He Gets Frustrated

All of the time. About all kinds of things.

You see, Gavin has a lot of BIG ideas about how things should happen, what he wants to do through out the day, and how to build certain things. And when things don't go his way, he gets VERY frustrated. Poor guy.

For instance, he constantly takes all of the cushions off all of the furniture in the living room and then attempts to make a castle fort. The blue prints for this castle fort are usually quite complicated. He'll start building and quickly realize that it doesn't look how he pictured. Then the loud whining ensues, "I prolly (probably) need some help! Dis (this) not working!" When Wes goes over to help him, he gives very specific instructions about where everything should go and if Wes takes any creative liberties in the build, well, let's just say that he should avoid doing that. After the castle fort is made to his specifications, you would think that all would be good in the world. You would be thinking wrong. Within a few minutes of playing, something else catastrophic will occur and the frustrated whine (potentially accompanied by crying and tears) will resurface.

We try to encourage him to, "Try harder," or "Think for a minute about what you want and then try again," but the problem isn't usually that he's not trying. Instead, it's that he wants to do/build/create something that is way beyond his abilities. We're glad he's inventive, but it would be nice to avoid the multiple-times-a-day-whine-fest.