Like father, like son.

Last night, after Parker's bath, he was sitting on the laundry hamper brushing his teeth. ('Brushing' is a slight exaggeration. He sticks the tooth brush under the water, puts it in his mouth and sucks in. Sometimes there is some back and forth action, but mostly he likes to stick the brush under the water. I've always been slightly thrilled at even this much since I would assume brushing your teeth is one of the things it is hard to get a kid to do. But I digress.)

He was brushing his teeth and then he leaned over the sink and coughed. Then he did it again. Almost put his mouth on the sink and coughed.

"What's wrong asked?", which is a stupid thing to ask a 21 month old since they never are able to explain.

Then he did it again. And again. The cough was very intentional. Almost fake.

Then Michael walked in and I said, "Check this out," as he did it again.

At first he also seemed perplexed, but then quickly said, "Oh. He is copying me."

You see, Michael has this lovely habit and brushing his teeth so much and so hard that it makes him gag and he almost throws up. I've asked him about this many times. "How come you don't brush less or less vigorously?" I've never gotten any explanation that makes any sense and it is just one of the husband and wife things you just come to accept at some point. To be honest, I had forgotten about this delightful habit.

But when Parker started doing it last night, because he wanted to be just like his daddy, it hit home just how much we had to watch ourselves these days. That kid will mimic anything and everything up. (Just the other day, I said, while changing him, Wow, you have a stinky crap. To which he replied as if a question, 'Stinky Crap?')

So although the tooth brushing thing was a bit odd, I'm pretty pleased he isn't swearing at people in the car.