Jumping, apples and bubbles

Nolan is now 15 months old and he’s at an age where he’s full of entertainment as he tries to do things that the rest of us do.

I can’t believe some of the things he picks up on, but I’ve watched him pay close attention to others and their behaviours, and then try to mimic them.

There are four recent examples that have astonished and amused me.

Recently, he came home from his day-care and showed his dad and me his “jumping” skills.

He wanted to climb up onto the couch to display his new talent.

So we watched, and waited, then laughed.

For him, “jumping” consists of a knee bend, followed by standing up again. His feet never leave the ground – or the couch, as was the case last week.

Yet, he’s still proud of himself and giggles as we clap for his effort.

The second imitation is his eating an apple. Mom’s no longer allowed to peel off the skin.

He’ll bite into the juicy red fruit and take a chunk out as he sits quietly in his foam chair, watching television.

Without shifting his gaze, he’ll spit out the piece of skin and hand it to the closest adult, or drop it onto the floor. Guess the skin’s still too tough for him to chew. I’d love to quickly cut off the skin for him, but he doesn’t want me to touch it. He likes the crunching sensation of breaking the flesh himself.

So the compost bin is kept handy as he works his way down to the core.

The next example is his interest in one of my necklaces. I have one that clips with a magnet, and he was playing with it while I was carrying him around the house recently.

The next day, while playing on the floor, he found a colourful piece of fabric that he adapted into his own necklace. Nolan pulled it over the back of his head, and laid it onto his neck as he continued to play and walk around the house. What a creative mind.

The final copycat action was Sunday when, out of the blue, Nolan wanted to play with some bubbles. He wanted to dip the bubble wand into the solution.

While he held onto the wand with me, I blew out a few times, sending bubbles across my kitchen.

What surprised his dad and myself was when Nolan blew into the wand and made some bubbles appear, all on his own. We cheered and again, he couldn’t help but smile as he learned something new.