The Mimic

P is currently in the mimicking phase. She shadows what we do and its reflecting our parenting right at us.

1. I slap on my toner and moisturiser after my bath, while she stands outside the bathroom and observe me. I turned to see her patting her face just like what I do.

2. My skin has been dry and itchy ever since the return from my Korea trip. Since we rarely use her Mustela body lotion, I decided to rub some over my arms and legs. P stood and observe for a while, then start to reach down and rub her legs just like how I applied the lotion on my legs.

3. Probably the most classic. Each time P does a forbidden thing like reach for things she isn't suppose to have, we would shake our index finger at her and tell her no. To our horror, we found her mimicking the action every time she does the forbidden, and it's as if she does the forbidden on purpose and show us the same gesture afterwards. Really hits us smack in the face and prompts some deep thinking on our parenting so far. An eye for an eye indeed.

Aside from the mimicking, P has been under the weather for quite some time. She started having cough and runny nose some 3 weeks back, and it prompted 2 trips to the doctor within a space of 1 week. She looks like she was on the road to recovery, but her diarrhoea started the day before I went to Korea, and lasted till I'm back one week later. Just when we thought all's well, she came down with a very bad cough accompanied by runny nose, symptoms similar to the bout of illness prior to the diarrhoea. It hurts to hear her cough. You could picture the phlegm in her lungs when she coughs, and it's affecting her sleep (and ours too) at night.

I came across an article in the paper's today talking about the source of stress for mothers. I look at P and think back on how my mom brought me and my sis up, it can't be easy. Salute to all mothers out there!