My second child, Edie, was the best baby ever. She slept a lot, and easily. She rarely cried or fussed, and was happy to go anywhere with me, in her baby carrier snuggled against my chest, whether on a subway ride downtown or across the Atlantic for my best friend?s wedding. She truly loved being a baby. She still does, even though she?s five years old.
Sometimes this just means role-playing as the baby in a game of ?family? with her sister or friends. Other times I?ll find her physically trying to squeeze into her old baby clothes for kicks. The strangest is when it seems to come out of nowhere. Like when we?re getting ready for school in the morning, and she suddenly starts babbling in baby talk while feigning she?s too helpless to put on her socks. Or when we?re out for a family walk in the evening and she demands I pick her up, using a term I used to find cute??uppy!??but now she just feels too old for.  It can be frustrating?like at the dinner table when she insists she can?t feed herself?but also annoying. Why doesn?t my sometimes exceedingly rational and intelligent little girl not want to grow up"  Apparently, she?s not alone. Jennifer Kolari, a child and family therapist and author of Connected Parenting: How to Raise a Great Kid, says it?s very common for kids from age two to three up to eight or nine or even older to act like a baby (from the affected baby voice to crawling around on the floor) or constantly whine for help with basic tasks. ?It drives pare...