When Will really, really wants something he will use his very best language to make the pitch, including the “may I” phrase that warms my heart.
Of course, the perfect grammar doesn’t usually advance his cause since it is often coupled with an ungrantable request like, “Mommy, MAY I have some candy before breakfast?” or “May I go sleep over at Jack and Lydia’s house (six hours away)?”
So the other night he was in bed, and I hear “Mommy, I have to pee!”
I go upstairs to unlock the bathroom door and assist him in his ablutions when he turns to me and confides in a whisper, “And I MAY have to poop.”
He didn’t, but I gave him a sticker anyway for his good efforts, both in pottying and syntax.
And I MAY be laughing every time I think of that story.
