Monkey See, Monkey Do

With my boys, it's "monkey see, monkey do."  And I mean that literally.

Virtually anything J.P. does, Joe tries to do.  If J.P. squeals or makes an unusual noise (grunts, roars, etc.), Joe, ever the perfect mimic, squeals or makes the same noise.  It's beyond funny to watch.  Jude and I just look at each other, shake our heads and laugh.

Last night, the boys were taking a bath together.  Joe was sitting in his bath chair, facing J.P.  J.P. started kicking his legs and splashing water, laughing the whole time.  Joe immediately starts kicking his little legs and splashing water, also smiling and laughing.  The more Joe kicked, the more J.P. laughed.  And the more J.P. laughs, the more Joe will do whatever he is doing that is making J.P. laugh (splashing, spitting, squealing, throwing things, etc.).

This afternoon, after I went for a quick 3-mile run in the 'hood, we were hanging out in the front yard.  For some reason, J.P. decided it would be funny to open an umbrella, sit down in the tall monkey grass in front of our front porch and pretend to be a groundhog in a burrow.  It was kind of funny, given that all you could see was the top of the umbrella, with J.P.'s disembodied voice coming from underneath it.  Joe walked over to the monkey grass and sat down in it, just like J.P.  He looked up at me and smiled proudly, as got up, then plopped down again.  He repeated this several times as we looked on and laughed.

The good news, of course, is that J.P. is an amazing big brother.  He loves Joe so much and never appears to be jealous of any attention Joe gets.  My hope is that as they grow older, J.P. and Joe will continue to be close.  I have a dream of them traveling to Europe or elsewhere together when they're older, during or right after college.  I want them to be the best of friends.