As a stay-at-home mom, I try to keep Madelyn and me pretty busy. We do a couple different Mommy & Me classes and get together with friends for play dates a few times a week. We have lunches with Daddy or the grandmas and sometimes we spend time in the car driving through L.A. to get to auditions. We are a busy little duo, but sometimes, we do love a nice and relaxing PJ day at home.

Spending the day at home gives me a chance to really observe Madelyn as she plays and explores in the house. There are many teachable moments.

For me.

She has taught me that everything she does and knows is a direct reflection of me. Madelyn repurposes herself as me, and the role of “Madelyn” is one of her baby dolls.

For example, Madelyn takes great pride in making sure her baby is well hydrated and nourished. This is probably because of the nutritious breakfasts we share together each morning where I prepare yogurt and fruit, or waffles and eggs, and everything is complemented by a big, tall kitten-covered cup of milk. So really, it’s no surprise that she provides the same detail-oriented menu for her little one, using play food and dishes.

Madelyn treats her baby like a queen with a cup o’ tea in the face AND a force feeding of Fisher Price mustard.

The resulting food coma.

I’ve done some soul searching and I really can’t come up with where Madelyn might have learned how to so expertly lounge. She’s NEVER seen Bryan and me watching hours of TV, binging on several full series, like Downtown Abbey or Breaking Bad. She’s never been around us while we watch movies on the couch or sit lazy on our iWhatevers. No no no. I don’t know where she could have possibly learned this.

As I beam with pride how she’s mastered the 2-minute lounge, I also can’t believe how big she is on her chair!!!

Madelyn mimics me after all those evenings I sat on her head and her little legs poked through under me because I was too engrossed in Abu Nazir holding Carrie hostage while she gasped for air talking to Brody on the phone even though his first name is Nick.

I did teach Madelyn how to do “Cheers!” She’ll take her tea cup and bang it against my beverage of choice and after I say, “Cheers!” she drinks, which is really more like breathing heavily into the tea cup while she holds it to her face and sounds like Darth Vader.

She now moves about the house holding the cup to her face. I can’t wait until she starts really talking away. She may end up with an English accent. All that Downton Abbey marathoning will have paid off! Cultural awareness for the win!

She’s like two afternoon teas away from mastering the pinky-up!!

Some mornings, when it’s cold, Madelyn and I will cuddle in her crib together, and by cuddle, I mean she does her version of Tae Kwon Do on my face. (She’s a black belt).

This week, the mornings in SoCal were fuh-reezing! Like, definitely under 70 degrees. So while she played on the floor in her room, I crawled into her crib and curled up in a ball in her blanket because she gets very territorial if her blanket leaves her crib. I listened to her play and scatter about her room. While I couldn’t see what she was explicitly doing, I could hear her tapping her puzzle pieces, I could hear her “talking” to her baby dolls, and I could hear her pull out every book from her book shelf that I had crouched on my knees for 10 minutes to organize neatly only a half hour earlier.

Then I heard silence. That’s never good. Then I heard the sound of a canvas fabric rubbing. What’s canvas? Her swing? Her laundry hamper? Curiosity got to me and I picked up my head, peered through the slats of the crib, and saw her right below me, just chillin’ in HER baby’s crib.

It made sense. Her mommy was in her crib. So she got into HER baby’s crib. Clearly, that’s what moms do. They play Goldilocks and the Three Bears in their own kids’ beds.

“Heeeey! Party in my baby doll’s crib!”

Climbing out of the real crib now will guarantee a 7:00 p.m. high school curfew later. You’ve been warned, Miss Friedman.

Madelyn has just begun to mimic some of our sounds and words, but none of them are said with precision yet. However, it’s amazing what she has picked up, especially after a language delay.

One day a few weeks ago, I was holding her baby doll and cradled her back and forth. Then I bounced her on my lap. And lastly, I flipped her over my shoulder and burped her, saying “Burp, burp burp, burp.” Madelyn caught onto none of this except for the burping and now her baby doll never spits up. Amazing!

Madelyn actually didn’t require very much burping when she was a newborn, so it just goes to show that her own experiences didn’t interfere with her mothering instinct. What a natural!