I’ve had this post sitting in my drafts folder for ages, and I keep forgetting it’s here. Four is one of my favorite kid ages, and I want to document some of Lucy’s little speaking quirks before I turn around and she’s 14 and I’ve forgotten everything.

* First! Her Southern accent is AMAZING. I don’t know where she gets it, because I have sort of a generic non-accent (so I’m told), and Dave is British, but she has this crazy drawl that I love. When she starts to tell you something, it usually starts with “well…” pronounced like “WAY-uhlll…”

She also refers to her Lactaid tablet as “my PEE-uhll”.

First thing in the morning, she says she wants me to come with her “down-STAY-uhrs.”

I’m sure she’ll drop the accent at some point, but for now, I love it.

* She still says, “Take you!” with her arms up when she wants to be carried.

* She refers to her bottom as her “butt-butt” (thanks, daycare).

* Accusatory: “Catie just BAMMED me really hard” (bammed = hit).

* She asked why Princess Leia doesn’t take off her headphones when people are talking.

* She was talking about the temporary tattoo she got at a birthday party, and said, “Mine washes off, but yours doesn’t wash off?” I said right, mine doesn’t come off. She said, “Is that because it keeps you alive?” Wait, what, no, my tattoo isn’t connected to any vital organs, for heaven’s sake.

(We happened to be in a public restroom when this happened, and there was a mom with her kid two bathroom stalls down from us who laughed and said, “That’s awesome.”)

* More on body image: “My boobs only little, but you have big boobs. When I grow up, I’m going to keep my little boobs.” I didn’t tell her that if she takes after me, she most likely will keep the little ones unless she pays a plastic surgeon to correct that for her.

* Because she’s still obsessed with Frozen: She put on her Elsa costume, curled up on the couch under the afghan my grandmother made, and said, “Well, the cold never bothered me anyway, but a blankie sure is nice sometimes.” Completely deadpan, but she knew I’d crack up (and I did).

* “Anna should have been the queen instead of Elsa, because little sisters are better than big sisters.” WELL THEN.

* Back when we were dog shopping, we went to a rescue that was a house that had been converted into a dog shelter. At some point, Lucy needed to use the bathroom, so I took her. It was, you know, like the bathroom in anyone’s house, only the bathtub was piled high with dog beds and plastic bags full of various dog supplies. Lucy looked around and said, “There’s no newspapers in here.”

I said, “Newspapers? Like potty pads for the dogs?”

She said, “No! Newspapers like you read while you go potty!”

And then I realized she was referring to my issues of Entertainment Weekly that I always leave in the bathroom. “The newspaper.” Of course.

* And my favorite Lucy-ism of all time: later that same night, we stopped for dinner on our way home from the dog rescue. Lucy commented, “There were no boys at that place.”

I was confused, and thought she meant the dogs. I said, “Well, the dog we met was a boy dog.”

She said, “No! Human boys!”

I realized that all the rescue employees we’d met were women, there were about 4 of them working there. I said she was right, there were no boys there.

Lucy: “But they need boys!”

Me: “Why do they need boys?”

Lucy: “To clean up!”

She was being completely serious. It took me a minute, but then I realized that at our house, she sees Chris clean up way more often than I do, Dave is the only one who cleans up at his place because there’s no other adult there, and my dad does most of the cleaning at my parents’ house, due to my mom’s mobility issues. Plus she sees my brother and brother-in-law doing dishes and tidying up whenever they’re around. So she thinks those are the traditional gender roles: boys are supposed to do all the cleaning.

And I know I should’ve corrected her and explained that actually, cleaning is a job to be shared between boys and girls, but really, I kind of want her to hang onto that notion just a little bit longer.

So yeah, four is pretty awesome. There are moments I wish I could freeze her right here at this age. But I also can’t wait to see what she’ll say next.