Let’s face it: kids are awesome. Sure, they’re not always perfect, but hey, neither are we. And it’s not just the really amazing things that they do—learning to take their first steps, saying “I love you” for the first time—that melt our hearts; it’s all the little things that they do, every day, that we may not always appreciate at the time. For every sleepless night, embarrassing public tantrum and picky eating phase, there are a million things that your kids will do that leave you completely in awe and grateful to be a parent.

Neil Pasricha, author of the popular blog 1000awesomethings.com and The Book of Awesome book series, is a keen observer of such awesomeness. He’s spent the last four years sharing life’s simple pleasures with readers all over the world, and many of them include wonderful things about family, kids and babies. Neil’s countdown will reach number one this week (on April 19th), and he’s been kind enough to share with us some of his favourite awesome things about kids. So without further ado, here are 10 awesome things about kids.

When the baby's diaper isn't as bad as you were expecting

You think it’s going to be a stink-bomb, but your baby decided to give you an awesome present of a relatively clean diaper!

Photography by André Mouraux via Flickr (cc)

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Even more awesome? If you happen to be in the GTA, Neil will be announcing his number one awesome thing at a special event on Wednesday, April 18th, the night before the post goes live on 1000AwesomeThings.com. You can find more details about that here.