When Robbie was first born, I remember talking to my older (and wiser) cousins at my Aunt Barb’s house. They were talking about the stages their kids went through and talked about what their favorite stages were. I couldn’t wait to experience all the different stages. But, I have to be honest, I thought the stage with the baby who loves to cuddle and needs me for everything was the best stage. I couldn’t imaging life being any better than that.

And then Robbie started hitting new stages. The smiling stage. The sleeping through the night stage (still an all-time favorite!). The sitting stage (this freed up so much time!). The holding-your-own-bottle stage. The crawling stage (still not a big fan). The talking stage. The walking stage. And I’ve loved them all (except, as noted, the crawling stage), always convinced that the current stage is my favorite. But this time, it’s really true. I’m sure of it.

Robbie is like my partner in crime. We do everything together: shopping, going to the gym, school dances, visit garage sales. And he gets it. He knows that he’s on an adventure, and he seems to get a kick out of it. He’s also in the stage where he’s putting everything together. The other day, he tried to put the leash on Barkley, not that the dog was happy about it. He’s figuring out new words and actions every day. Today, it was how to jump and say the word jump in Mandarin (it sounds like “bomb” and he kept saying it and saying it and saying it). I love the participate-in-life-and-laugh-all-the-time stage. And I hope this one lasts for the rest of his life.