Bad Habits and Unwelcome Stages

Today at church I (Suzy) saw a little girl sucking on the ribbon that is supposed to tie her dress in the back. I thought to myself, "She must be 5." Actually, I already knew she was 5, but I would have known it anyway - just from the ribbon sucking.

In raising the 3 kids so far, it is getting to the point where I can comfortably say (with much relief),"This is just a phase, and he/she will grow out of it." For those of you who may just barely be entering some of these stages, I hope this brings you some sort of relief (your kid isn't a freak, and your kid WILL stop doing that someday). I'd be interested to hear from others about some of the stages you have noticed.

I'll probably add more to this list as I think of them, or as I get some input.

• 1 1/2 - 3 yrs. -- Impulsively throwing things. Throwing things at people or other children for no apparent reason. Dumping boxes of toys and scattering them with complete joy.
• 2-3 yrs. -- Sucking on a finger or two and then touching things with the wet fingers. This is especially annoying when you take them to nursery and know that all those germs are bound to end up in their mouth.
• up to age 3 or 4-- The complete inability to whisper in quiet places.
• up to 6 yrs. -- The constant need to climb and stand on something taller like couches, chairs, counters, tables, etc... Josh and I always ask the kids if they ever see us doing that. Can you imagine walking into the kitchen and seeing Josh standing on the counter eating a cookie?
• 5-6 yrs. -- We like to call this the "Grand Age of Annoying Habits." Most of these are nervous habits. Our kids have gone through phases of sniffing (like every five seconds for, like, six months), sucking the lower lip until it is red and sore (see picture), sucking on shirts/sleeves/clothing, nose-picking, methodically kicking the dinner table over and over and over despite repeated cries of "Who's kicking?". The worst thing about these habits has been that despite any attempts to break the kids of these habits (i.e., constantly pointing out the habit, giving rewards when they stop or punishments when they don't) has done no good. We've just had to ride it out. So far, my boys have ended most of their bad habits on their own weeks or months after we give up trying to train the habits out of them.
  

I'm not experienced past 5-6 yrs, but would love to hear input from others. Its always nice to know what to expect.

I'm hoping that complaining/whining (comments like "you won't forgive me, even if I say sorry," or "you NEVER let me have treats," or "I NEVER get to do anything fun") falls into the 7 yr. old category (and not the 8 yr. old one).