Toddlers in Christ

I’ve been reading Ames & Ilg’s Your Two-Year-Old in preparation for the months ahead. They describe the 2.5 yo as:

• Egocentric. He is his whole world.
• Materialistic. For the 2.5yo, things are more important than people.
• Rigid. Because he is discovering the world is big and scary, he insists on sameness in the few things he can control. The same books read, the same toothpaste, the same route to school, the same hairdo for mom.
• Volatile. When things aren’t the same, when his possessions are threatened, he explodes. With verbal, motor, or emotional refusals, he will let you know that he is quite unhappy.

So Pastor was discussing babes in Christ this morning from I Corinthians 3.

3:1 So, brothers and sisters,1 I could not speak to you as spiritual people, but instead as people of the flesh,2 as infants in Christ. 3:2 I fed you milk,3 not solid food, for you were not yet ready. In fact, you are still not ready, 3:3 for you are still influenced by the flesh.4 For since there is still jealousy and dissension among you, are you not influenced by the flesh and behaving like unregenerate people?5 3:4 For whenever someone says, “I am with Paul,” or “I am with Apollos,” are you not merely human?6

3:5 What is Apollos, really? Or what is Paul? Servants through whom you came to believe, and each of us in the ministry the Lord gave us.7 3:6 I planted,8 Apollos watered, but God caused it to grow. 3:7 So neither the one who plants counts for anything,9 nor the one who waters, but God who causes the growth. 3:8 The one who plants and the one who waters work as one,10 but each will receive his reward according to his work. 3:9 We are coworkers belonging to God.11 You are God’s field, God’s building.

In a sense, it sounds like Paul is describing 2.5yo Christians in the midst of disequilibrium. They are egocentric and rigid in the sense that they cling to denominational camps like they’re mascots. They find their identities in these smaller, pettier divisions. They are materialistic and volatile in that they defend their territories with tantrum-like jealousies and dissensions.
Paul’s solution is to remind them Whose they are. Their dividing over Paul and Apollos is like fighting over a waiter at a restaurant where the food should be the passion or praising the gardener when the Creator and the blossom should be admired.

With a 2.5yo in disequilibrium, you indulge some routine, you teach and model proper reactions, and you reflect big feelings. How would these teaching techniques look when used with the toddler Christian?