Toddler Tales: Monkey See, Monkey Do
It’s like I woke up one day to a small adult. When they say toddlers are like sponges, my son is the prime example.
My little guy is freshly two, and talking more than any kid around his age, at least that I have ever seen. Absorbing every word and action his dad or I do. Not every action though because I’m still trying to figure out why my child wants to be in a winter coat and a onesie scootering around my living room. Another example is yesterday he insisted on bringing his left over chicken tenders from dinner to the babysitters’ house.
You can’t make these things up people…
He blows his nose, he yells at the football games on TV, and tells me he’s sorry when he “accidentally” rams into the back of my legs. This is the time where things are being analyzed, every little movement, or word. Which is hard when you have a mouth like a sailor. However this is not new territory for me. I come from an extremely large family, so young people are not foreign to me. Especially since I still have younger siblings under 10. My boyfriend on the other hand, has a smaller family and not as many little children around. It’s a learning curve for sure, but it’s nothing short of hysterical.
Case and point, last night we went out to dinner, the three of us to a sushi bar that thankfully had booster seats. Leo decided the seat wasn’t for him and wanted to jump on the seat and play peekaboo with the couple across the way from us. Brenden in frustration says, “Leo, why can’t we go out anywhere with you?!.” I, and like others of you out there know that this time period between ages 2–4 we can’t go anywhere in public without making a scene, or a mess for that matter. So knowing that we are embarking in this territory is exciting yet, solitary.
I have recently learned that 2 year olds are smarter than we think. My son knows who’s things belong to who, and can drink out of a cup without a top like a pro. (When I say like a pro, I mean he’s watched his father chug too many beverages in a hurry, and follows suit.) As well as tell me if he’s dropped his binkie “Mama I drop, I drop!!,” which I hear so many times a day I dream about it. He also knows the difference between and goose and a duck.
When it comes to the monkey see monkey doing part. My son has seen his father play video game so many times he now has his own chair, controller and head phones he brings to the TV so that he can “play too.” Or now tries to move the couch time to time and wears everyone’s shoes but his own.
It’s exhausting and I’m sure plenty of you know this from experience. I just pray my actions and words don’t come back to bite me in the end, since I’m raising a small mime…
Because I guess they know they have big shoes to fill.
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