I remember watching my nieces learn to say "please" and "thank you"; unfortunately, Barney was popular at the time and it meant a lot of requests for watching the show as well. As much as I dislike Barney, I have to admit, the show really drilled into your brain the concept of "please" and "thank you" being the magic words...that and how awful kids' shows truly are. Even when I was a kid I hated children's programming (but that's another story).
Nora's playmates have been learning or exposed to some amount of baby sign language. It's par for the course with Portlander parents much like baby carriers, amber teething necklaces, and discussions about organic baby food (to purchase or to make; not whether or not you choose organic food for your kid because if you were to admit that...well, good luck). I had never any fantasy of being successful at teaching such a thing to Nora. I'm dyslexic and learning foreign languages has always been an embarrassing failing of mine so I didn't have any hope of teaching one to my infant daughter. Imagine my surprise when all those months of my clumsy attempts and her witnessing others would pay off with her picking up signs on her own. She signs "please", "hungry", "all done", "more" and "star".
My heart swelled with pride when she first signed "please" and sweetly said it simultaneously to request her sippy cup. Tonight I almost cried when I asked her if she wanted the purple star jammies her Na-Na gave her and she signed "star" with a big smile in response. All these moments are stored in my heart right alongside the moments that she drives us insane.
There are words that she absolutely refuses to sign (or say for that matter) "thank you" or "sorry". A request for her to say "thank you" will elicit a kiss at best and a raspberry noise in your face possibly or at worst a snotty smile and flounce of her head. A request for "sorry" might get you a hug or a pat but sometimes it results in her screaming "NOOOO!"...this I can understand since it's my fault. I was hoping she might learn to say "no" in an assertive manner to other kids that were trying to pull away a toy out of her hands or push her around. She somehow confused this concept with the kid being forced to apologize to her after their bad behavior, so now when a kid is brought over to apologize for their transgression by their parent my lovely daughter will scream "NOOO!" in the kid's face. It's quite effective.
One little boy approaches Nora and gives her a hug every time he sees her now and she simply turns her face away and says "no". My work here is done.
