Encouragement

There are a hundred little things that I love about the developing personalities of my kids. Among the top ranked is how wonderfully polite and encouraging they can be. It thrills any mom to hear her offspring remember to say 'please' and 'thank you' and 'yes ma'am' or 'yes sir'. It makes us feel as though all the exasperating moments when they say 'yeah' are worth it. (I hate hearing yeah from my children's mouths!)

Thomas is a great encourager. He often tosses out a 'congratulations' or a 'you did it all by yourself' to me or Joshua for any number of things. Opening a door, dressing ourselves, picking up something that is to heavy or awkward for him, eating our meals, you name it. With Elizabeth in the house now, this has brought on a whole new meaning. We often praise her for opening her eyes, making any kind of sweet noise, one of those smiles (the ones that might not really be a smile at all, but gas pains as some folks say), eating well, burping. You know, the multitude of things that babies do.

I was puttering around the kitchen as the kids s-l-o-w-l-y finished up their lunch. I have to admit, I wasn't really paying much attention to them until I heard a loud belch...and then another...and another. I was hearing this, but not comprehending it, the way mom's sometimes do. When everything clicked into place, I was about to remind my lovely children to say excuse me, if they had to burp out loud like that. Then, I clued into what was really going on. My sweet, wonderful, polite children were belching on command! Then, the child who created this rude noise was being praised by the other. 'Good Job, Sawuh Gwace! You did it!' 'Yay, Nomas!' (clap, clap, clap)

Just as Joshua and I have been (and still are) praising little Elizabeth for her gaseous releases, so were Thomas and Sarah Grace. I laughed myself silly when I realized what was going on. It was entirely to cute to chide them for. Besides, there is plenty of time to learn table manners.