Sharing these memories is a bit therapeutic for me, but I hope informative. More people than you could ever imagine have stories like this and ones far more painful than I can imagine. I’m not sure if I could have continued trying if it had happened to me more than once as other women have shared with me. I have the most amazing little girl but writing this still brought me to tears multiple times. Though my life as a mother has continued to bring me joy. I will never forget the life that was never more than a heartbeat and a date. June 28th.

I’ve had few interactions with parents of toddlers, where the parent didn’t make some reference to how bad their child was. I’m choosing to focus this post on toddlers because, I do believe they are the most misunderstood age group. Additionally, it is the age that behaviors that can be really frustrating begin to develop. It is also the stage where physical discipline typically begins in the average home. I’ll share a story that led to my search for understanding my toddler and what turned everything around.

I started collecting these animals from various Dollar Trees months ago knowing I’d use them eventually. I have other random animals but since these are all animals found in Africa, I thought that I could make a nice cohesive activity tray.