Don't Forget Your Manners!

I try to stress the importance of saying please and thank you. Sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn't. It occurred to me that I may not always be the best role model in this area, so I've made it my goal to try to remember to say please and thank you more often myself.

This morning, Jimmy dropped N and I off at her school so I could go with her on her field trip to the Zoo. The whole first grade was going. As Jimmy dropped us off, he informed me that his plan was to take B and O to get their hair cut. You may remember that I tried this with B not so long ago. It didn't go so well. So when Jimmy informed me oh so non-chalantly that he was just going to march them into the barber shop for hair cuts, my first thought was....Please. Hey, that counts toward my goal, right?

N and I had a great, if exhausting, day at the zoo. We saw giant pandas, we saw elephants, we saw lemurs who appeared to be mating. That was a nice touch. Right up there with all the educational signs in front of the panda exhibit that explained the difficulties of mating in captivity. A word to the wise: If you have a pre-schooler who is on the verge of reading, and you think how great it will be to have her reading by kindergarten, think again. Thank you very much, National Zoo. Hey, there's another one toward my goal!

Eventually, we arrived back at N's school, and J and the boys picked us up. Of course, I immediately looked at their hair...which had actually been cut. Quite short, in fact. Actually, it was a little too short for my taste, plus I hadn't asked J to save a lock of O's hair, since in all honesty, I did not think this whole hair cut thing would be happening. But hey, at least their hair got cut, and maybe Jimmy is just better at the hair cut thing than I am. I'm okay with that. After all, there are plenty of other things that are more my area of expertise, thank you very much. It's not like he's going to start going to the grocery store with them or anything. Please.

Of course, I wanted details that Jimmy was just not providing. How did this all go down? Did they give you a hard time? Or did they just hop up in those barbershop chairs and say "Hair cut, please!" (Or, in O's case, Hair cup pease!)? For some reason, Jimmy was not forthcoming. In fact, he seemed a little agitated, but I wasn't sure if that was directly related to the hair cut experience, or to the fact that he had just spent six hours with two of our children. All.By.Himself.

As I was washing B and O's new short hair in the bathtub this evening, I was thinking that I should say thank you to my husband for spending the day with B and O so that I could go with N on her field trip. And just as I was thinking that, B shared some of the knowledge that he apparently gained from spending the day with his dad.

"Mom, this @%$ water is too hot."

Unlike another recent attempt at this word, this time his pronounciation and context were absolutely perfect. Almost like he's been practicing. Not that he needs practice. Please.

I suspect he's just a quick learner.

Thank You Very Much.

O let me take a picture of his hair cut. B told me there was just no #%#@ way.