Trace-isms

Life with a 4-year-old is never dull.

Life with my 4-year-old is an experience all in itself. He is SO full of energy, enthusiasm, and little boy wonder that it amazes me and keeps me on my toes.


We have been celebrating his birthday for a month now... it's honestly like the birthday that won't die. His official party was on the 15th of January, but since then Sisty has brought back out-of-town birthday presents from family in Alabama, both sets of great grandmothers gave him birthday money that prompted 2 trips to Toys "R" Us, my friends Lynda and Penny (that were unable to come to his party) brought their gift over the other night, and then of course on February 7th, we celebrated again with a mini Buzz Lightyear cake for our little family of four.

Sigh... it was the longest birthday in history. So now of course my child thinks every time he turns around there should be another gift, card, or cake with his name on it celebrating his blessed birth. ha!
As I sit downloading these pictures, he is running around the house with his crocodile Halloween costume on over his pajamas, which has been recycled into a dinosaur named Buddy from the PBS show Dinosaur Train.

At least he's resourceful.

To complete the look, he has on my dad's huge gun shooting range headphones that he borrowed for the monster truck show my brother and Kadi are taking him to tomorrow night.

For the better part of an hour last week, I thought he was going to accompany me to the bi-lo wearing this ensemble, and believe it or not, I was OK with that.

Between my hormonal, acne riddled face, the dark circles under my eyes, the fact that I haven't donned "real" clothes in months, and my hair that's in desperate need of maintenance, I was looking pretty prehistoric myself. At least "Buddy" would have diverted attention from me.

But suddenly as we were walking out the door, he says, "Oh I guess I need to take my costume off."

Sadly, my "costume" won't come off so easily.

Just a few Trace-isms I want to remember...

"Tell me an 'all of a sudden' story." This comes from Thomas books, so he now thinks every story told must contain an "all of a sudden" moment and he waits patiently for it and then he pauses and replies, "what happened?" It's like the equivalent of what us adults call the cliffhanger.

"Well... kinda had a lil' bit of trouble." He says, with a slumped, defeated face whenever he has been in trouble or something has happened at school that he needs to confess.

"I've got a perfectly good idea... let's go to Chick-a-lay!"

"In just a minute... I'm a little busy." I hear this whenever he's asked to get dressed or put on his shoes before we leave to go somewhere. This phrase typically causes my blood pressure to spike.

"I'm Goldilocks." I turned around for 2 seconds the other day and he ate my entire bowl of cereal.

"Where is Girby's du danky?" and "Does Girby have baby boobies like me?" Can you tell there have been a lot of anatomy discussions about male and female parts around here in the last 3 weeks? We probably need to use the "proper" terms but du danky and boobies seem to have stuck for the time being.

"Let's name her Carter... oh yeah, the doctor already took her out of your belly and said her name was Keatyn." He announced her new name was Carter the other day after he walked out of school with his friend Emma Kate and her new baby brother, Carter.

"This is a keep out sign... no girls can come in, only Nanas, Papaws, and Traces."

Nanny meeting Keatyn...

It's a wonder she still has any hair, he kisses her head a 100 times a day. It's so sweet... just hope it lasts!
I hesitate to say this out loud, but for the last 4 nights this little lady has gone 5 and 6 hours between feedings!!! Oh, I'm actually feeling human again. I'm a sleeper, so to actually get several hours in a row has been miraculous. We had to put her on Axid for reflux so maybe that is helping and I pray it will continue to. You could tell how uncomfortable she was and the cute kitty cat sounds she was making turned out to be more like acid reflux growls...poor baby.

I'm hoping the good nights are here to stay, but I keep reminding myself this is a season of life, and if it's a season of sleepless nights, it won't last forever. Sweet dreams everyone!!