"Awww, That's Nice of Her"

For Lucy's half-birthday (which is a big deal around here), my mom sent up a bag full of girly treasures. One of the adorable presents in the bag was a Jessie the Cowgirl and Bullseye shirt that says "Can I get a yeehaw?!" As you can see in the photo above, it is being modeled by Jacko, not Lucy.

When Jack asked to wear it for jammies, I told him we'd have to ask Lucy since it was her shirt. We "asked" her, and she "said" yes. I told Jack that Lucy would let him wear the shirt, and Jack's response to Lucy's generosity was, "Awww, that's nice of her."

Having a talking kid is a singular experience for many reasons, but hearing myself being parroted by a little voice is the strangest for me. I say this because Jack's new response to anything nice or cool is, "Awww, that's nice." And he's never wrong--whatever he deems nice is usually quite nice. He has a knack for pegging niceness. But man, I am now self-conscious about calling anything nice, in case I start sounding like a broken record myself.

I say that phrase to him all the time! Because I am trying to instill a behavior of gratitude and appreciation in my kids, I often point out the kind acts of people or the beauty that surrounds us naturally. If he tells me that a friend shared with him? I say, "Awww, that's nice of her." If we appreciate the white, puffy clouds in the sky and start talking about how God made those for us to look at? I say, "Awww, isn't that nice of Heavenly Father to make beautiful things for us to see?" If a character on one of his favorite TV shows makes a good choice? I say, "Awww, what a nice thing he did."

Ultimately, I am grateful that Jack is such an observant boy and a super kid. I am also happy that he can rock cap sleeves like on that Jessie shirt. However, I am most thrilled by the fact that I can see evidence that proves I might be doing at least a few things right in parenting my kids.