Shawn Joaquin has learned how to give compliments, which he has not yet learned to give out judiciously and only when one wants something. And as long as my mother is not part of the tribe raising him, that skill can perhaps be avoided.
Yesterday he wanted to go to our neighbor's house to play. I asked him why, and he replied "Because Will is a great boy. And his dad...he's a great dad."
Later he told Gregg he was a great fixer, and kissed him on the leg as Gregg struggled to put up three coat hooks.
Earlier this weekend his first words to me after waking were not "good morning" but "Mama, you're a good cooker like Rachel Ray." I knew that his compliments knew no bounds nor reason when later that day he told me I was shiny and handsome, even though I had not showered and was in fact simply wearing real clothes for the first time in days.
These charming compliments are what save him (along with his good looks, if the shallow truth must be told) and continue to hold him in good stead in our household, despite his renewed screams in the darkest hours of the night. Maybe my mother was right, and good looks and good manners ARE what counts and everything else is just so much icing on the cake or annoying intellect, confidence and earning power that turn off men and....well, that's another blog.
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