The Best Stage

Today I came home from food shopping to my 3 1/2 year old standing at the door more than excited to carry in some groceries. I always make sure to keep a bag or 2 really light just because I know he will want to help and would be so disappointed if they were too heavy. He then dug through the bags because he asked me to get him chocolate. My kid who really do not like candy at all just absolutely loves milk chocolate, nothing fancy just M&M or crunch bars. Against my better judgement I gave him a mini crunch bar which he proceeded to eat all while humming "Mmmmm" and dancing around the kitchen, I guess he liked it.

He then "helped" me put away all the groceries, delivered items upstairs and then sorted the laundry too. He was responsible to find all the whites and put them in a pile and was very upset when I was trying to add my beige underwear to that pile. Now as we speak he is standing at the sliding glass door staring at Peter blowing the leaves, dying to go outside and help even though Peter told him that once he we done blowing the leaves he could come out, he wants out now! (as you can see in the picture he made it out there)

My point of all this is I love this stage so much. He is a helper, he does the most adorable things and says the funniest stuff. He recently decided that my Iphone box was a loaf of bread he baked and now daily it has to go in my fridge "to keep fresh" but I cannot bear to remove it especially since this morning he added pretend frosting to the top. Or when last night at 2 AM he called for me (which is odd he generally sleeps the night) and said there was a monster in the hallway. I told him that monsters were pretend which lead to the cutest 10 minute conversation I ever had at that time, including trying to explain what a dream was.

I also realize as I say this that every stage is the best stage and I will probably say this again in a month, a year and 3 years from now. I remember loving the tiny baby, lay on your shoulder and snuggle stage, I loved once he crawled and walked and when he first starting talking. He has always been a really good child so its easy to like to the stages that maybe I should be hating. He is polite and kind beyond his years. This week we bought food to the school for the Food Bank and I explained to him that there are people in this world that have no food and that we are very lucky to have food so we need to help them. He told me "that is sad mommy can we buy them more food?" He also has a little boy in his class who is autistic and he tends to play alone and no one bothers with him; lately he told me that he played with him because no one does and that he held his hand when they went outside so he did not run away. I was very proud of him this day.

Then I wonder will I love the 13 year old stage or the 16 year old stage or the "I hate my mother stage" when he locks himself in his room? He really is at the best stage right this second or maybe he is just my baby and I would love what he does even if it was a tantrum?

OK maybe not