Say please, Henry.... or don't.

So, Henry doesn't have much of a vocabulary yet. I'm not worried. I'm sure he's fine. That isn't why I'm posting.

But, I would love to see him use words other than woof, and ball. So, I've been working on please. Today he brought me his sippy cup and asked for more milk. Using words like 'asked' makes it seem like he may have actually used words to communicate. Really he just brought me his cup and grunted. Maybe that's why he doesn't use words... because I respond to grunts. Let me illustrate further.

After I filled up his cup, I held it and said, "Henry, can you say please?"

He looked up at me, held up his hands and said, "Uhhh."

I said, one more time, in my sing songy mommy voice, "Henry, say please."

Again, he looked at me, shook his arms, and said, a little more forcefully, "UHHHH!"

One more time for good measure. "Please, Henry. Say please!"

This time, he shook his arms, gritted his teeth and his face turned red as he bellowed, "UUHHHHH!!!"

Okay then. Here's your milk. We'll try again tomorrow.

I'm beginning to think that perhaps grunting really is a superior form of communication. I mean, look how quickly I respond to Henry. Grunt and point. I'm going to try it on the older kids tomorrow. Or perhaps the teller at the bank.