I Think I Nicknamed the Wrong One Monkey

Among the kids' many silly little nicknames, Finny is often Monkey and Greta is often Peanut. Fin was a climber before he could walk and Greta has always been a tiny little thing, so the nicknames have made sense for the last 22 months or so.

I realize now that in the true sense of "monkey see, monkey do," Greta is the one we should be calling Monkey.

I know it's very common for the younger sibling to mimic and imitate everything an older sibling does, especially when they're only about 2 years apart and especially when the younger one is a toddler. Heck, look at my sister Kiza and me - if it weren't for her relenting to my demands and teaching me EVERYTHING she learned at school every single day, who knows how I would have turned out?

Greta has long been quick to mirror Fin's every action, whether it's a silly face at the dinner table, a dance around the house, jumping on the bed, etc. We've joked that she has no idea she's little and has no fear. If she sees Fin do something, she's going to do it, too, or yell and yell at you when she can't (or, God forbid, you don't *let* her for her own safety and your sanity).

For the most part, this has been an adorable and fascinating part of their siblinghood. Fin is very patient with her and will usually help her if he sees she's struggling with trying to copy him. But in the last week, we've encountered a somewhat scary aspect to this behavior and a very useful one.

Last week Fin was cutting out some artwork. He's been using scissors for a very long time and is quite adept, so these days he usually requests the scissors and gets them with only a quick reminder to be careful. He carries them correctly when he walks through the house, he cuts only the things he's allowed to cut, and he's very methodical and precise with them.

That evening, he decided to lay down on the couch while he was cutting things and sadly, caught his finger. He didn't scream and cry, just balled his little hand into a fist and came into the kitchen where Dave and I were making dinner. He said he had cut his hand and apologized for getting blood on the couch. I turned to see his little fingers curled in a ball of blood and was amazed at how calm he was being.

We washed and cleaned the cut (it was very minor and needed only some neosporin and a bandaid - he declared it "all healed!" the next morning), and luckily Dave thought to go retrieve the scissors from the living room before Greta came upon them.

Sure enough, when he walked into the living room, Greta was standing at the couch holding the scissors and trying to figure out how Fin had made his finger bleed with them. Yikes.

The scissors are once again a "sit at the table and cut where we can see you" toy for Fin. Not because of his behavior (if anything, he's more careful with them than before his cut) but because we never know when Greta will grab them and try to do whatever she last saw Fin do with them.

She does keep us on our toes...

But yesterday I also discovered, quite by accident, that her desire to be Just Like Fin can work in our favor, too.

She wanted to use the potty, and after our usual "Mommy, 'way" (go away) commands and "Are you done yet?" back and forth, she declared the trip a success, and it was. She let me clean her up, with her help, of course ("Me wipe!" Fuuunnnn.) and then tried to run free through the house.

I grabbed her back into the bathroom and told her she needed her big girl panties back on and we went through the usual debate about her desire to be naked all the time. (What can I say? She is my child. LOL)

Finally, without even thinking about it, I said, "Finny always puts his big boy pants back on after he uses the potty."

The struggle immediately ceased, she stepped right in to her panties and even helped me pull them back up, then she happily went to see what Fin had been up to while she was away.

I'm a little surprised the tactic hadn't occurred to us before, but I can guarantee it will be used again. If she's going to try to do everything she sees Fin do anyway, we might as well use it to our advantage now and then, too, right?.