Alice tries very hard to make us happy. She is always saying, "sorry." If she makes a request that we say no to, she apologizes. If we try to explain a better way to do something, she apologizes. When she doesn't understand everything being said, she apologizes. When she's 1 minute late getting to bed, she apologizes. She is overly concerned with making/keeping us happy. We are trying to teach her there are appropriate times to apologize, but many times she says sorry for things that don't need an apology or aren't her responsibility. She then apologizes for getting the apologies wrong. It gets tiring sometimes.
The other night we had a small incident - and I do mean small, as in trivial, no big deal. While explaining to Alice what she did wrong and how to do better next time (trying to teach, not scold) she teared up. No tears actually fell, but this is the second time in the past month or so that I've seen it happen. Alice guards her emotions. They are under tight control. We rarely see anything beyond her pleasant, cooperative side. The walls Alice keeps her emotions behind have not made it difficult to parent her, but I think they have prevented her from letting us get too close or for her to have feelings for us. While I'm sad that she felt bad, inside I'm actually feeling elated that her emotions are beginning to rise closer to the surface or at least we are allowed rare glimpses of them. I hope this is really the progress that I think it is.
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