Imitation C

Is it King Louie or Blou who sings "I wanna be like you-ou-ou" in Disney's Jungle Book? Well, regardless of the original crooner, it could very well be C's theme song these days. I should have known this was starting when she climbed up into the driver's seat of my car last week. We have indeed reached the days of watching the words coming out of our mouths. Not that we weren't watching them already, but you know what I mean.

At least I know that I'm cleaning enough, because that's mostly what C's mimicking. So far this week, I've caught her "sweeping", "scrubbing the floor", wiping the table, and scrubbing the toilet. Yes, the toilet. I heard a swishing noise coming from the bathroom while I was in our bedroom, walked in, and found my little girl happily scrubbing away with the toilet brush. I'm glad I have the cleansers locked up where she can't get to them. She likes to close the dishwasher and push the "wash" button, just like Mommy. She's also tried to push the vacuum, but it's too heavy for her, so she tries valiantly to help me when I've got it going. Today she also "helped" bring in the groceries for the first time. I hadn't thought she was big enough to do that, but after letting her out of the car, she picked the orange juice up off the garage floor and with much grunting and heaving, got it into the house. I took the bread and tortillas out of the sack after that, and let her "help" carry those in. However, I think I've taught her all too well about how to close doors. She closed the garage door on me while I was getting the last load of groceries! I know that one of these days she's going to want to help "cook" and that's going to get interesting. I'm going to have to get creative with tasks that she can do to "help".

C imitates some other things as well. She likes to take her (broken) remote control and sit in her child-size recliner and look like she's watching tv. She also really, really wants to push the computer buttons and today, got hold of the mouse and started walking around with it. She's also really started enjoying sitting at the table with Mommy and doing our "work" together. She gets her crayons or markers, which she calls "pens" and her paper and scribbles while I make notes or write in my journal. Of course, she also imitates my time reading, picking up a book and "reading", either out loud in baby-babble or by turning the pages silently.


Beyond the "chores" she wants to do like Mommy, she's started repeating our words, and is slowly adding to her usable vocabulary. She'll repeat what she hears us say, like "hos" for horse, and "bow" for bowl, but she hasn't used them independent of the repeat. However, she now can initiate using "mo" for more, now, "foo" for food, and "hep" for help. Wow.