Our son, the primate

So Jack has this odd tendency to stop speaking English when he's around a group of people, or someone new. Instead, he makes noises and gestures like he's a mime (with permission to make occasional noise). For the longest time, I just thought this was how he dealt with meeting someone new or warming up to people and thought it was weird, but hey, he's three.

Well, the other day, as he watching his favorite show, Curious George (I am not exaggerating...the kid is obsessed). I was watching it with him and realized that George reminded me of how Jack acts around a bunch of people).

Then later that day, he stopped talking around some people at our house and I said, "Are you being shy, or are you acting like George?"

He said, "George!"

So all this time, I've been thinking he just doesn't want to use words when he's shy...when all along he's been perfecting his acting skills as a monkey.

I told Matt this revelation and he died laughing because he, too, was always so mystified at Jack's behavior and wondered where he picked it up.

Duh--he picked it up every morning at 9am on PBS for the last year and we just now put the pieces together!