An apologetic little boy

"Mea Culpa Mama!"

I’m learning that 2-year-olds translate what you’re saying into its most literal interpretation. An example:

We never really had cause to teach Kostyn how and why we say “I’m sorry” until Evan’s arrival. Because with Evan’s arrival came the very occasional acts of pushing Evan, and ramming cars into Evan’s limbs, and scaring the bejeezus out of both Evan and Mommy with sudden, failed attempts at body-slamming Evan. So I would talk to Kostyn about how such things might hurt his baby brother, and we certainly don’t want to hurt him, and we learned about apologizing for doing things we shouldn’t have done or didn’t mean to do.

That’s the part that stuck, and now he seems to understand “I’m sorry” as a phrase used whenever something happens that wasn’t intentional. So I’ve got a kid who calls out “Sowwy!” to no one in particular when he trips as he’s running around the table. And he calls out “Sowwy!” when he drops one of the half-dozen cars he’s trying to carry upstairs. He even apologizes to his toys. “Sowwy giraffe!” he says when the tiny plastic toy falls over on the carpet, even if he is nowhere near the animal when it happens. And when his brow is furrowed as he’s trying to build some complex bridge/tower with his blocks and part of it topples, he apologizes. To the blocks. Because the blocks toppling over wasn’t supposed to happen, people. It wasn’t what he intended. “Uhh, sowwy,” he says in frustration before trying again.

On one hand it’s endearing, hearing his sweet little “Sowwy!” On the other hand it’s embarrassing, especially in public. How Joan Crawford must I seem to the neighbors, to have this little toddler who falls and scrapes his knee crying, “Sowwy Mama! Ohhh, sowwy!!” or to the parents at the playground who overhear my son apologize every time his own elbow bumps into a piece of playground equipment? “Oops, sowwy!” Half the time I just want to apologize to him for screwing up the meaning in his little brain.

So sowwy Kostyn!