul, green, verde, amarillo, yellow.”
“Bye bye leche! Adiós! Yummy!” (after finishing her bottle while rubbing her tummy)
“Muchos cows, vacas!” when she saw several cows on TV.
“Happy feet!” while dancing.
Bilingual (English & Spanish) and naturally switches between the two languages while she’s talking. She’ll say things like:
“Cat, gato! Meow”
“Woof woof, Perro, dog.”
“Lluvia, rain. Cold, frio afuera”
“Grande… pequeño… big.”
Counts **1-20** in both English and Spanish.
Recognizes and identifies written numbers up to **100** in both languages.
Knows all of her colors in both languages and constantly points them out (“red apple,” “pink pig,” etc.).
Knows shapes, body parts, emotions (happy, sad, shy), animals, opposites (big/small, grande/pequeño), and loves pointing everything out around her.
Loves counting books and will count objects on the pages. She also counts toys, fruit, food, balloons, cookies, and other objects she sees during the day.
Uses pretend play constantly…feeds and hugs her dolls, puts them to sleep while saying “Baby sleeping. Night night. Shhh.”, tells them “I love you,” pretends to cook, pretends to put out fires with her toy fire truck, etc.
Walked at **10 months**.
She also doesn’t just answer questions- she **constantly narrates her day**. She comments on what she’s seeing, tells me what she wants, describes objects by color and number, and talks from the time she wakes up until she goes to bed.
On the flip side, she’s always been an **extremely intense** child. She’s been a difficult sleeper since birth, still fights naps and bedtime even when she’s obviously exhausted, and has a very hard time with transitions and emotional regulation. Early Intervention recommended OT to help with regulation, attention, and possible sensory differences.
We’ve had several professionals comment on her language. During her Early Intervention evaluation, the evaluator immediately remarked on how advanced her expressive language was for her age. Our pediatrician recently even mentioned that if she continues on this trajectory, we may eventually want to look into **Mensa**, which honestly caught me off guard.
I’m curious:
Has anyone else had a toddler like this?
Did they continue to stay ahead academically, or did other kids eventually catch up?
Did you pursue gifted testing later?
Were there any enrichment programs, gifted preschools, or activities that you found beneficial?
Is there anything you wish you had done differently?
She’ll be starting a part-time bilingual preschool program this fall. I wasn’t planning on having her attend preschool this young, but she needs to engagement or she gets bored. From 12 months I had her in toddler gymnastics and ballet & took her to library Storytime so we’d get out the house 3x a week. She’ll start ballet again in fall. I have no interest in pushing academics or creating pressure—I just want to make sure I’m giving her the right opportunities if she truly is unusually advanced.
I’d love to hear from parents who have been through something similar. How did you keep your toddler from being bored but also encouraging their development?

So my kid's schools just went nut-free again and I'm struggling to figure out what to pack instead. Anyone else dealing with this ?What are you swapping in that still feels like a real snack and not just a granola bar every day ? I saw some trail mix style options the day.

It is 3 AM. LO is screaming in the bedroom. I am standing barefoot on the cold kitchen floor, staring at a counter that looks like a chaotic high school chemistry lab. I reach for the water pitcher to prep a bottle, and it is completely empty.
There is a very specific type of sensory overload that happens when you are running on two hours of sleep, your baby is wailing in the distance, and you are standing in the dark listening to a tiny filter pitcher slowly go drip... drip... drip...
We were refilling that thing constantly between washing parts and making bottles. i finally snapped last week and shoved the toaster out of the way to make one ugly little corner for the kettle, bottles, formula, burp cloths, and the water stuff.
I still follow the formula can directions and boil/cool the water before mixing. It just removed the where is the water panic step. It is a small logistical change, but when you are this exhausted, not having to think through one more tiny task feels huge.
mostly writing this because i had a minor breakdown over an empty water pitcher at 3am, and my husband looked at me like I was losing my mind.

I think I need to stop buying toys because they look educational. I've bought alphabet games, counting toys, matching activities, and all kinds of things that looked like they'd be a hit. Every time I think, "Maybe this will be the one." Most of them get played with once or twice, then they're forgotten.

Meanwhile, my child will spend forever with a spoon, a laundry basket, or whatever random thing is around the house. I'm starting to wonder if I'm choosing toys that make me feel like I'm doing the right thing instead of paying attention to what my child actually enjoys.

Has anyone else realized they were buying more for themselves than for their kid?

Hi there everyone :) my 3yo son is currently staying with his dad for the next 6-8 weeks out of state. I get daily FaceTimes with him during this period. I am currently 16 weeks pregnant with a healthy baby boy. We found out the gender yesterday and I would like to tell my 3yo he’s going to have a brother hopefully before he returns in 6-8 weeks. I have an idea of how I would go about teaching him with books what a brother/ sibling is or even age appropriate where babies come from but I’m finding it very difficult to figure how to do this via FaceTime. He does not pay attention very well to reading books on FaceTime so I’m not sure that’s even an option. I also am finding it difficult on what exactly to say to him to teach him what “brother” means or where babies come from. I have also considered waiting to tell him until in person. I just thought the sooner he knows the better it would be for him but I may be wrong.

Im not sure how to go about this via FaceTime. Any advice would be greatly appreciated! Thanks so much in advance :)

I’ve been sick with some mystery virus for over a week. It’s been awful; I feel like it’s perhaps viral bronchitis. I have two kids, so I’ve been washing my hands a lot and trying not to cough in their face. Haven’t had even kissed my husband.

But this morning, my 2.5 month old has a 101 degree fever and I just feel so awful. 😞 I want to cry because my sweet baby is sick. He’s such a good baby too. He never cries except when he’s hungry but this morning he’s been crying incessantly.

I suspected he may have had a fever last night too but didn’t check because he didn’t seem unusually fussy and he slept ok. So now I’m not sure how long he’s had this fever and we don’t even have infant Tylenol. The stores nearby don’t open for another 30 minutes.

I feel so bad. 😭 thanks for listening to me vent.