Copycat

We have entered the days of mimicry in our house. Not that this is necessarily a bad thing--actually,it's usually quite cute. Iris has taken to repeating all sorts of things that we say, and now she has extended her talents of observation and imitation to things that we do. She has been working on this for awhile; several weeks ago I picked her up from Grandma's house after my class, only to have Grandma ask me when we had taught her to sing "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star." I was very confused. I'm not a big fan of kids songs or music (Raffi is about all that I can take), so I don't really know how she would be overexposed to that particular song. We make up our own songs, and sing those that we find entertaining (Mahna Mahna, for example). But Grandma swore that the cadence sounded right, and she kept saying "uppabuppa" (up above the). I wrote it off, knowing that she was working a lot on the words "apple" and "up", which often blended into one: "uppa". However, I awoke yesterday morning to her singing in her crib, along with Raffi's lullaby CD (that's how I didn't know she was actually exposed to that song--I never listen to the CD). Sure enough, "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" was playing, and she had added at least one word to the song: "tickle, tickle". But that is not the only song Iris now has in her repertoire. She now also sings "Mahna Mahna", to our great delight, and it sounds like "mama dododo". It's pretty funny, and great for car entertainment!

This morning, I found that she not only mimics words (which has been going on for awhile now) and music, but also actions. On mornings where I sleep in until she gets up, I try to exercise while she eats her breakfast. This is not always successful. This morning, she decided to eat her yogurt quickly, and then wanted down with me. So I let her down and kept doing my "Yoga Fat Burn". She soon began to watch the people on tv (she's pretty fascinated, especially as we almost NEVER let her even look at a tv). When the instructor began doing squats, Iris started bending her knees. When the instructor went into the Warrior pose, Iris' hands went out to her sides. And when the instructor had her palms touch over her head, Iris did the same. I wish I could have gotten a picture! The only thing that worries me, is that she wasn't imitating me in any way. In fact, she wasn't interested in watching me do the same things at all. Instead, she did whatever the person on tv did. Perhaps it's a good thing that we have a tv ban!