Copycat Copycat

"Hey, Jen. Here's a question."

I looked over at my nephew Christian, as I was getting ready to attack my sandwich. "Okay."

"What's in the middle of a 'river'?"

I barely paused as I picked up my sandwich. "A ' v '."

His eyes widened at my quick response. "Whoa."

I love kids. They are so freakin' easy to impress.

8 of us were at lunch at a very popular deli chain where they give out free soft serve to cleanse the palate after finishing off a big ass pastrami/corn beef sandwich a certain brother-in-law attacked and conquered. (Can you be impressed and revolted at the same time? Anyone care to experiment with that one?) Christian's younger brother, Cameron, who is just entering the tween phase, made numerous trips to the soft serve machine to fill the same cone. (Do double-dipping rules apply to adding ice cream to the same cone over and over or does the fact that the descending soft serve acts as a buffer between the machine and the used cone eliminate the possibility of contamination?) (Now I want ice cream.)

When he came back to the table, he proceeded to lick his cone, content in his knowledge that his tummy was full (ooh, sorry, tween, I meant gut, yeah, that's it) and smug in the knowledge that school would be over soon. Sprite, obviously crushing hard on her cousin, was watching him closely from her restaurant-issue high chair as the rest of us filled in the background noise with talking amongst ourselves. (What topic? Oh, the fact that the Holy Roman Era was neither holy nor Roman, wanna discuss?) (Total Saturday Night Live reference there, completely unoriginal. I know.)

Her Nana noticed it first. "Look," Ingrid gestured excitedly, pointing to her granddaughter. All of the adults peered to the end of the table where Sprite was perched, and slowly, silently copying her cousin's oral moves.

The cone came to his mouth and his tongue came out to lick the ice cream. Her tongue immediately came out to lick the air as she scrutinized his every move. When his tongue retracted, so did hers. Again, the process repeated, her eyes squinting in concentration as she watched his lingual ballet and tried to mimic it action for action. (Dang it, where's the camera?)

A couple of chuckles and outright laughs escaped us a we watched Sprite clearly and blatantly copy her cousin, oblivious to the fact that she herself was being studied. Cameron, in on the action by now, offered her a lick of the cone. She shook her head no.

He brought it back to his mouth and licked again. She copied him, her small, pink tongue tasting the air and retracting again in time with his.

Again, he offered her a taste of actual ice cream. Again, she declined, choosing instead to be his shadow.

Later, while strolling through a store, Christian started making noises at Sprite and she retaliated by trying to match him with her own. A tuning fork would have done no good here as they created and blended their "white noise" together and basically had the adults shushing them when it became too annoying.

When it came time for the family to make the 2 hour trip home, Sprite was very sorry to see her playmates go.

It did strike me later how all three of the cousins benefited from this day.

Christian and Cameron got to spend some more quality time with their young cousin since distance often keeps them from coming over.

Sprite, in her unabashed open admiration of her two male cousins, got to show them how much she admired them and how much influence they truly have on her. (Only a toddler can tell it like it is.)

And now the bond they share is just that much stronger.

(And I STILL want ice cream..)

Comments

[Ingrid]

This story is very graphic, I can picture everything. Thanks Sprite, you are... "SPRITE". Cameron enjoys reading this.
Gracias por permitirnos gozar de todos estos momentos de Sprite. (John can translate this for you :(

[Baba]

Ahhhhh she loves her boy cousins. She has lots of fun when they come over. I can't wait to see her this week-end. Too long, to many days to wait. Love being able to read about my girls every day. John keep up the good work you keep them happy........And that makes me happy.