When Imitation Isn't Necessarily Flattery

Before Jessica could talk she has been imitating us, learning to clap, making faces and sounds. I knew I was in trouble this past school year, when on a weekend, Jess and Ristow stayed at my parents house overnight and my mom told me that Jessica was waving Ristow's clothes at him and "yelling" for him to get dressed. Now she couldn't say specific words at the time but everyone could tell it was an imitation of me trying to get Ristow dressed before school. Funny and a bit embarrassing at the same time ;)

Since then, she has imitated more sayings and words and loves to pretend to be cookie monster and say everything in a rough low voice. (Christopher likes to pretend that he taught her to talk like Carl from the movie Slingblade). Nowadays Jess has quite the vocabulary and likes to talk almost as much as Ristow does, which as you can guess, doesn't leave much time for anyone else in the family!

This afternoon Jess took it to a whole different level. When we came in from playing outside, she grabbed a toy bunny and put it in the corner for a "time out". She said "bad, hit, out, one" then walked away from him and went back gave him a hug and made him say "sorry baby". Then she gave him a kiss and went on to play with something else. The translation of Jessica's words work out to be something like "That was a bad choice. We do not hit! Sit in time out for one minute." Which she seems to hear quite often and can now obviously imitate in her play.

It really amazes me all that they pick up and learn, even at such a young age. It also is a good self check for me to make sure she is imitating good things and not bad. Imitations like Christopher's fly dance moves or Ristow's silly faces and jokes and hopefully lots of my hugs and kisses and love!