Mommy.... you feel better? And other sweet phrases

These past two weeks have been an interesting time as together as a family we've weathered an ear infection for William, my simultaneous sinus infection, a trip to the hospital with possible labor pains, and a very tired, crampy, grumpy me. But in that time, I've had the opportunity to witness some fun, new and CARING phrases from my son. The kind that make you think you might not totally be screwing up this parent thing after all.

Now before you get all congratulatory, let me assure you I still possess your average, if not sassier-than-average (much to my mother's joy) 2 1/2 year old. He has been known to recently utter such winners as:

"get out Daddy, this is my room, NOT your room!"
"No, this is my house!" (response to Mike's response to above phrase, which was, well this may be YOUR room, but it's MY house)
"Mommy, you are NOT my buddy anymore!"

However, he has at least rewarded us with some sweet, caring phrases as well.

Lately, the most popular one has been, "Mommy... you feel better?" Granted, sometimes this is asked because if I say yes he can ask his follow up, "you wanna pick me up?" This is because I've told him that the doctor says I cannot pick him up yet. However, many times this past couple weeks... it has been out of genuine concern. As we suffered together through our sinus/ear infection he often asked me that. After a particularly bad night of cramping, he planted a kiss on my head "to make it all better" and followed up with "mommy... you feel better now?" After a bad morning where I took a LONG nap after breakfast, he wandered in to wake me, gave me a kiss and asked "mommy... you feel better?" Man, break my heart, kid.

Another cute phrase lately? "You okay?" I heard this the other night as he and his daddy wrestled. Daddy did one of his better acting jobs and fell to the ground and remained laying there. At which point, William walks up and pats his daddy asking, "You okay?" Mike and I died. He also asked it of the dog recently when he accidentally stepped on her tail and of me recently after I kind of yelped during a doctor's appointment. (He also inquired of the doctor, "Did you hurt my mommy?"... the doc thought it was hysterical).

One of the best phrases we are enjoying now... particularly because he'll ask it of anyone, even complete strangers, is "How's your day?". I witnessed this the first time when I had to bring him with me during my doctor's appointment to assess my sinus infection. The doc walked in and said hello to us both at which point William answers with, "Hi! How's your day?" The doc, completely amused looks at me and says "did he just ask..." and I nodded. William asks again, head cocked to the side, all attention and waiting as though truly interested. The doc says, "uh great, how's yours?" to which William replies, "Oh, I'm just cool." Holy crap... who is this kid?

A week or so later, he comes with me on my OB visit and we tell him to say "hi Dr. B" and explain to him that Dr. B's face is the first he ever saw. William looks up at him and after saying, "Hi Dr. B!" follows with, "How's your day?" Dr B. finds this very funny and spits out a "great! how's yours?" William seems to consider it a moment before replying "oh, good, good. I'm just playing with a school bus" (the toy he had in his hand).

Now Mike and I are noticing that he loves to ask this question of anyone who comes to the house. His aunts and uncles, our friends, the Starbucks employees, etc. He's just running around asking everyone how their day is. People think he's infinitely polite and Mike and I are just enjoying the looks that phrase generates when it comes from such a little person.

The last caring phrase he's been uttering recently, "let's be friends" or "you wanna be my friend?" Apparently, this is the phrase that follows all apologies and time-outs at day-care or something. Because he often utters it after a time out. He'll come to us, give us a hug, say sorry and then say "okay... let's be friends now". Also, I was watching him play with his Star Wars action figures and after Boba Fett gave a Storm Trooper a spectacularly violent beat-down, William must have decided it was enough. Because then I hear him say, as though he were Boba Fett, "come on Trooper, let's be friends. wanna play with me?" and he has his Storm Trooper answer, "yeah, yeah. it's cool. let's be friends." And finally, last night, as I was lying there in his bed after reading his bedtime story, in too much pain to move... he rolls over and puts his little hand on my face and says, "mommy you want to be my friend?" and when I say yes, he follows with "you okay, you want to just lie down a little while with me?" I tell him that mommy is hurting and I would love to just keep lying down with him. He looks at me for a little bit, pulls my blanket up closer to my face for me and says, "okay, you can sleep with me if you want."

Oh man, does it get any sweeter than that?