Benji the mimic

I know that children have a phase where they learn through mimicking. Benji is undoubtedly in that phase. Some of my favorites:

Nose blowing: With all of Daddy's allergies, Benji sees a lot of nose blowing. For a long time he just thought it was hysterical and would laugh wildly when Daddy blew his nose. Now if you give him a napkin, he will hold it to his face and blow. While this is generally more useful for getting him to wipe food off his face than for getting snot out of his nose, he has occasionally cleared his nose, too.

The telephone: While Benji hasn't yet gotten the hang of the fact that he needs to talk into the telephone, he does love to walk up to me or Daddy when we're on the phone and ask for the receiver. Then he just listens. So if you're ever calling us and suddenly hear dead air or heavy breathing, just keep talking. Benji loves to listen.

Hand sanitizing: After changing Benji's diaper if I think I won't get to the sink so quickly I'll use a bottle of hand sanitizer on his dresser. Last night when I was getting him ready for bed he stood up on the changing table and reached over to the dresser. Of course I thought he was trying to climb off the changing table. Instead he took one hand and touched the sanitizer pump and then brushed his hands together as if he were rubbing the imaginary liquid in. It was totally adorable!

Hair brushing: One of Benji's favorite pastimes is to open up the drawers in our bathroom and pull out every item one by one (don't worry — we've taken out the dangerous stuff). We find things all over the house (sealed toothbrushes in the kitchen, packages of dental floss in the family room, hairbrushes in the rec room, etc.). But whenever he comes to a hairbrush in the drawer, he stops and brushes his hair for a while. Sometimes he brushes with the handle, but most of the time he even gets the right end in his hair. We are more than happy to encourage these early attempts at personal care.

Kissing: Matthew first described Benji's kissing a few weeks back and we still see this on and off. He will hold his hand to his mouth and pull it away ceremoniously while saying "Mmmmmmmmah!" There's the cutest little uptick in his pitch at the end to give it good emphasis.

Mama: Building upon the "Mmmmmmmmah!" sound of kissing, we've been trying to get Benji to say mama. Last weekend he started saying the mama sound pretty well although he still doesn't associate it with Mommy. We're continuing to work on that one (or at least I am).

Household chores: Benji has been fascinates with the dishwasher for at least a month now, but in the last few days Benji has started helping Mommy put away the dishes. He will open the door and bring me the pots and their lids or the silverware, closing the door in between each item. And tonight for the first time I saw him sweep the floor. He walked up to the broom and started swishing it back and forth. Unfortunately he hit into the walls a few times with the top of the handle so I think we need to get him his own little broom.

Other cute tidbits:

Sippy cup: In the past few weeks Benji has gotten extremely good with his sippy cup. He will pick it up off the tray himself and turns it around so the spout is the right direction. We used to have to help him hold it high enough to get the liquid out, but he now seems to understand that he should do this (sometimes he still needs help, but he's doing it himself more consistently). And two days ago he even decided that the cup needed to go into the round hole on his tray and put it there. Since we never put the cup there, we thought that was a pretty good observation of Benji's.

Going out: After all the attention we paid to shoes (and particularly Ava's Crocs) over Christmas, Benji clearly understands that word now. Shortly after Christmas he figured what it means if Mommy says "Bring Mommy your shoe" and most of the time would comply. (Of course, sometimes it's Mommy's shoe, but most of the time it's his shoe.) Now he understands that this means we're going out and that he needs his shoes and his coat. He also tells us he wants to go out by either bringing us his shoe or by standing at the laundry room door to the garage and knocking on it. It's not uncommon for me to come home from work to find Benji "opening" the door and peeking into the garage for me. Now that's the way to come home!

Libellés : Benji