Bla kiki peas mommy

So the other morning, I'm in the kitchen making Pooh his everyday lunch of peanut butter and honey sandwich while P-daddy makes the coffee, and in wanders Pooh.  He comes over, stands close, and says "Up, mommy."  Trained by now to stop whatever I'm doing and obey his smallest command Unable to resist cuddling up to him for a few short minutes, I pick him up and hold him close, at which he looks into my eyes and sincerely requests "bla kiki."  Now, brilliant linguist and master wordsmith that I am, I respond with the utterly inspiring "what?" while my brain races to figure out what he's asking for.  He's been trained well, and immediately adds please to his request:  "bla kiki peas mommy."

At this point, P-daddy joins in the fun, asking what Pooh wants.  He (Pooh, not P-daddy) wiggles down and runs toward the computer in the living room.  Since he's recently begun to ask for his favorite shows by name, such as "tummy" (you know, he's a tank engine) and 'bah-ney", we start to go through the things he likes to watch that could somehow be, in a 2-year-old's language, "bla kiki."  This goes on for 10-15 minutes, at which point my sister and her daughter, our father's helper, arrive and try to help us.  We stand around for another 5-10 minutes discussing the possibility, while Pooh becomes increasingly frustrated, alternately repeating "bla kiki" at escalating volume or frustrated whining.  It's no help, we are stumped.

Finally, my linguist brain kicks in. bilabial, plus "ah", followed by a word with two "ee" vowels.  "OMG, he's saying 'watch tv'!"  Pooh's response immediately makes it clear that I am brilliant I have hit the nail on the head.  He yells "yay" as loud as he can (and that's pretty loud!), then begins jumping up and down, clapping his hands and cheering with an excited "bla kiki" chant.  It was hilarious, and completely reminiscent of what we do when he does something well that he's been trying for a while.  He's obviously been watching and learning from us!

And that, let me tell you, is the scary part of the hilarious "bla kiki" story!  This kid is watching everything we say and do, and mimicking everything he can.  We've seen this with lots of things:  P-daddy says "Nice!" a lot when something gets done well, and now Pooh says it too.  I started saying "no poop" on the rare occasions when his diaper was only wet and not dirty, and now he proudly proclaims before a diaper change just whether or not we'll find anything interesting there (though not with any degree of accuracy).  He spits in the sink when he brushes his teeth, just because we do.  And there are many many more.  It really makes a person think:  am I setting an example that I want my kid to follow?  One that I can proudly say "oh, he got that from me" about?  Probably not, but we're learning as we go!