manners

We have to put the gate up at the bottom of the stairs all of the time now, because if we don't, Ainsley will sense it with her gate-radar (gatedar?) and within 5 seconds, no matter where she was in the house, we will find her here:

The big kids don't really have a problem hopping over the gate, but Jack's little legs can't quite make it over. And so the third most-heard sentence at our house right now is, "Mom, can you lift me over the gate?" (The first being, "Mom, Ainsley just put ______ in her mouth!" and the second being, "Mom! Ryan and/or Emily is being mean at me!") But lately, Jack has been going through a very "me-centered" stage (at least I hope it's a stage!) and I just can't do anything fast enough to suit him. So I'll say, "Just a minute, Jack..." and he'll scream, "I want you to do it now!" Which I thoroughly enjoy hearing, as you can imagine. And yesterday, Doug and I had heard just about enough of that kind of thing, so when Jack started yelling for one of us to lift him over the gate, we decided we would wait to hear that certain word that would actually make it seem as though he was asking us to help and not telling us to help. And so after we heard, "Mom! Lift me over the gate now!" Doug said, "Jackson, we are waiting to hear the magic word." To which Jack, completely exasperated, replied, "Uugghh! Hocus Pocus!"