monkey see, monkey do

My experience with Lily last week has really cemented in my mind the truth that I am constantly modeling behavior (good or bad) to my daughter.

Over the holidays, a friend of mine told me about a breakfast shake she had started drinking. It basically consists of fruit juice, raw kale, frozen banana and your choice of frozen fruit. It sounded good to me so I bought some kale so I could check it out.

The first day I had my new green breakfast shake, Lily was intrigued and asked what it was. I told her she could try it and with a huge amount of trepidation, she dipped her little finger in my glass and tried it. "Yuck," she exclaimed. "That's okay, you don't have to like it, but I sure do." I told her. (I really do like the shake, it is surprisingly tasty and literally FEELS good in my body when I drink it!)

I like it so much I kept it up for the next few days. On the fourth day, Lily apparently was taken by the bright green color.  She actually asked if she could have her own cup of it. I decided to go ahead, even though I thought she would quickly abandon it. The results of that experiment are in the video.  
Click here to see.

The next day, she asked for a bigger glass. Remarkable, but true -- my 5-year old daughter has been drinking kale shakes for breakfast with me!!!

I think this simply puts an exclamation point on the fact that she is watching me and taking it all in.  If I'm doing yoga, she wants to do yoga.  If I pay attention to turning lights off when I leave a room, she pays attention to turning lights off. She's my little monkey and I get to set an example for her as best as I can.