You CAN do it

Someone, somewhere told Lennox that "he can't do it." I swear, if only I knew where he learned this because it is starting to worry me. Everything he tries that doesn't work out right away turns into him throwing something across the room and throwing himself down saying "I can't do it!" Then he cries and goes to get the thrown object, tries again, and, God forbid it doesn't work again, it goes flying across the room. I don't really know how to address this behavior. Last night he was trying to pick up his toy back hoe with a long handled toy grabber thingy. Well, the grabber is a plastic toy and the back hoe weighs a few pounds. Every time he would get the tongs on the back hoe and pull up, it would fall back to the ground... understandably. Time after time he took the grabber toy and threw it in my bedroom and came back and threw himself on the floor saying "I can't do it!" It is really sad but I don't want him to be a quitter. I encouraged him to keep trying and finally it did work. He did his little happy dance saying "I did it! I did it!" (sort of like Dora) Anyway, I was feeling good that I encouraged him and taught him a good lesson about practice leading to success. Well, I thought that worked but then he found a plastic bat. Well, he wanted to sit on top of the bat like Pat from Hop on Pop. You know, Pat Pat, they call me Pat... Pat sat, Pat sat on bat. Ok, so the bat is the same height as Lennox. He thought if he praticed he would eventually be able to sit on the bat... afterall, that's what I just told him. Ok, so that was obviously never going to happen. The next thing I know, the bat flew across the room, Lennox threw himself on the floor crying, "I can't do it!!!" oh geez.... Does anyone have a copy of the strong willed child book?! ha. no really.