Just like mommy.

My daughter got a purse today. Her very own, just her size purse. She thinks she's so cool because she can wear it on her shoulder just like mommy. The other day when I was getting ready in the bathroom after taking a shower, she pulled out one of the hand towels and knotted it into a ball and put it on her head. I guess she thinks I wear a funny hat when I get out of the shower. Again, she just wanted to do whatever mommy was doing.

If mommy eats veggies, she eats veggies. If mommy drinks water, she drinks water. If mommy plays on the computer, she gets out her "computer" and sits to play on hers as well.

It made me think, what else does she watch me do? My guess is: everything. She watches my every move. She mimics every behavior. It's kind of a scary thing, to think that you have that much control over one person, even if that person is only 16 months old. You know why? Because she won't always be 16 months old, but the lessons I teach her now and in the next few years will play a huge role in forming the kind of person she will become. It's pretty heavy stuff.

I hope that she sees things like mommy always buckling her seat belt, mommy giving to people in need, mommy saying a prayer at bed time. But I know that that's not all she'll see. She'll see some of the bad things too. Like the fact that I almost always have chocolate hidden in my purse and will sneak a bite of it after telling someone that I'm not hungry. I'm almost always hungry, and that's not a pregnancy thing. That's an Amanda thing. Most of the time when I refuse food it's because it has some sort of vegetable in it. I know I'm a child. Anyway, she'll see that too. But I hope she doesn't mimic me in that respect.

I guess that's all we can do really. We can try our best to be good examples to our kids. Hopefully it will make us better people in the process. And we have to beg the gods that they don't find out about that time when we stole a pack of gum from the store when we were their age. I hope I can set a good example for her. I hope we all can set good examples for our kids. And I REALLY hope they are better people than us.