Copy cat

Stanley has developed so much in the past month plus. Over Christmas my parents were amazed at what Stanley understood. Granted he does not really speak many English words, but he does understands what we are staying and he manages to get his point across pretty easily.

For example, if I say, "Stanley can I see your car", Stanley will show me a little toy car. Same goes for lots of other items etc. Steve and I really need to watch what we say.

He also copies what we do very closely. I normally do not wear a hear band, but one evening I was wearing a hair band. About 2 days later, Stanley saw it, here he is trying to put it on his head. Just after one time of seeing it in my hair, he remembered.

 Stanley will also copy what we do in the kitchen. We sometimes have him prep veggies with us. This involves him standing on a chair and using his plastic knives to push around the veggies and then taste a bit of each one. He is not a fan of raw eggplant nor onion, but he sure does love to peel the paper off the onion.

Stanley hanging the recipe card

He also really enjoys cooking in his new kitchen while we cook in our kitchen. The kitchen has been a life saver for everyone.  When I was cooking the other day, he took a plastic knife and was 'cutting' his toy veggies. Then with a very deliberate manner, he took his lettuce, walked over, opened the trash cabinet, threw out the lettuce and walked back to cut his carrots. He then proceeded to throw out the carrots too. I realized that he watches us cut our veggies and then watches as we throw out the little odds and end scraps. He wanted to do the same. I was quite impressed, though if he was a good San Fran kid, he would have put them in the compost instead of the trash. We'll let it slide this time Stanley.

Also with the kitchen we have been trying more "pretend" play with him. He is starting to understand and likes it when we all sit down together and pretend to eat the food he makes. It is wonderful to see him develop.

I have tried to capture some photos of other times he copies what we do, most turned into blurs, but here is Stanley ironing. Before this picture, he wondered around the house trying to plug it in. He found the best place to plug it in was on the door frame or into the handle of the iron, which is why the cord looks like it does in the below photo.

Trying to iron the carpet.