This week, Cate's teacher sent her home with this book after an incident at school where Cate refused to say "I'm sorry." It was some sort of accident where she accidentally knocked into somebody -- nothing big and nothing on purpose. But still, the teacher asked her to say "I'm sorry" because sometimes we hurt people even when we don't mean to -- and Cate refused.

She's the weirdest child in this way. We model saying please, thank you, and sorry. We ask her to say these things often. But she just has a hard time saying those basic manner words, especially if she doesn't feel she is at fault. Lately, she'll say them, but under her breath. She has a hard time saying them to people outside the family for sure (she gets shy or embarrased about it).

She's pretty good saying I'm sorry if she has done something really bad on purpose or she can tell she really hurt somebody. She will say it to Christopher because she loves him and doesn't want him to feel bad. But she doesn't like to say it if she doesn't feel like she really did something wrong (like accidentally knocking on that kid at school). And certainly not to people she doesn't know well. She likes to say "I don't need to say I'm Sorry because I don't do bad things...that's my plan -- to not do bad things and then I don't have to say it."

And don't get me started on the pleases and thank yous. It's terribly embarrasing -- one of those basic things that shouldn't be hard yet is.

So, yet once again we're working on reading the books about sorry, please, and thanks. Whenever we talk about it she says "I know these things already! Stop talking about them!" and yet she still has trouble with them. I've got Greg working on it with her now. She loves her daddy and right now daddy can do no wrong. If daddy says its the right thing to do, then it is. She's working on it under her daddy's tutelage. But, holy moly!