Thank You Deborah

Amelia picked up "please" pretty quickly when she started saying more than one word at a time, as in "Juice please", "Book please", etc. However, I've had a really hard time getting her to say, "Thank you." I say it to her all the time, and as much as she is a parrot she hasn't picked it up that way.

Last week we met my friend, Deborah, for lunch at Moe's, an eatery where you go through a line telling them what you want on your burrito and then they lay the finished burrito in a basket of tortilla chips. We sat down to eat and Amelia was in a high chair at the end of the table. She reached over and appropriated one of Deborah's chips while saying "Chip please." (Why she took Deborah's and not mine is a bit of a mystery ... maybe hers were closer. ) Since Deborah had no intention of eating her chips, she didn't mind the polite little food thief helping herself. So Amelia proceeded to take a dainty little bite of the chip, lay it down and reach for another, saying "Chip please". I said, "Say Thank you Deborah." Amelia complied with gusto and it was so funny. Deborah really liked hearing Amelia say her name. So each chip, and dainty bite, and reach, there was a "Chip please" followed by a "Thank you Deborah!" I thought wow, this is a great opportunity to reinforce the phrase so maybe she'll remember it.

She does remember it - but she thinks Deborah is part of the phrase! We were at church Sunday and somebody said something to her and she said, "Thank you Deborah!" As popular as that name is, it doesn't always fit. So now I've worked on explaining that Deborah isn't part of the phrase and I've tried inserting appropriate names whenever possible. A week later she is starting to catch on. It's still cute, though.