Loving, and being loved, develops like any other life skills your baby will master over the course of the next 2 decades: She’ll first practice on you.

Unlike talking, testing boundaries, or taming her impulses, falling in love won’t wait.  It’s the first thing she needs to be able to do.

MommyGarten’s Summer schedule begins June 1.

We will be unveiling Play Plans, a new MommyGarten feature!  Each Play Plan will be filled with tips for outdoor playing, indoor playing, water play, and much more!  Continue to stop by MommyGarten.com all summer long for updates!

But first, we’d like to spend this week reviewing key parenting lessons from days gone by.  For today, let’s take another look at one of my favorite baby philosophies to ponder with parents:  When is baby no longer a baby?

From March 2010:

It’s always a little surprising when we realize how wild our babies really are.

I don’t mean the “prefers to go barefoot” version of untamed. Not even the rather cute “my child really likes nuts and berries” kind of wild.

Nope, I mean the poop-whenevah-wherevah-you-want wildness. The snatch or be snatched toy ethics, and the take a nap any-dang-where mode of savagery. Survival of the stubbornest, child bite child.

You’ve seen playgroup. It’s a jungle in there.

It hardly seems fair.

Every week, the moon has her own day: “Monday” in English; in Spanish “lunes” reminds us of lunar events.

But Mother Earth gets just one day per year? Well, let’s make the most of it.  We declare it Earth Day all week at MommyGarten.com.

We’ll tell you tips to help your baby, toddler, or preschooler grow and play outdoors — and the developmental benefits for doing so.