My girlfriend, who I just recently got together with, has a daughter who will soon turn three. I would like to be a good stepfather to the girl, but I have very little experience of toddlers, and don't really know how to win their trust or how to play with then. Obviously I will also be talking to my girlfriend about this and asking for her advice, but I'd also appreciate any other thoughts. How does one "become friends" with a toddler?
Things that I've thought of so far:
- just hang around and give the child time to get used to me being there
- watch how other adults play with her and take hints from that
- just try to generally project a friendly attitude and let her cuteness and adorableness (as well as the cuteness of seeing her play together with her mother, the two of them are really adorable to watch together) make me feel happy; children can generally sense when someone likes them