10 (Hilarious) Childhood Stages I Will Miss

By Charlotte Hilton Andersen, REDBOOK

"You'll miss this stage when they're all grown up!" is one of my least-favorite pieces of advice ever. Usually, it comes from a well-meaning stranger who has blissfully forgotten how crazy-making 3-year-olds can be. (Terrible Twos? Pfft. Threes are way worse.) I want to yell, "I can't miss them if they NEVER LEAVE ME ALONE!!" And yet, while it can be easy to get caught up in the day-to-day grind (my kids are currently going through a chanting phase that makes me want to stick forks in my ears) the been-there parents might have a point: It's important to remember the little things about our little ones. Here are my fave childhood stages:

1. The gibberish stage. I think my daughter might have re-invented Esperanto because about every 5th word sounds vaguely English and the rest are Boo from Monsters Inc. singing to herself on the potty. (Cutest movie scene ever.)

2. The bellybutton stage. My son has a bellybutton. Want to see it? Good, because he has to flash everyone from the grocery cashier to the lady at library time. The best part is how surprised he is every time it's still there.

3. The tub-bubbles stage. All of my kids, somewhere around age 2, become both utterly surprised and delighted by their own flatulence. Bath time is better than Jon Stewart impersonating Justin Bieber on Saturday Night Live .

4. The puppy stage. Don't even try to call my son by his real name because he won't answer. His name is Scotch the puppy and he'd like to eat out of a bowl on the floor thank you very much. Bonus: Now I don't have to buy the older two kids a pet.

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5. The slow fall stage. Babies don't go straight from horizontal to vertical. My favorite part of teaching my kids to sit is when I plop them down, and they s-l-o-w-l-y lean to one side (or forward). They can "fall" for 10 minutes before they hit the (padded) floor. Leaning Tower of Baby!

6. The proud poop stage. Granted, there is much to hate about this one but it always cracks me up when kids are so proud of their bowel movements. "It's like two bridges and a tank mommy!" One son wouldn't let me flush the toilet until daddy got home from work to admire it. Gross, but funny.

7. The swearing stage. Nothing is funnier than watching a toddler get really upset about something, search desperately for the right word to tell you how upset he is and come out with "DiaperBlanketShoePoopHead!!!!" Oh and the face that goes with it...

8. The cheese stage. There comes a day when every kid learns that thing you keep pointing at her is a camera and she will suddenly develop a signature "cheese!" pose. Currently my 2-year-old bares all her teeth and frames her face with jazz hands.

9. The chin quiver stage. You know you're a mom when you think even your baby crying is adorable. And yet when you add in the chin quiver to the wail, every heart melts. My doctor says it's just a neurological misfiring but if it is then it's the cutest brain damage I've ever seen.

10. The "I Love You Forever" stage. I'll be darned if I don't do the ugly cry every single time I read that book. And when my son finally learned to say it back? It almost made me forgive him for the nine months of colic he put me through.

What childhood stage do you really miss now that your kids have grown out of it?

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