the Great Imitator

I know children learn through imitation. Seeing it happen in real life though - it's pretty funny. E is at that stage where he is imitating everything - including trying to make burping sounds. Guess that part is his Boy Gene coming out. Anyway, some of his imitations are pretty cute, and I am glad to have a camera on my phone to help me quickly capture those moments, like this one:

He loves to try to put on my shoes and walk around in them. This particular pair is easy for him to get his foot in and keep it on - he was actually able to walk and push his little block wagon.

Here's another one, from today:

We had corn dogs for lunch after church (yes, healthy eating habits should be in a whole other blog post, I know I know). I cut his corn dog up for easier eating, but he watched me eat mine from the stick. He kept pointing at the stick, so I let him have the last little bit. He didn't do too bad getting it off that stick either.

I didn't get a picture of this, but he did walk around for a few moments terrorizing Lucy by trying to hit her with a dish towel. He watched me try to get a fly off of her - I swiped the fly with a towel and then proceeded to whack at the fly (that was now away from the dog) until I killed it. I guess E just saw the "hit the dog with the towel" part. Poor Lucy. Don't worry, I rescued her.

A few days ago though, was a priceless imitation. Our friend Philip had been over to play, and unfortunately his mom had to put him in time out for a minute. We grabbed one of the little chairs at Eli's table and faced it towards the wall by the stairs for a time-out spot. The next day, my mom was over, and as we talked in the den area, we could hear Eli in the play area huffing and puffing, doing something but we didn't know what. We rounded the corner to see what he was doing.....and.....

...there he was, putting himself in time out! I'm pretty sure he didn't know this was a "time out" spot or punishment, he just knew that the day before, his friend had sat in this little chair in the same spot! Eli had pushed the chair from his little table around the corner and moved it to face the wall! I grabbed my phone as quick as I could to snap a picture before he got up. And made sure I sent it to my friend so she could see how Eli was remembering his time out!

My precious little imitator. Makes me realize how important it is these days to make sure I am providing a Good Example for him to imitate! Actions definitely speak louder than words.