Monkey See. Monkey Do.

I'm constantly being reminded that Big Boy and Boopy are two completely different types of kids. Big Boy is mellow, easy going, generally listens quite well and absorbs what he chooses. While he is starting to assert his independence more and more, giving me more attitude than he used to, he is generally a pretty easy kid. Boopy on the otherhand, oh my. I'm torn whether it's a second child trait, a "girl" thing or simply just Boopy, but regardless, she can be exhausting. She picks up on EVERYTHING and absorbs it like a sponge. While Big Boy will choose to ignore the going-ons in his surroundings and read a book, Boopy hears everything and wants to be involved in it all. There's not much that gets past this kid.

The other night she was frustrating me as usual, testing my limits and reaching them rather quickly. So quickly in fact that after she stood there and continued to throw refrigerator magnets on floor all while looking at me immediately after I told her to stop, she found herself promptly put on time-out. Time-outs with Boopy are a challenge. Unlike Big Boy, who stays where you put him and almost immediately cries because he is upset that he is in trouble, Boopy laughs. Boopy immediately tries to get up and run away and make it a game. She seriously tests my patience. This night was no different. I've found that putting her in the hallway leading to the kitchen from the front door and closing the french doors works best to make her feel isolated and punished. It often takes a while for her to be willing to listen to me and decide that, yes, she is going to use her "listening ears" and be a good big girl for me.

So, a little while after our successful time-out, Boopy was playing in the living room. I'm not sure what lead up to this, but I saw Boopy take her sippy cup of milk into the hallway and place it in her time-out spot. It was all I could do to not laugh out loud at the dialogue she had with her milk.

• (Boopy speaking sternly and pointing her finger.) "Milk. Stay there! Not nice, milk, not nice. Milk, Listen! Listen, Milk!" (Apparently the milk had not listened!)

She has proceeded to mimic this over the past few days. She even put her feet on time-out while riding in the car! Apparently her feet weren't listening to her so she stuck them out and told them to stay and that they weren't being nice.

Guess we REALLY have to watch what we say, huh!

(Please excuse the ugly formatting - really I had it nicely laid out with spaces between paragraphs, etc in the edit screen, but for some reason, Blogspot is not saving it correctly for actual viewing. Arghhhh!!!)