My little imitator

Emma used to imitate us so much we called her "the Emma-tator". Owen seems to be the same way. When it was the 40th anniversary of the moon landing, I passed by the TV holding him as they were showing President Kennedy emphatically saying those famous words, "We choose to go to the moon..." I put the words in italics because if you watch the footage, he is gesturing with his hands very forcefully, almost pleadingly. I looked down at my little 15 month old, and his eyes are glued to the TV, and his little arms are doing the same movements! Then, a month later, we are at Emma's kindergarten check-up with our pediatrician, which happens to be not too long before Owen has his surgery. He's on the albuterol nebulizer treatments and we are holding our breath hoping he'll be well enough for surgery in about 10 days or so. Dr. Meneely runs through the standard checklist of things 5 year-olds should be able to do: hop on one foot, hold your arms out like this, move your hands like this, etc. He looks over at Owen on my lap, and he's watching Emma and doing the same thing with his hands! Dr. Meneely was quite amused. :) He said, "OK, Owen, watch Emma...see how she's breathing? Now breathe like Emma!" But this morning takes the cake for me. We are out front in the cul-de-sac, Owen on his little car, and Shadow's running around with us. It's a beautiful morning and we're taking advantage of the fact that there's not much happening out there, letting Shaddy-boy run free. He's so good about not running off. Mommy's his GPS, so says Jeff anyway, and he doesn't like to get off my radar (although he will follow Abby, who is a free spirit, so poor baby has to stay inside). So out comes our neighbor, gets ready to go in his truck. I start hollering for Shadow, the neighborhood Welcome Wagon, to come back over. I snap my fingers. Then I hear Owen holler for Shadow: "Ahh ooo AHH AHHH!!!" OOOH ahhAHHH!" The best part is, those tiny 17 month-old fingers are trying to snap. Yep, he's looking down at them, little thumb and pointer finger, flicking them together, not sure why he's not achieving the same effect as Mommy, but he's going for it just the same. We gather up Shadow and I can't stop laughing. I love this little guy so much!