Monkey see, Monkey do

i’m not sure if i’ve ever mentioned it before but i often call Sydney by her nickname, Monkey – from the time she could cruise, she’s been climbing on anything she could – beds, couches, chairs, stairs, the dog, people … so the title of today’s blog is wildly appropriate

as all children Sydney’s age – she is VERY into mimicking and repeating everything she sees you say or do – to the point where Kelley calls her a parrot because you can hardly say a word without her repeating exactly what you just said – most of the time it’s super cute and some days it’s down right hilarious – just yesterday at our weekly playdate, one of the mom’s commented that Sydney was so good at repeating – and she is – if i tell her to say something, she can almost always repeat it – and a lot of times if she just hears you talking, she’ll repeat the last word you heard her say – i spend a lot of time teaching her to say funny things purely for my entertainment – especially when they pertain to “Daddy” – you know, things like “Daddy’s silly” or “Daddy’s pooping” (one of my personal favorites!) – and because i’ve been so massively tired lately, lots of directions for Daddy to do – like “Daddy, hungry” or “Daddy, change you?” (which she says instead of “change me”) – but none of those fun little phrases prepared me for today

i knew it was coming – it was inevitable really – hi, my name is dianthe and i have a potty mouth – **hangs head in shame**- i really have made an effort to clean up my mouth (at least around Sydney) and i thought i was doing pretty good … until today – i was at the kitchen table eating dinner, Kelley was in the living room watching football and Sydney was in the play area of the living room – all of a sudden i heard something fall and about a half a second later i heard a little voice say, “dammit … dammit … dammit” – Kelley and i both looked in her direction after the first one to make sure that was what she really said – but there was no denying the second one – or the third one – her tone and inflection were absolutely perfect – she sounded JUST like me – clearly she’s been paying close attention to Mommy – sigh.

i have to admit it though, i laughed – i laughed and i laughed hard and loud – i couldn’t help it – it was funny – and cute – i know, i know – i’m not supposed to laugh or even acknowledge what she said – but because i wasn’t actually in the same room as her, i don’t think she realized i was laughing at HER – but it was pretty freaking cute – and i know that it’s cute now because she’s 2 (almost) and doesn’t know what she’s saying and it DEFINITELY won’t be cute when she’s dropping F-bombs at 4 like she’s been doing it all her life!  but tonight it was funny – even so, a few minutes later when she dropped something, i jumped right in and put the kibosh on it – i heard something fall to the ground and heard her groan – but before she could get a word out …

me: “uh oh Sydney – did you drop something?”

Sydney: “yes”

me: “uh oh, you dropped something – tell Daddy what you dropped”

Sydney: “uh oh, dropped something”

me: “uh oh Daddy – Sydney dropped something”

Sydney: “uh oh Daddy – dropped something”

Kelley: “you dropped something?  what’d you drop?”

and so the conversation continued …

whew – crisis averted – at least for now – or until she drops the next inappropriate word she learned from Mommy! let’s just hope it’s not in front of my mom – or the nanny – nothing says Mother of the Year like a kid who cusses, right?