My son was a beautiful baby. He had a perfectly round head with no hair. His eyes were a deep blue framed by long lashes. When he teared up and stuck his lower lip out, it made me want to give him the world. But mostly he was a happy baby, making funny noises and laughing more than any other emotion. As he grew into a toddler, his bald baby head transformed into soft blonde hair. His dimpled grin could light up a room. I would spike his hair and put him in overalls, and I swear he was the cutest kid around.

At 5, my son lost his first tooth. He was scared people would laugh at him because he looked funny. But the missing tooth only added to his charm. He’d smile while being an absolute monster, and all would be forgiven. I couldn’t help but give in to him when he’d only just look at me with those baby blues and gapped tooth smile. He soon lost the other tooth, and my little jack-o-lantern became irresistible.

But something happens as kids go from that sweet toddler stage to becoming an older kid. They get ugly.

Ok, that’s harsh. Let me put it this way. Kittens are adorable. Everyone wants to cuddle a kitten. Kittens will poop and whine and shed. They will miss the litter box completely. They will throw up kitten chow in your favorite slippers. They will claw up your couch or your curtains. They will knock things over and break them. But they are forgiven and loved because they are small and adorable and helpless and so dang cute. And they are so cute when they are young so that you grow to love them when they’re older. And they do get older. And then they get older than that. Soon that cute little kitten is this haggard and scrawny thing that yowls rather than meows. His ears are torn from it’s wild days as a tom cat. He may be missing a tooth, and the other one now hangs outside of his lip. His fur is missing in patches with scabs and sores from excema. And he smells. Bad. There might be this constant odor of eau de kitty litter and whatever medicine you are putting on his sores permeating from his pores. When you pet him, his fur comes away in clumps and your hand feels slightly oily. As the owner, you love him because he is still that little kitten you fell in love with. But everyone else recoils at the sight of Fluffy, afraid to touch him from fear of getting something on their hands. Not only that, Fluffy has fleas. And one of those fleas might have teeth that are too big for his mouth, and gaping holes where new teeth are taking their time growing in, and teeth that are growing in behind other teeth where there just isn’t enough room.

My kid is like that flea.

My sons hair is stick straight. He has lost the blonde and it is now a shade of brown that can only be described as dirty. He lost his extreme slender waist and now is sporting a healthy pot belly. I still wouldn’t call him fat, but it’s more like he’s been gearing up for a growth spurt that just hasn’t happened yet. And then there’s his smile. When my son smiles at me, I can’t help but wince. All I can see is the cruise I will be sending his future orthodontist on. His perfect teeth have been replaced by teeth twice the size of their baby predecessors. It’s awful. Because his baby teeth were perfectly straight, I just always assumed that his adult teeth would follow suit. This is definitely not the case. Then he fights me on brushing. There have been many times when I thought he had brushed only to find out that he hadn’t. I’d find out by the yellow film that would cover his monstrous teeth. I have now taken to brushing his teeth for him to ensure that he doesn’t start growing plants out of his gums. To make matters worse, he has lost his adorable dimpled smile in favor of a goofy and overexaggerated grin. It gets worse when a camera is pointed at him.

It’s apparent that he is going through a major funny looking stage. I’d be super worried, except that my daughter went through this too. She went from being an adorable toddler to a goofy, pudgy kid. Like her brother, her teeth were too big for her face. And I knew this girl’s smile was going to put me in the poor house. But something happened. And it almost happened overnight. My daughter sailed through the awkward stage and blossomed into this pretty young girl. Sometimes I have a hard time believing that I made something so beautiful. She got taller and thinner. She grew into her teeth, and they magically fell in place so that they appear almost straight. She grew up.

My son will transform into a swan, I’m sure. He’ll grow out of this awkward stage to be a handsome young man. And regardless of this funny looking stage he’s going through, I still am charmed by his 7 year old cuteness…..even if he is a flea on a stinky cat.

Email me at winecountry.singlemom@yahoo.com.