Isaac, as all kids do, has developed something of his own lexicon.  After watching Boss Baby he adopted a line from that movie--"oh, poop duty!"  Over time he added to it and it became "poop duty Dino charge!"  Do not ask me what that means or how it came about.  But about once an hour he will be confounded by something and say "poop duty Dino charge!"  I have basically come to expect it.

What I did not expect, though I should have, is his two year old brother, whose capacity for language and desire to speak it are still out of sync, dropping this bit of Isaac lexicon.  It was hard to understand and I missed it a few times.  But then he said it again and I asked for Isaac to translate.  He gave me an eye roll and told me what Ethan was saying.

I was kind of stunned as this is not really something anyone else says other than Isaac.  In the end, Isaac is the center of Ethan's world, and, like beer for Homer Simpson, the cause of and solution to all of Ethan's problems.

The monkey see monkey do (MCMD) kid has taken all sorts of Isaac features and made them his own.  Watching Ethan mimic Isaac doing karate is a belly laugh every time.  Ethan doing the splits is a bit hysterical.  And then there is Ethan mimicking Isaac with Nerf blasters.  This is a moment of true hilarity as this little elf gets very serious, despite the fact that the blaster is almost his same size.

What a delight--we get two kids doing funny stuff all the time.

Ethan's language skills grow everyday, literally everyday.  There is some new turn of phrase that he uses and catches us both by surprise.  One of the recent favorites has been what I like to think of as the "Doin' Group."  It is a versatile set of phrases that allows Ethan to interact with the world and ask questions of the people around him, usually his brother or his mother.  They all work the same: Question word + Doin'.

So, for example, Isaac is playing something in the Lego Room making lots of noise and Ethan walks in and wants to know what's going on.  He turns to Isaac and says:

"What doin'?" 

Don't bother with all those unnecessary words when two will get you exactly the information you want.

Now let's say that he is up on his perch in the kitchen and Mom is cooking away. I walk in from work and he sees me.  He screams "DADDY!" and then yells my next favorite phrase:

"How doin'?" 

And I tell him how my day was. 

Right now we have "What..." and "How..." as the most common phrases in the "Doin'" language toolbox.  I am waiting for "Why doin'?" and the slightly dirty sounding "Who doin'?"  Its amazing how much work Ethan gets done with just two words.

Our critter catcher has been the home to many a creature--Stripey the snake, three hundred or so earthworms, an assortment of bugs, and now a mammal--a tiny mouse.  Thursday morning as I was getting in the shower I saw a tiny thing move in the corner of my eye.  I saw it move again and I realized it was a mouse.  Despite a lack of clothing, I gave chase and ultimately cornered it on the stairs.  In a loud but whispering voice, I asked Bianca to grab my work gloves.  After a few calls she heard me and came sprinting.  I got the little guy in a corner and then lunged, picking him up in two cupped hands.  

Then I had a thought--now what?  I could kill him, but it seemed pretty brutal.  I could throw him outside, but he would probably just come right back in.  Then I had an idea--the boys would love to see the mouse, but both of them were asleep.  Bianca grabbed the critter catcher and brought it to me.  The mouse fell in and waited. After my shower Ethan woke up and, as we expected, he was super excited.  He got down on his little haunches and said things like--"its okay" and "hi mouse."  

When Isaac woke up some ten minutes later, Ethan was so excited to show him the mouse.  He climbed up on Isaac's bed and told him: "Tome on I-man...I show you."  Isaac, like a good big brother, sleepily agreed.  Ethan escorted him into the room like a mayor showing of a new economic development project. And when Isaac didn't immediately respond Ethan told him: "Its a mouse brudder."  Both boys were, of course fascinated.  

Two days later he has eaten the cheese we gave him and drank the water we put it.  Something tells me the reintroduction into the wild might have a few tears.  Ethan was too little to get Stripey being released but he totally gets Mickey's presence.