We recently decided that we needed to start teaching Lily to say ‘Please’ and ‘Thank You.’ It started in the car on the way up to Ontario. She kept asking for snacks and more snacks, so we started saying what she was asking for and adding ‘Please’ to the end. It didn’t take long for her to start adding the ‘Please’ all on her own. So we started saying ‘Thank You’ when we handed her what she asked for. She would repeat us every time. Once she started using ‘Thank You’ on her own, Scott says, ‘Mommy, did you say ‘You’re Welcome’?’ Which I hadn’t because I didn’t want her to think that was something I was expecting her to say. But, since he asked, I said, ‘You’re Welcome’ the next time she said, ‘Thank You.’ She responded, ‘I Welcome.’ Now, whenever she says ‘Thank You’ it is immediately followed by, ‘I Welcome.’ Sometimes the ‘I Welcome’ stands alone. I think it is SUPER cute, but I have no idea how I am going to explain to her that she is only supposed to say the ‘Thank You’ part and that she is supposed to say ‘You’re Welcome’ when someone says ‘Thank You’ to her.
On another note about manners, Lily seems to have learned to say ‘Excuse Me’ when trying to pass someone simply from watching other people do it. It makes me a very proud Momma to hear my baby girl using her good manners all by herself!