I will be the first to admit that my boys are wild. They usually have only 2 speeds - asleep and superfast. From the moment they wake up in the morning, they talk 90 mph and get into 1000 different things until they go to sleep....sometimes they even fall asleep WHILE playing with one of those 1000 different things. It's truly exhausting just to watch them much less chase them around. While the talking part doesn't apply yet to Cameron, the chasing around part does as he and his little army crawl are quite mobile these days.
They are little boys though and do tend to have a listening problem when told to stop, be quiet, etc. This is extremely frustrating as you can imagine. I have started sending them upstairs to their room to play when I really want them to sit down to eat so that I can have 5 minutes to breathe so as not to scream because they just aren't listening. I give myself that 5 minute breather and then call them back downstairs - I'm not sure if it's the breathing time for me that makes things calmer or if they remember how to listen after going upstairs for a few minutes but either way, it works to get us back on track long enough to feed them or do whatever it was that they weren't listening to me about the first time.
Others tell me that they boys are so good or so sweet or whatever to which I often reply, "that's because you don't live with them." I'm joking, of course, as I love them dearly. But the nerves do take a beating. Then they do something that makes me realize why people say they are good or sweet, etc. I've noticed lately that 99% of the time that Alex asks for something he says, "Pwease I have some (fill in the blank here)?" He really starts almost every request for whatever he wants by asking "please." When you give it to him, he says "thank you" most of the time (though please is more frequent than the return thank you). If you tell him no he can't have it (as is the case when the request is "pwease I have a cookie" 2 minutes before dinner), he'll just ask for something else most of the time and that will bring another "pwease." It's really quite sweet. Not to be outdone, I've noticed Ethan's good manners lately as well. If you ask Ethan to do something or help with something, his normal response these days is, "yes, ma'am." If you ask him a yes/no question, he'll answer yes or no "ma'am" or "sir." I can't take full credit for that one as I think he probably picked that up at school somewhat but it sounds so very, very sweet to hear to a 5 year old little voice say "Yes, ma'am, I wilw" [will has a "w" sound at the end of it] when you ask him to hang up his coat or put his shoes away or to hear "no thank you ma'am" when you ask if he wants more applesauce.
Somewhere in all the chaos that is our lives with 3 young boys, we've managed to give them a head start on good manners and it sounds so very sweet. I even heard Ethan tell Cameron thank you the other day when he took his folder away from Cameron who was chewing on it at the time: "Thanks, Cam. I need to put this in my bookbag now." That one he did get from me as I always do that when taking something from Cameron or giving him something he wants - "thank you, Cameron, Mama will take that" or "Thanks, Mama" talking for him when giving him a bottle, etc. I did that with the boys when they were younger also. I do think that's where the please, thank you & you're welcome came from but I'll still credit his teachers for instilling the "sir" and "ma'am" protocol into Ethan.
As the weeks seems to fly by and I get muddled in the ... well... chaos of the daily grind, I will allow myself this moment to pat myself (& Steve) on the back for getting a good start to the manners that will guide these boys through their lives. I am not a perfect mom by any stretch but I think I got this one right.
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