It always fascinates me to watch the way that Breanna mimics so much of what Hayley does. Today Hayley was climbing up over one of the little chairs she has and jumping over on to the couch. I asked her to please stop because her sister was watching and I didn’t want her to get any big ideas since she tries to copy her so much. Hayley said, “no, she doesn’t copy me!” but it’s not true.

Take the image above, for instance. Hayley was sitting up on the couch with George, having a yogurt tube. George had one too but Breanna ended up finishing it off because she wanted to sit up there beside her big sister and eat the same thing.

Or brushing her teeth. With Hayley it was a nightmare when she was little, but now it’s not so bad. Breanna saw Hayley getting her teeth brushed all the time so when her first ones popped out, it was no big deal at all getting her to let me stick the toothbrush in there to clean them. All she knew was that she was doing the same thing as her big important sister. The image may be grainy (camera phone at night = grain) but it still shows how much she enjoys doing anything that Hayley does.

More than once I’ve caught Breanna standing on Hayley’s stool, and today I came out from flipping the fish and chips I was making for supper and I found Breanna was standing on an upside-down toy bucket, hanging on to the end table, just like she sees Hayley doing all the time. I’m going to wind up with a full head of grey hair within the next six months, I am almost positive.

I hope some day Hayley realizes how amazing it is that she is a constant role model right now for her little sister.

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In other news…

Before you’re a mother, no one ever tells you that some day you’ll have to (gently) sit on top of your baby to keep her still and keep her arms pinned beneath your legs and her head trapped between your knee caps so that you can suction snot out of her nose with a bulb aspirator while she screams. Fun times!

For the record, I never had to do that with Hayley because she was WEIRD and liked it. But I did have to pin her down like that three times a day (including in the middle of the night) to put the antibiotic gel in her eyes after her first eye surgery. And that was fun too.

I have read a lot of parenting books. A LOT. Where is the chapter on tackling and pinning down your children in all those damn books? I’m starting to think I should write my own.