Sometimes something happens that I am so surprised that I have to look very carefully and think about what happened.

There is something...

It is night. We just ate, and I'll ask Robin to bring his plate, cup and cutlery to the kitchen. Recently he does that a bit more often and I like it. The DVD is also on and that is quite a fun and exciting movie. Suddenly, from the kitchen I hear the plate falling to the floor and the cutlery. I can't hear anything else. No response, no words, no crying or whatever. Just the board that had fallen and the DVD that was on. I walk into the living room and I see Robin standing still, watching the television and he's got his cup in his hands. His plate is in shards on the ground and the cutlery is also on the ground. On television, I see an exciting scene of Ice Age. Robin is still standing still in front of television without moving a single muscle. Like he's frozen.

What happened???

I see this scene for two seconds and I decide to put the television on pause. I call Robin by his name and I ask what happened. Robin hardly has any idea what exactly happened. Yeah, his plate is on the ground. I'm gonna sit on the couch. This is at eye level for him. I'll bring him to me carefully. I'm asking again what happened. After a little thought, he turns around to the board, he says we have to clean it up. I'm going back to my question and trying to figure out what happened. He can't do that. It's starting to look like he thinks I'm angry, so I'm asking him if I'm angry. Fortunately, he says no. I confirm this. After step-by-step explaining what happened and what I saw, we come to the conclusion that it was a very exciting scene and that his hands suddenly let go of the board. Robin wants to cuddle it well. This is a primary reaction from him. He always wants to cuddle everything well. I'll tell him again I'm not angry. I even try to make a joke out of now, then we have a plate less to wash dishes and daddy and beppe said that too. This way I try to get him out of isolation again.

Clean up together.

Together, Robin and I are going to clean up the shards. I want Robin to put his shoes on. I'll get the big parts. I explain that the shards can be sharp, so that's why I pick them up. The dustbox and tin are already ready and Robin can wipe the leftovers. Then I'll ask him if he knows which container it's in. This is hard, but together, we'll figure out which one it is. With the bucket in his hand, we walk out to throw out the board. We open the container and Robin empties the bucket. So that's solved. We go in and I turn on the television. Robin is watching ice age, and I have another plate less to clean up.

Recognition from the past.

It was crazy to hear and see this happen like that. Then also a child that I cannot reach at first because he was too much in his own world. A child who has the solution to the problem but cannot articulate what just happened to him. Fortunately, I recognize a lot of him in myself and sometimes I see things from my childhood. I recognize the powerlessness that I sometimes felt as a child because something went wrong again but what I couldn't put my finger on and explain was even more difficult. I often try to describe what I see in the hope that the words I give can use Robin in in the future to explain what happened.