Toddler Tales: CopyCat

One of the most entertaining facets of Toddlerhood
is the emergence of your very own,
pint-sized copy cat.

Here are a few recent examples from My Life With J that have made me chuckle:

1- Cleaning. He sees us clean and he wants to be a contributor to the demands of house keeping! He says "keen! keen!" and pretends to vacuum with a large wrapping paper tube, wipes up messes with "shu-shu" (tissue--paper towels), and insists on following up on Daddy's window cleaning with his own version of the task. He beams with pride and nods his head with self-praise. I think it is adorable.

2-Hair. The boy likes to get his hair did. I can't blame him, really--with that awesome hair that he gets complimented on *daily*, who wouldn't want it to look its best? On Sundays, he insists that Daddy do the styling of his "hen" with gel and then comes to me for the finishing touches and "hen pay" (hairspray). When I am getting ready to go out, he often goes through my headbands and walks around sporting whichever one(s) caught his fancy that day. Sometimes the headband is on his head, other times it's around his neck or over his eyes (star trek style). He is one stylin' toddler!

3-Toes. J has seen me paint my toenails probably...2 or 3 times. Usually I do it late at night after he's in bed, but a few times I've done a rush job in the morning before church or something. He has watched intently and shown his curiosity while I add bright colors to my toes. The last time I was doing this (last week?), he requested his own splash of color. I told him I'd do a clear coat just for him, and I did (much to his father's dismay). He stayed completely still until it was over and was so excited about it after! He ran over to his Dad & pointed "toes! toes!" Clearly, he doesn't know that it's a "girl thing"--he just knows it is something to do! Pedicures w/a toddler--can life get better?

4-Shoes. He has shown interest in our shoes for while now--the first time he attempted to walk around in Daddy's big shoes was back in Wisconsin, probably 5 months ago. It was adorable, but no photo could really capture the cuteness of the moment. He still likes to try out someone else's shoes...my heels, Daddy's tennis shoes, my flip flops, Daddy's dress shoes...if they are out and he gets the idea in his head--then he'll be attempting the Walk In Another's Shoes trick. Just another way he wants to follow our footsteps! ha.

5-Measuring. When we moved here, we did a lot of measuring as we unpacked boxes. Will this item fit in this spot? Is there enough room for two of those on that wall? How far apart should we place those wall hangings? Before too long, we noticed J would take one of his longer, flatter blocks or some kind of similarly sized item/toy and place it on the wall, cock his head to the left or right and say "hmmmm" as he was "measuring" the space--just as he had seen us do! It.Was.Hilarious!



Of course, there are probably tons more that I haven't even noticed or that have become so "normal" to me now that they don't stand out in my mind. These are the ones that have grabbed my attention recently--watch what you do: you may have a copy cat following you around!