Okay, serious heavy stuff aside, the last few days, 5 and I have been learning please and thank you with help from pudding and bananas. It was a whim, but it's worked surprisingly well. He gets pretty excited about having little bites of Mom's treats, so he'll happily copy anything I say and then, it's just practice.
I ask if he wants another bite (as he's grunting and pointing at my bowl) and wait for him to say "yes" (I've been modeling yes please, but that seems a little difficult still), so then he gets a little bite and I say "what do you say?""Thank you!".
By the end of yesterday, I didn't have to model "thank you" anymore and today I didn't even have to ask him "what do you say?"
It was pretty exciting for me, especially because his thank yous sound like "whhaank kyeeee". Adorable.
He even showed off for his Dad today after work, sans pudding. A success I declare!