For years, the members of Vicki Wawrzyniec's family didn't put milk in their cereal. They used "bloke." As in "Could you please pass the bloke?" Or, "Got bloke?" Her son, Nate, started it at age 2: "He had the 'l' and the 'k' but just made up the rest," says Wawrzyniec, a mom of three in Falls Church, Virginia. "His cousins thought it was so funny, and so they used it, too." Thus "bloke" went into the annals of family history. Toddlers are cute when they talk. They're cute when they walk. They're often cute even when they're bad. But why? Mostly it's a case of their skills not having caught up with their ambitions as they learn to navigate the world around them. Each adorable misfire can be a developmental clue, though, and as they wrestle and grow, there are ways you can help:

Madelyn Rosenberg has written for The Roanoke Times and American Journalism Review.