By twenty-two months most toddlers can jump with both feet leaving the floor, though the landing is still clumsy. The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) lists jumping off the ground, climbing on and off furniture, and walking up stairs with a hand held among typical motor milestones between eighteen and twenty-four months. Balance improves because the inner ear and the trunk muscles are now talking to each other. Climbing is not misbehavior, it is the body testing a new skill. Pediatricians expect wide variation here, so a toddler who jumps a little late is usually normal.

Toddlers this age copy what they see, and pediatricians call it deferred imitation. The AAP notes that by around twenty-two months a toddler can imitate an adult action hours after watching it, from wiping a table to stirring a pot. This is how he learns routines, not just movements. The drive is strong and selective: he copies the people he watches most. A raised voice, a phone held to the ear, a shoe set by the door all get filed away. Language grows the same way, through hearing and repeating.

At twenty-two months a toddler can spoon soft food into his own mouth and drink from an open cup with spills. The AAP says self-feeding, even when messy, builds the hand control and appetite regulation that a parent feeding him cannot. Around this age he also decides what and how much to eat, and appetite swings from day to day. A toddler offered a spoon and a small serving often eats more than one fed from above. Expect the floor to receive a share.

Between eighteen and twenty-four months most toddlers move to a single nap of one to three hours, usually after lunch. The AAP notes that total sleep in this age band is eleven to fourteen hours in twenty-four hours, including the nap. Some children resist the nap before they are ready to drop it, and a toddler who fights sleep at midday is often overtired, not finished napping. When the nap genuinely ends, an hour of quiet time in the cot or a low-light room replaces it.

Attention seeking is not manipulation at this age, it is communication. The AAP and child-development researchers say a toddler cannot yet regulate his own emotions, so he borrows calm from an adult. A cry for attention often comes when a parent is on the phone, cooking, or caring for a sibling, and it escalates because he has no other tool. Giving attention freely does not spoil him; withholding it to teach independence teaches the opposite. The cry is a request for connection, and connection is a need, not a reward.

Most toddler fevers do not need an emergency room, but a few signs do. The AAP advises going now for a fever with a stiff neck, a rash that does not fade when pressed, trouble breathing, a seizure, a fever above 40 C (104 F), or a child who is limp, unresponsive, or hard to wake. Dehydration counts too: no urine for eight hours, a dry mouth, or no tears. Trust your gut. If your toddler looks worse than the number suggests, go.

Month twenty-two is a safety month. The AAP urges parents to childproof for climbing, not just for walking: anchor furniture, guard windows and stairs, and store medicines and cleaning products up high in locked cupboards. Book the next well-child visit and bring your questions. Check that the car seat still faces the right way and fits his weight, and that his shoes fit, since feet grow fast now. Know the number for poison control before an accident.