Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery

And Benjamin sincerely loves the maintenance men. He has been imitating cleaning since before he could walk. When I'd wipe his face down with a cloth, after eating--he would snatch the cloth from me and begin an intense ritual of wiping down his highchair. For one brief period of a few days, at about 16 months we watched him use a paper towel to wipe down our dressers in our room, intermittent with "blowing" his nose into the paper towel. Not sure who or what he was imitating there, but it was funny to watch.

This morning at breakfast Ben bolted from the table upon hearing the lawn mower outside our window. Before I could even realize what he was doing, he was out in the yard, following behind the maintenance guy, with his little plastic mower. I didn't stop him because it was so darn adorable, and because I wasn't wearing anything "outside appropriate". Upon his return to his bowl of cheerios he informed me that next time we go to the "stoh" we need to get a blower.

I have been trying to imitate a real adult. I'm not sure yet if it's for me. But I decided that since Avery was bee-lining to the computer when she first woke up, and knows how to maneuver a mouse well enough to open 57 windows of Mozilla and can rearrange our entire desktop in one click, maybe I should spend less time at the computer. I am trying to imitate those skinny women with boundless energy who say seemingly insane things like, "Oh, I just need a good 7 mile run, that'll make everything better" or "No thanks, I don't want that hot, gooey, triple chocolate brownie, I had some wheat germ souffle before I came here."

In addition to maintenance men, Ben is imitating a leper. He got a high fever over the weekend with what appeared to be no other symptoms. I always forget that Benjamin is not a complainer. Never has been. Avery makes up for that in complaining about things like which hand I use to open a door (true story). Anyway, he could have had a headache or sore throat, but he never said as much. Then yesterday he broke out in spots, or "fots" all over his face and then in strange places on his body. His spirits have remained high, but he has to be quarantined for a few days since it's a highly contagious virus (sorry Avery, your next). When I told him he couldn't go to his friend's house he said, "I'm not sick, I went to the doctor!" On Sunday when I told him he couldn't have candy because he was sick and needed healthy food he said, "I'm not sick, I took medicine." The kid's a believer, you gotta give him that!
Here's Ben's rash:




And granted, Avery was only 4 months old, but look at the difference in expressions when she had a rash:













As long as my kids are learning, they will be imitating. The interesting thing about them imitating, is that I'm learning a lot too. I have learned that I say some pretty sweet things to my kids, even without realizing it. Ben greets Avery in her crib after waking from a nap, "Hello love, you look beautiful and I'm so happy to see you!" I've learned that I'm a computer-aholic. See above. I've learned that my husband says random things to Ben on PURPOSE, because of this imitation thing. The other night while changing Ben into his pajamas, Ben tried to dress without putting on underwear first. Jay's response was, "Wait Ben, you have to put on your underwear first, everyone wears underwear under their pajamas. Except for maybe Mongolians." Of course, the topic of Mongolians and underwear IS going to come up sometime in the future. I just hope he's with Jay when it does.
I apologize if I have offended any Mongolians with this story.