A Lesson Learned?

If you asked Dominic what one of his favorite things to eat is, I can tell you with almost 100% certainty that pizza is at or near the top of his list.  Earlier last week, we ordered a couple of pizzas from our local pizza place.  After Dominic ate four pieces, we told him that was enough.  He refused to listen to us and ended up eating six pieces! That was the same as what Lauren and I ate together!  I had a feeling he would probably be paying the price later.  Well, sure enough he woke up about 11:15 p.m. and was whimpering.  He was in a bit of belly pain, not surprising given that he had eaten so much pizza for dinner.  I won't go into too much detail, but let's just say he felt better after he used the bathroom.  Thank goodness,  he was able to fall back asleep and was up raring to go the next morning.  I asked him a few times if he felt better and he said, "all better."  I called his teacher after he got on the bus and gave him a heads up that he might not be eating a lot of his lunch and/or at snacktime.  When he got home that afternoon,  I mentioned the word pizza and he whimpered.  I asked him, "how did you feel after you ate too much pizza?"  He said, "sad."  Well, I know that he remembered the previous evening, but was there a lesson that he learned from eating too much pizza?  The next time we eat pizza, will he know to stop after three or four pieces? or will we have to stop him?  I told my husband that somebody won't always be around to monitor how much he's eating.  Even though he is nine and has special needs, I feel that some of the responsibility should rest with Dominic.  There are "lessons" that you learn when you are in a classroom or are homeschooled, but how about those other "life lessons" that you learn as you grow up, like learning to fail?  This morning, the "Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy" song came on. I asked Dominic who wrote it and he said, "chosky."  I told him it was "Tchaikovsky."  Every time he said it wrong, I corrected him.  He got really frustrated and basically had a temper tantrum. After about 10 times of saying it wrong, he finally said it right!  I guess I could have told him "chosky" was right, but it wasn't.  When you play a board game with your kids, do you let them win so they will be happy? Kids need to learn that it's okay to lose, they may not always win :)  How about life is not always fair?  That is definitely one I have told Lauren more than once.  One of the most important "life lessons" I have learned to come to terms with is realizing no matter how hard I try, not everyone will like me.  Somebody who I have an enormous amount of respect for called me a "people pleaser" recently.  It's true, I want everyone to like me!  Just in the past couple of years, have I realized that doesn't always happen and I have to be able to deal with it better :)