Please :)

We, quite possibly, have won a battle of the wills this evening. It all began on the way home from California the Sunday after Thanksgiving, when we discovered in the car that Allison could say "please". Of course it sounded much more like "peeeeeahs", but her repeating me in such a sweet way made my heart melt. We have a polite child! She will say "peeeeahs" and "thex" (<--thanks, obviously) and she will curtsy and get up for little old ladies who are waiting for their tables at restaurants and be a shining example for her peers and....

Then the battle began. Clearly I overstepped her boundaries at some point, or did not follow the rules. Rule #1 about Polite Club is, you do not ask to be apart of Polite Club. So when our dearest lovely girl would point to something and say "I tyyyyyy dit" (I Try It, OBVIOUSLY), and we would respond with, "can you say please?" and she would rightfully respond with a throw-yourself-to-the-floor fit. It was like we were asking her for those teeth she just grew in her head. This went on for a month, until tonight.

Tonight, a light bulb went on for her. As I sat on the couch, watching her play, she decided it was time to play with her letters puzzle. She brought the box of letters to me and said, ever so sweetly, "peeeeahs". To which I promptly obliged her, praised her, and nearly cried when she followed up the performance with a quick "thex". After she tired of her puzzle, she climbed onto my shins - which any mom knows is a built in ride for an 18 month old - looked up to me with those big beautiful eyes and again said "peeeahs". I proceeded to ware my legs into limp noodles, lifting nearly 30 pounds up and down, up and down, just to get her to squeal and laugh, until my knees told me it was high time to get back to my walking routine.

I know that tomorrow, there's a real chance that she'll revert back to throwing those ever-so-special tantrums at the mere mention of saying that magical word. But tonight made me realize, that the real magic in that word lies in a person's willingness to say it on their own. So I'll stop asking her to say please and thank you. She knows what they are, and one day she'll know just how much they really mean to people.