manners

my little cleaner

it seems that my little man has a strong sense of propriety - one of his favorite songs lately is one he must have learned at daycare, that basically goes, "clean up, clean up, everybody clean up!" he is quite prone to dumping his bowl of food out, but he immediately wants to clean it up.

when he spills some water on the floor, he promptly wants a towel so he can mop it up. in the picture above, john had just slipped in some water that buddy sloshed around his water bowl. as soon as he recovered from hitting the floor, he asked for a towel and started foot-mopping to clean up the puddle.

he's not afraid to get dirty, this kid. he's all boy and a big fan of dirt and sticky messes. but as soon as he deems himself done, he wants "wipes!" to fix himself up. and don't get me started on a snotty nose ... i will hear nothing but "nose! nose!" for days as he asks for kleenex to get rid of boogers.

but my absolute favorite aspect of john's properness isn't about messes, but about behaviors. recently the manager at his daycare told me that john was one of the only ones in his age group that says thank you every time you hand him something. 

i am SO proud of his manners. he works hard, says please most of the time and thank you almost always. he has actually come back into a room to thank me for something after he left. and the part that makes me proudest is that he is apparently doing that to everyone, not just at home. color me one proud mama!

(a funny story: recently, john was coloring and decided to put his crayon in his "pocket" of his shirt. since his shirt didn't have pockets, he just stuck it in the neckline. a moment later he looked down, saw the crayon, pulled it out, and said, "thank you, john!" he's so mannerly he even thanks himself!)