Big Guy and the Tarheel (400th post!)

Yesterday Ben returned to school for the first time this week thanks to Martin Luther King Jr. day and a simultaneous (let your imagination run wild with that one,) stomach bug with Mama while Daddy was out of town for work. I won't dwell on the gastroenteritis other than to say it made for the toughest week of my parenting life and there were a couple hours where a trip to the hospital was a minute-by-minute decision. 
But on to the cute stuff........
Despite begging to go to school the day before and not nearly removed enough from the "fun," Ben DID NOT want to get up and go to school yesterday.  Honestly, had I not had a Dr's appointment that I'd spent months trying to get, I would have let him spend another morning recovering and avoided the struggle.  
Amid the unending pleasantries of the morning, I put a Tarheel shirt on Ben I was sure he had forgotten and was sure it would cheer him up as he loves the Tarheel on his blue basketball.  He was totally unimpressed and cranky all morning.  
He did take time to comfort himself, however, in some of the toughest moments of the morning, but instead of asking his usual, "Ben, are you ok Ben?," he had now replaced "Ben" with "Big Guy."
I nearly lost my mind laughing when he bonked his foot and said, "Big Guy, are you ok?" "It's ok Big Guy, you're ok."
And so it has been ever since that Ben is Big Guy in his frequent third person dialogue.  I chuckle every time he says it and only wish I knew where he picked it up.
As for school and the Tarheel shirt that morning, Ben skipped all the way to his classroom, bid me the usually quick good-bye and ran over to proudly tell buddy Luke all about his Tarheel shirt.  It couldn't have been a better start to re-entry into the world of the living.