Say it, don't spray it

I never realized how easy it is to set a bad example for a child. I guess I should have had some clue because my childhood imaginary friend, Honka, was constantly a bad influence. I distinctly remember him forcing me to misbehave and then disappearing at just the right moment so that I would have to take the blame. But now it seems that I’m the bad influence, and I have a sinking feeling that it will only get worse as time goes by.

When Suttie started blowing raspberries around six months ago, I thought it was the cutest thing ever. So, I encouraged him to do it and would prompt him by blowing raspberries of my own. Now, it’s all he does. We’re in the process of trying to elicit his first real word, with little luck. Every time I say, “Suttie, say ‘Mama,’” he looks me squarely in the eye and blows a huge raspberry. I’m beginning to think that this is a permanent condition. When he’s sixteen, he’ll walk out the door and say, “Bye Dad, bye Bbbwwffff” (which is my interpretation of what a raspberry sounds like).

At this point, we’re trying to undo some of the damage that we’ve done by telling him “no” or “that’s enough” when he gets into a particularly violent episode of mouth-blowing. It doesn’t always work. This morning, as I was feeding him breakfast, I again tried to coax the word “mama” from his lips. He responded by blowing a huge, cereal and slobber-filled raspberry right at my face. So, today we work on “mama,” and tomorrow we work on manners.