Take Two

My poor wife observed an argument this morning between me and my three-year old son. I won, but felt pretty silly about it. It wasn't that I was wrong in principle, it was that I was embarrassed by my approach. After the argument, I asked my wife, "What would you think if someone secretly video recorded an argument like this with one of the kids then played it back to you?" I asked rhetorically because I have the misfortune of an automatic replay mechanism in my mind that was instantly triggered when I noticed my wife watching. I thought I looked pretty childish. The replay continued running through my mind in the early afternoon while I was getting frustrated with our baby for grabbing at the spoon I was using to feed her the drippy, messy baby food. By the time the kids were napping, I had two embarrassing episodes of me acting childish and impatient replaying in my mind. It was somewhat haunting.

Luckily, I had much better moments with each of the kids. Later in the afternoon, for example, I took my son to the dinosaur museum as a treat for filling his listening chart. It was fun to sit back and let him enjoy what he wanted to. He loved the T-Rex skull, the sharp shark teeth, and the flying fish. It was also funny to see how much he enjoyed playing on the train, the handrails at the station, and the bike racks. As I end the day, the two negative episodes have been replaced by much more positive ones.