All of a sudden, Maya has become a little monkey, repeating our actions and intonations (though we don’t understand her words yet … other than “dough” for “dog” — or so we think — and “nana” for banana; “mama” and “dada” are pretty self-explanatory ;)).

Although she’s been doing the intonation business for a while now, just recently she’s begun paying extra attention to our actions and has started mimicking them.

The first time I noticed was at home in NJ in December; she used the brush to “brush” her hair (read as — put the brush to her head and kind of smacked her head).

Then she began taking her bows out of her hair … but then would try to put them back on her head (though she can’t actually do it since they are clips).

A few weeks ago, Luis was cleaning some milk that had spilled. When he walked away, Maya took the rag and began imitating the motion he was doing with the rag — and did it again today (I also caught her brushing her hair this morning).

And tonight at dinner, she mimicked Luis’s best friend who had just wiped his mouth with a napkin — she took a napkin off the table and wiped her own little cherubic mouth.

We all had a good laugh at how cute she looked (and damn, I wish I’d had a video of it!) but were pretty amazed to see just how much she is absorbing about the world around her.

It’s incredible to see this little person shining through … and a good reminder to really be cognizant of all our behaviors — for better or for worse!

Big Brother might be watching … but so, too, is Baby Maya!

How about you? What were you most surprised to see your child imitating you doing?