Just When I Start to Forget

Patrick has been a more typical toddler lately, whining and throwing tantrums when he doesn't get what he wants, totally self-centered. But every so often he lets us see a glimpse of the sweet little boy hiding behind the toddler. Today I got several of those glimpses.

The first happened when we were playing together before his afternoon nap. He loved that I was on the floor with him--not an easy feat these days. He was rolling around being silly and accidentally hit me in the face while he did so. I'm not sure exactly what happened, but somehow he smashed my glasses into my face, hurting me. I took off my glasses and rubbed my face as I tried to recover. Patrick realized pretty quickly that he'd hurt me. I tried not to say anything to him to put blame on him because that tends to make him cry, and he really hadn't done anything wrong. Still, it was obvious he felt bad that I was hurt. He crouched down next to me, watching me carefully. Then he did the only thing he knew to do to comfort me. He told me, "It's okay!" in a loud singsong voice. And funny enough, after that it was. I had to smile at his response to my pain, and that made everything better for both of us.

Then tonight during dinner, I had trouble swallowing a bite of food and ended up coughing. Patrick didn't worry about me this time because I recovered quickly, but a minute later I caught him fake-coughing, badly, as he watched me to see my reaction. Of course I laughed. The rest of the night, any time either Matt or I coughed, Patrick would imitate us badly. He also started the coughing on his own if we weren't paying him attention at the moment. This is apparently the newest fun game. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery after all, isn't it?