Boo hoo hoo

R cut his hand yesterday. I'm not sure if it was with his 'Spot can count' picture book or something else but it sliced a nice piece of skin off his palm and at first he was just staring at it, kind of bewildered, which is why I noticed him in the first place, then his shock turned into a tremendous bout of tears and shiver as he realized what had happened (I'm guessing the pain also kicked in right about now). This is a far cry (pun intended) from the brave dude who usually laughs in the face of needles, smirks at the sight of cliffs (or ends of beds really but what's the difference) and snickers at the sound of a barking dog (ok I exaggerated some but let it be known that he's not one for crying on mummy's shoulders over a little pain). I'm guessing the fact that he's probably way past his exhaustion limit is also the reason he was so worked up but funnily enough, the next day, as he catches sight of his now Anpanman band-aided palm he would burst into another episode of young and the tearful for a good few minutes.

This made me wonder, is R growing up by gaining more long term short term memory, or is he becoming more chicken?