“MAWNING,” Ishu shouted to the individual sitting at the front desk.

“MAWNING,” he said to the man vacuuming the rugs in front of the elevators.

Ishu then pushed through the doors and walked outside. He stopped in front of the first person who looked at him. “MAWNING,” he said with his hand up in the air, looking up at some random guy on a walk.

It’s cute.

People generally flash him the biggest smile and greet him with just as much enthusiasm as he has for them. Most of the time.

Anyway, we went out TWICE yesterday.

Once in the morning, before Ankur went to work. Where Ishu did his whole “mawning” bit.

And then, once again after his nap.

The second time, Ishu and I left the apartment at 3pm. Got in the elevators and the first thing he said to the guy already in there was, of course, “MAWNING.”

This guy didn’t seem into it. So I stepped in.

“You’re saying good morning. It’s not morning anymore. You can say ‘good afternoon.'”

Ishu stared up at the guy without saying anything.

The elevators stopped on the 2nd floor and the guy got out.

As the doors were closing, Ishu called out, “Bye bye afternoon.”

I laughed and tried to explain that ‘afternoon’ was not a person’s name, but a time of day. Still, as we exited the building, he kept calling out to people.

“Hi afternoon,” he’d say.

I laughed. Once again, trying to explain that he could say, “good afternoon!” or “good afternoon everybody!”

But then he lost interest.

Anyway, this made me think.

Ishu watches us greet everyone “good morning!” It’s how we say hello to people in the morning. Always.

But he doesn’t really hear us saying “good afternoon” much. We just don’t use that phrase as often as we do “good morning.” “Good afternoon” feels more formal for some reason.

So, naturally, I think he couldn’t quite catch on when I tried to explain to him how to use the phrase “good afternoon.”

This is a small example. But an example nevertheless. That we can explicitly teach our kids things ’til we’re blue in the face. But they pick up on things WAY FASTER when we are constantly modeling it for them.

They are much better at doing what we do. Versus doing what we tell them to do.

So, here’s your hump day reminder (and mine!) that your kids are watching and copying and modeling everything you do. Don’t eff it up. No pressure.

Have a good MAWNING.