Big Boy Braden

Braden is doing so many "big boy" things these days (at 4 years, 1 month, 2 weeks and 1 day old - HA!). Here are a few examples...

• He gets up in the morning when his clock says 6 or 7. After that, he goes to the fridge and gets his own juice (which Daddy poured in a sippy cup for him the night before). Then, he turns on the TV (which Mommy or Daddy pre-tuned to the Disney Channel the night before), and is content to entertain himself for the next hour or two (he's actually been doing this for several months).
• He picks out his own clothes each night, hangs them on the side of the changing table, and then gets dressed all by himself each morning. He especially loves to wear his "suit" (khaki pants with shirt, tie, and sweater vest) and was very excited about the leather belts he got for Christmas.
• He brushes his own teeth with his Wall-E toothbrush and big boy toothpaste (that Santa gave him in his stocking) all by himself.
• He can spell, read, and write his own name (the writing part started just after his 4th birthday), and he can recognize several other names and words (like Mommy, Daddy, David, Jenny, and our last name).
• On a funny note, he has figured out that Mommy only cleans the house when company is coming. The last few times I have said something about needing to clean or actually started cleaning, he has immediately asked who was coming over. He is a big help, though. Today, he took all the laundry out of the dryer for me and sorted it into two baskets (one for his clothes and the other for Mommy and Daddy's clothes).

I'm sure there are lots of other things that I'm forgetting, but those are the ones that stick out in my mind at the moment. It is amazing to watch him grow. He wanted to watch "talking Braden movies" (a.k.a. home videos) the other night, and I randomly picked up a tape to play for him. They aren't all labeled (yet!), and the one I grabbed happened to be of his 2nd birthday. We hadn't watched it in forever, and I couldn't believe how much he has changed in just 2 years. It was almost like watching a different child. I had forgotten what his little voice sounded like and how much he used signs to communicate. It was so precious and sweet.

I am already getting sad thinking about him growing up and going to college. I know... I have to tackle Kindergarten before college, but the whole idea of him living somewhere else (even if it's just in a dorm room 20 miles away) makes me miss him! Whenever I think about that, I feel sad for my mom and David's mom, too!