Seeing as she had a pretty new human on her hands, we were talking about the earlier stages of that development. And I recall her telling me about something that's pretty much universal for kids, once they've reached that crawling/toddler/exploration stage: one trial learning.

The interesting thing about this is that even animals, even baby animals can pull off this trick. Consider: Say there's this big ferocious dog just a'sleepin, right? And this dog just hates to be woken up. How many times do you think you'd have to wake the dog up before you got it?

One trial learning. It's why a kid may stick their hand under hot water once, but not twice. It's why the brattiest kid in the world with the most patient parent in the world only pushes too far once -- pretty much after that, if they know nothing else, they'll always recall the signs that Mom's Losing It.

When I was a very little kid, 3-4 maybe, after one July 4th I found, amidst other exploded fireworks, one small firecracker whose fuse had burnt out before it blew up. Now, as I was just a little tyke, of course I was not allowed to play with such dangerous things as fireworks. And of course, as any little tyke who knows exactly what they are forbidden to do would, I felt my little childhood heart flood with the excitement of defiance and experimentation.

So hiding the firecracker in my greasy little hands long enough to find myself isolated near where I knew I could find fire (the kitchen, gas oven -- I was a kid, not an idiot), I prepared myself to enjoy the fruit of my own little personal independence.

Well, I've said I wasn't an idiot, and I wasn't. Sadly, we are not born with all the rules for behavior ingrained. I gleefully lit up my little firecracker, and just as gleefully held on to it with excitement, waiting for the cool explosion.

So let me ask this -- how many times in my life do you think I've been hurt by fireworks?

One trial learning, man. If only all things could be so simple.