Monkey See Monkey Do

Isaiah has turned into the great imitator. He watches EveryThing that we do and tries to copy. Pointing the remote at the TV, pointing up into the trees, mopping up pretend olive oil with his bread at dinner. He 'dances' anytime he hears music, stomping his feet and smiling grandly. He studies my mouth when I sound out words, trying to figure out where to put his tongue, teeth, lips. It is wickedly cool.

I'm trying to turn his new-found interest to work for the powers of good. I'll encourage him to imitate me while I pick up toys and put them back into the toy box. Which he does. And then he immediately empties it out again. Or he finds a treasure that he forgot about because he hasn't seen it is ohhhhh so long (10 minutes).

Isaiah helps me empty the dishwasher every morning. As soon as I open the door, he is like a dog to the food bowl, rushing to get his hands onto anything he can. He grabs plates, one by one, and hands them carefully to me to put away. It is a race for me to minimize the number of breakables on that bottom shelf before he gets there. He wants to help me load it too, but that process is a lot messier and I'm not interested in playing that game yet.

He is signing more and more words these days. Apple, chicken, drink, berry, dog, and bike are frequently visited signs.

We visit the chickens that live about 1/2 mile down the road from us several times a week. There are about 2 dozen assorted ornamental hens and one very loud rooster which greets us. Scraps from our kitchen are greedily pecked over. We are hopeful that as they lay more and more eggs we will be able to purchase ours from them.