Your 26-Month-Old: Recounting the Day, Shapes, and Taking Turns
By the Growbaby team · Published Aug 4, 2026
Written against AAP, CDC and WHO guidance. How we write these guides
At a glance
- Real events get recounted, with the best part told first.
- A circle closes on paper, roughly, and gets called a circle.
- One foot can be held off the floor for a few seconds unaided.
- Turn-taking games get joined, though the waiting is still hard.
- The same toys get sorted again according to a different rule.
Ask what happened at nursery and you may now get an answer with a shape to it. The account will skip things and put the exciting part first, and it is still a retelling of real events rather than a list of words.
Alongside it come closed shapes on paper, a few seconds balanced on one foot, games with turns in them, and sorting that can be redone under a new rule.
What is new this month
Telling what happened is a memory task before it is a language one. Your child has to retrieve events, keep them roughly in order, and judge which of them you need to know about, and that last part develops slowest of the three. Specific questions work better than open ones, so asking who they sat next to gets further than asking about their day.
Drawing a closed shape marks a change in hand control. A circle needs the line to curve and then meet itself, which asks for planning at the start of the stroke rather than correction at the end. Standing on one foot is the same principle in the legs, holding a position steady rather than reacting once it has already gone.
Games with rules introduce something genuinely new: waiting. Taking a turn means accepting a delay your child did not choose, which is hard and worth doing badly for a while. Sorting has developed alongside it, since the same pile can now be let go of and regrouped under a different rule instead of being stuck with the first arrangement.
Week by week, in the app
Our paediatric specialist wrote one thing to notice and one thing to try for every week of the first three years. Here is what this month covers. The app works out which week your child is in from their birth date and brings each one to you on the day.
- Week 109Telling Simple Stories
- Week 110Standing on One Foot
- Week 111Drawing Simple Shapes
- Week 112Participating in Games with Rules
- Week 113Categorizing Objects
This week, for your baby
Growbaby works out which week your baby is in from their birth date and brings that week's activity to you on the day, so you are not looking up where you are. Plus adaptive soothing for the nights and Growy for the questions in between.
This guide is for general informational purposes only. Growbaby is not a medical device and does not provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Every baby develops at their own pace; for any question or concern about your baby's health or development, always consult your pediatrician or another qualified healthcare provider.