Parenthood- "Please"

Through my almost two years of motherhood I have noticed a little bit of cruel and unusual punishment going on. No doubt as a result of the fall, Will and my relationship with Liam has a bit of a what goes around comes around feeling to it, i.e. sleep, discipline and messes. Praise the Lord, this phenomenon is not only in the difficulties but also the blessings, cuddles, kisses, and spirituality.  While the blessings we will cherish in our hearts, it is the hardships that make for funny stories. 

For the past several months, I have had the monumental task of helping another human being learn to speak. In terms of speech and etiquette, my goal is to have a little boy that all the other parents say, "That Liam is such a polite young man!", or  "I appreciate how that Crum boy knows how to speak to adults". I believe that we are all made in the image of God, which makes us all valuable. Everyone, is precious to God and I want our children to treat people as such. Once Liam's utterances turned into recognizable words, some of which are still on the way, I decided to start manners from the get go. The obvious were yes, ma'am, no ma'am, yes sir and no sir, please and thank you.  I will start there I thought.

Please was one of the first to catch on, mainly because we did the sign language before he could talk. He soon left out the sign for more all together and just said please.

We are still working on the ma'ams and sirs but with please... he is already a pro.

By pro I mean he now has taught himself how to turn this well meaning manners-police-mommy into mush by using my own words against me. I now understand the phrase, "be careful what you wish for."

When Liam REALLY wants something he will say please one of two ways.

One is kin to Roger Rabbit's Pppppppleeeeeeaaaaase, with huge puppy dog eyes to go along with it. Depending on what he wants I can most of the time resist this adorable evil, but the one that almost always gets me goes something like this...

Big smile, Bigger Eyes, with eye brows at the top of his forehead. He names what he wants and then quickly says "yes, please" in his high pitched almost two year old voice. The, You know you want to say yes, look kills me every time. He did it to me today, it makes me smile every time. Whether or not he knows he is manipulating me, or whether this is just his happy little way of showing me what he wants is fun, remains to be seen. There is a little victory dance going on inside me though, since he is using the word. Baby steps, right?

I know that this is only the beginning of communication with my son what will send waves of emotions that run the gamete over my feeble and sleep deprived brain. I know I must find strength to deal with the cuteness as well as the not so. What I have learned thus far is this, Parenthood is an adventure made up of little triumphs and failures.  I'll take my pleases' by a case by case basis. But when it comes to parenthood as a whole, all I can say right now is...

By the grace of God, Go I!