My Twice Baked Potato

I looked at my boy today, really looked at him,  and searched for obvious signs that he was on the eve of turning nine.

To those parents that have passed the age of nine and are now in the teenage years, do you wish for nine again?

For those of you that have toddlers or even preschoolers, does nine seem far away?

I can tell you that it isn’t.

It is just around that wall that yours banged up with his tricycle or smudged with his painted hands.

When I was the parent of a toddler, it seemed that stage would go on forever; each stage when you are smack in the middle of it, has its own celebrations and struggles.

What I have come to realize is that a certain phase or stage is only temporary and it usually is gone for a while, before you truly miss it.

This was true with the art stage, the sucking of two middle fingers phase, the everything Lego phase, the afraid to sit in the back of the car alone stage, the I must have my pinchy coat phase.

Currently, we are pushing up against the every noise that comes out of my body is hilarious stage and the “I’m bored” stage.

Honestly, I could tolerate a few burps but would love to rid our house of “I’m bored!”

I don’t know if this is true of all boys, but mine is almost as tall as me, but still wants to hold hands.

He loves to hear how much he is loved ( and he likes to tell us about his love) but wants to act cool when others are watching.

He can’t wait to play the “better” video games, but he still likes cartoons and being read to.

I know that this very last night of eight means that we have said goodbye to many things but we have lots more stages to live through.

I wished that double digits meant that things would begin to slow down, but after listening to mothers that have teenagers, I know that it doesn’t.

What are some of the stages that you miss or looked forward to pass through?