It's the little things ...

If you have been keeping up with my posts thus far you may have noticed a trend of slight frustration .... so I thought I should put a warm and fuzzy post in for good measure (and of course because I REALLY love being a mom and wouldn't trade the tantrums and tattling for anything in the world).



So this past weekend we were busy, as per usual, we had house cleaning, garage saling and a kiddie pool party on the schedule for Saturday followed by relatives in town, shopping for a birthday present, a baby shower and a birthday party on Sunday. Actually now that I read this over I realize why I am sitting at my desk on this lovely Monday morning wishing that I could take my coffee by IV rather than drinking it from a silly little cup!!!



In any case, as of late I have been slightly concerned that my children, precious as they are, may not be as polite as other children. I sometimes notice that while my nieces and nephew are saying please and thank you my children appear on my heels foaming at the mouth like rabid dogs demanding rather than asking politely for the large variety of things that they "need" in a day. Other people often tell me that they are very polite and quite lovely to take care of, but I find that the comfort level of being at home means that the extra effort of a please or a thank you is often not expended and I have to say, it makes me a little bit crazy.



(Don't worry the warm and fuzzy part is coming)



So, during our garage saling expedition on Saturday morning we ran across a sale (actually put on by friends of ours) who were selling a scooter with big wheels and a hand brake that a certain little dude had his eye on. Plus, they had an entire Dora the Explorer set complete with a two story house, all of the beloved characters (save for Swiper that sneaky fox who needn't be there anyway!!!), a backyard play set AND a van to transport Dora's whole family around in. My sweet little monkey girl sat there looking at the Dora house longingly, but then to my surprise willingly got into the car without asking for it and we carried on to the bank machine to grab some cash for the scooter.



From the backseat I heard monkey girl say, "I wanted that Dora house" to her brother the little dude and that was all that was said of it. And his reaction was minimal at best as he was pretty stoked about the scooter in the back of the car.


When we went back to pay to the sale I got out alone and slid my friend the cash for both the scooter and the Dora set, walked by the car and and put Dora's house in the back without saying a word. Monkey girl saw it and lit right up ... and I just smiled and got back in the car. When I got home we set up the kiddie pool in preparation for an afternoon of splashing in the backyard, then I walked to the front of the house to talk to my hubby and the little dude scooted by and gave a big grin and a thank you that made up for the "I NEED some juice" and "Can't YOU just let the dog out" that had come from those same lips earlier that morning.

Feeling quite satisfied with the gratitude shown by my little dude, I went inside in search monkey girl and found her in her room quietly playing with her new Dora set. I paused, unnoticed, at the door and watched her for a few minutes and then went on to tackle the laundry that I had spent much of the past week trying to escape.



As I was separating the big shorts from the little shorts, I felt two little arms wrapped around me from behind and I turned around to find the monkey girl, Dora in hand, looking up and saying, "Mommy, I love you sooo much". Then as quickly as she had appeared she disappeared back into her bedroom to get her swimsuit on.

I stood there for a moment a little overwhelmed by how emotional I was feeling and thought about how many ways there are to say thank you. So as it turns out, these two little people are perfect just the way they are ... even if they do save their best manners for a greater audience.

**Please note that I have a vault full of many touching stories where equal gratitude was shown without a toy involved, but this one is still fresh and I felt that it needed to be told :o)