Monkey See, Monkey Do

I'll admit I call my kid a monkey. He acts like one often. He climbs, he runs, he randomly dances to music no one is hearing. He's a fantastically goofy child. He's my monkey. And yes, monkey see, monkey do.

I have tried very hard not to overreact, or even react sometimes, when he falls or bonks his head. I know it's going to happen. Falling is inevitable when a child is learning to walk, run, dance, or otherwise figure out how to control his motor skills. And I know children often emulate the responses their caregivers have. So I work hard to not let out a giant, panicky gasp, run over, grab him up in my arms, and cry "Are you ok, oh my poor baby!?!" Instead, I usually try to just look at him, smile, and say, "You good?" He usually smile and laughs about it.

But on occasion, my hand will fly up to my mouth as an auto-response to prevent the previously mentioned panicky reaction. Last week, my son took a weird tumble. I cannot even begin to describe how he fell. But my hand flew up. Then I burst into laughter because as soon as he hit the deck, his hand flew to his mouth, he looked at me, smiled and started giggling. I could not believe that his response to falling was to cover his mouth!

Then today, he decided to take it a step further. He had been running around as we were playing together in the den. He came to stand by me, dropped into a seated position, and put his hand on his mouth. I thought it was pretty silly. Then he stood up again, sat down, and hand-to-mouth. He kept laughing as he repeated this pattern for five minutes. He thought he was the funniest thing since Johnny Carson!

He has definitely reminded me that he will mimic what he sees. But I love that his knee-jerk response now to landing on the ground is not to panic or cry, but rather to laugh and cover his mouth. I love that he has gone so far as to invent a game out of falling. I hope I can live a life that he is safe to emulate. I hope he continues to take lemons and make lemonade in his life. I hope its a life that is always as full of laughter and smiles as his currently is.