The Magician and an echo

I've been hanging out with our neighbor, who happens to be a professional magician. The three of us went to see him perform and we thought our little girl was a bit too young to appreciate it. Then she surprised us by putting a blanket over something and tell us she was doing a magic trick. Her trick is just that simple, blanket on top and it's disappeared and she removes the blanket with a "TADA" to show the reappeared objects. We coached her to say magic words, like abracadabra, and encourage her to do her trick often because it is so cute. It was a reminder that things we think she is not soaking in probably reach her.

A few days later we had a more crystalline reminder of the degree of modelling she does at this age. Very early one morning she came into our bed, before the sun rose. Lisa and I talked a little bit and the little monkey repeated our words. I coaxed her into repeating the word 'echo' - an effect that amused me to no end. It was almost an automatic reaction, she would have repeated anything we said.

Another daunting reminder of the burdens of parenthood, I am very aware we need to set very good examples.