Mimicking Speech

Ryder has been more and more often mimicking our speech exactly when talking to us. He's actually a wonderful mimic in that respect. The other day he was explaining to me that the stuffed animals who were eating lunch with us (who already had plates and food) needed forks. So I said, "How about they just eat with their hands?" And he looked at me and said, "They'll get their hands messy. How about they just have forks?" with just the same intonation and timing that I had used. It caused my mom who was across the room to crack up! Then this morning my mom and Ryder were looking for her shoe and Ryder was using the same speech patterns and voice that she uses when she pretends to look for him when she wakes him up from a nap: "Is it under here? No, not under there. Maybe it's under the chair...No, not there. Is this it? (Holding up a piece of his train track) No, that's not it. Maybe it's in the playroom..." Hysterical!