E-Cloth Envy

Grandma Joyce found this AMAZINGLY COOL thing called an E-Cloth -- but she only sent ONE to Utah. Now only Nova has crystal clean mirrors and windows -- which I could probably deal with if she hadn't teased me by letting me try the E-Cloth for a week. During my brief dalliance with the now coveted E-Cloth I discovered that, in addition to cleaning windows and mirrors better than anything on the planet, it also does a beautiful job of removing fingerprints from stainless steel appliances. This is a task for which I have a great need and have spent mucho deniro on a myriad of products, all of which claimed to be specifically engineered for the job, but none of which has proved to be an effective remedy.

I have used forlorn puppy eyes on Nova in vain hope that she would have pity on me and give me the revered E-Cloth, but alas, she acts oblivious to my passive aggressive begging techniques. I have thus far refrained from stealing it from her (my moral fortitude assisted in no small part by the fact that she has kept the whereabouts of said E-Cloth conspicuously vague). So my stainless appliances become progressively more fingerprinted, and I live continuously on the precarious brink of being overtaken by the green-eyed E-Cloth monster...

Nicely!!!!!

Somewhere between the time they first started to talk and age 5, I seem to have managed to teach my first two kids to be reasonably polite. I'm not claiming that they are perfectly polite, by any means...but they are at least more polite than average children because strangers routinely comment on their pleasantries...

Just like the hat-training, I attribute my moderate success in this arena to the tutelage of my sister, and incessant reminders and consistent reinforcement: The "Mummy sounds like a broken record" method! As I work on ingraining the politeness gene into my third child, I am quite certain that I have heard myself say the words "Oh dear, you forgot to ask nicely!" about 40 million times!

Kenzie was an early and adept talker (who continues to be a socialite and conversationalist to this day!) By the time she was 2 1/2,  my "Ask Nicely" campaign had resulted her being able to deftly string together excuse me's, pleases and thank-you's appropriately within context. She had quickly integrated the concept and skills associated with using good manners to win friends and influence people.

Cooper was a late talker who was plagued by an "antsy impatience" that I believe stemmed from the constant frustration of knowing what he wanted long before he could find the words to convey it. So Cooper was more of a "truncated blurter" when it came to making requests. "Not milk! Juice!" "No! A yellow cup!" "No lid Mummy!" The "Ask Nicely" campaign was slow to sink in for Cooper, and escalated his frustration accordingly...till one day, when he appeared to be thoroughly flummoxed by an "ask nicely" standoff, it finally occurred to him that maybe he would get what he wanted if he gave me what I wanted. He took a deep breath fueled by resignation, mustered a deliberately controlled sweet tone of voice, and a duress-inspired "pleasant" smile to match, and blurted, "NICELY!!?!!?!" I was so caught off guard by the simplicity and effort of his compliance, that my heart melted, and for almost a year afterward, a hearty, well-delivered "NICELY!!!!" became an acceptably polite form of request at our house!

Sweep wid me!

Oh, how I regret having the 3rd child softies...

Derek is about to turn three, and I, like an idiot, delayed his "training". I had a bunch of reasons/excuses. All of them I now regret caving to! "The training" in our family is the process of teaching your child to accept bedtime and learn to fall asleep willingly in their own bed. For any future trainers out there, take my advice and do the training BEFORE your child has the gross motor skills to climb out of their own bed!!! Because once they can physically defy your attempts to keep them horizontal, and once they have fully developed a mind of their own, it becomes a long and painful battle!

I know that this post will illicit chastisement from, at the very least, my local sister and my mum...But anytime I have begun the training to get Derek to go to sleep on his own, he has proved to be SO stubborn (easily outlasting my resolve) and SO LOUD (quickly annoying his brother/roommate!)

Add to that how sugary sweet his bedtime begging is, and...well...I'm a sucker for his little sing-song pleading voice in the darkness:

"Mummy, Please sweep wid me?"