in my daughters' eyes

"i don't like your attitude, madelyn."


this sentence came out of my 3 year old's mouth today. the girls were playing, and madelyn had done something to make ella mad. so ella verbally reprimanded her.


of course, i had to laugh. but then i thought, "where did she get that? oh....yeah....those exact words came out of my mouth the other day when madelyn got smart with me..."


children are sharp. and they pick up on things when we think they aren't listening. this can be a good thing; like if you try to teach your child something and you don't think they're paying attention until they can recite it back to you. but sometimes they're listening when you really wish they weren't. like when you get road rage and yell at the other drivers on the road, only to have your daughter screaming "come on slowpoke, it's green!" the next time the two of you are sitting at a light and the car in front of you just sits there (um, yeah...true story).

one of the funniest things i've ever seen my girls do is the first time (because they've done this more than once) that they pretended to be me and brian. it was one night after we had both gotten off work and our shoes were by the front door. madelyn put on brian's shoes and ella slipped on mine. once they were "in our shoes", they became "us".

"oh, i'm tired. i'm going to lay in the recliner and watch tv," madelyn said in as deep a voice as she could make.

"i'm going to get on the computer. girls, will you please pick your stuff up!" ella said, also changing her voice.

we were cracking up, of course, because it was hilarious. but seriously, is this how our children see us? brian is always kicked back in the recliner and i'm always barking orders? when you see your child do something or hear them say something that sounds vaguely familiar--and then you realize that the reason it is familiar is because you just did or said the exact same thing the day before--it really puts things in perspective. moral of the story? watch your words. watch your actions. because your kids are always watching you!