Try Again

Aaron likes things to go the way he expects. If he's trying to do something and he falls or drops something, he gets very upset. He wants things to go according to his plan. And he doesn't like the unexpected.

For example, one day we were playing in his room. I was sitting on his bed. He was bringing something to me from the closet. He was running and he fell just shy of the bed. He didn't get hurt, but he was upset. But he picked himself up, and instead of giving me what he had in his hand, he returned to the closet, said "Try again" and ran back over to me, without falling. When he did this successfully, he said "No fall!"

I think this is because when he does get upset about something going wrong, we'll tell him that it's OK, that he can try again. So the message is sinking in. Sinking in so well, that when I did something "wrong" he had me try again.

We were reading bedtime stories the other night. I was reading Caps for Sale. On the first page, after reading "He carried them on top of his head" I patted Aaron's head. He wasn't expecting that and it bothered him. He pushed my hand away and said "No Aaron!", meaning "Don't touch Aaron's head." And he rubbed his head to make his point. Then he reached out, closed the book and said "Try again. No Aaron." Meaning "Try it again, Mom, but don't touch my head this time."

Thom and I cracked up. That wasn't the first time I've annoyed him by doing something he hadn't wanted me to do, but it was the first time I was given a chance to do it over.