Me and my shadows

Early this morning, D and I were in the kitchen together, alone. I opened the refrigerator and pulled out the half-and-half for my coffee. He turned to his toy refrigerator, opened the door and pulled out his sippy cup of orange juice. The sippy cup of orange juice that he must have put into his 'refrigerator' last night before going to bed. Mmmmmmm, warm juice from yesterday. At least I hope it was from yesterday.

His actions, though, reminded me just how closely these little guys are watching and mimicking my every move. From how my 5 year old throws her hands on her hips and gives me the look, to how my 3 year old asks for "some pwivacy pwease" when using the potty. Oh, and the computer. They are all obsessed with this darned thing. We have three working computers in our house which is nice at times but has turned me into one of those twitchy types who checks her email 52,583 times a day. So, the result of this is that even my 2 year old knows how to grab the mouse and stare at the screen.

Watching and learning. The good, the bad and the ugly. I yell, "Stop yelling!!!!!" without the least bit of irony in my voice and wonder why there is so much yelling in our house. I try to sit my oldest down to do a workbook and, two minutes later, I'm so bored I'm ready to do the page myself just to end the task. Think she picks up on my cues?

It's these moments when I realize how much they are watching me that kind of freak me out. It's that same feeling I get when I do something and then realize that I've just become my mother in some movement, action or utterance. Given that our nickname for mom (during a particularly snarky time in our lives) was Voice Of Doom, I'm not sure this is a good thing.