One of the things we are currently working on with Mr. Joel is to say, “Thank you” after receiving an item or food. He is good at saying please but not the thank you word. My parents helped start this process when they had him over at their home overnight a week ago.

Well, we thought it was a good idea to have him be a grateful son, but we had no idea that the word “Thank You” would involved disobedience!

While eating our easter dinner at my parents yesterday, I had the honors of making sure Joel ate his food. He was totally distracted by the new Thomas the Train set my parents bought for him. They let him play with it only when he comes to visit. He did NOT want to eat and made sure I knew that. When I finished my meal, I sat down next to him and helped him finish his food. I would scrape up a spoon full of the food and say, “Lets take a couple more bites Joel.” Joel turned and looked at me with a very friendly face (not defiant) and said, “No Thank you!” What a polite young son I have! In an earlier blog, I wrote of a similiar experience that he tried to sell off his food to Mom, Chalice and then me. That did not work so well, so he is trying to be polite and say that he is very interested in food right now!

Today, Joli called me (not knowing my previous food experience with Joel) and told me about how she had told Joel that it was time to continue potty training. Joel responded, “No Thank you potty.”