Sometimes they do listen

And not only do they listen, but they also repeat what they hear! Here are some examples that aren’t necessarily bad, but pretty funny:

When Mitchell won’t respond to a question that I ask him, I say to him, “Do you want milk, Mitchell. Yes or no?” Now he’s started doing that to us. If he asks us a question and he either doesn’t like the answer or we don’t answer quickly enough, he says, “Are we going to school? Yes or no, Mommy.”

Twice now, just out of the blue, he has said, “Mommy, it’s called 911.” He said it again this past Sunday morning when we were eating breakfast. I know he learned that in school because last week the school had a visit from a fireman, rescue worker and policeman. So I reminded him that he should only call if there is a fire or a big accident and someone is hurt. All we need is a visit from the fire station because he called 911!

We’re trying to teach him to chew with us mouth closed. Of course I remind him of that when he’s eating. So now when he eats, he’ll turn to me with a mouth full of food and say, “Mommy…I eat with my mouth closed, right?” And if I don’t respond, that leads to, “Yes or no, Mommy. I eat with my mouth closed, right?”

He’s also learning which colors are “boy” colors and which colors are “girl” colors. He must have picked this up at school as well. The other night he asked me what my favorite color was. Before I could answer, he said, “Pink, right? Pink is for girls.” So I asked him which other colors are for girls and he said pink, purple and white. So I asked him which colors are for boys and he said green, red, blue, black and orange.

When we were in Chattanooga over the weekend, we were going to get ice cream and he started singing, "I scream for ice cream. I scream for ice cream." I asked him where he learned that song and he said, "DORA!" Dave and I just looked at each other and all we could do was laugh.