It's tough. Most of the time I feel like I'm being as gentle as possible and he still gets frustrated and loses confidence, which makes this whole thing hard to untangle. It's honestly only sometimes (rarely) that I get overwhelmed to the point of expressing my disappointment. I know it doesn't help things, but at the same time I feel like I should be able to tell him how I feel and have him engage with that in a productive way.

I do stroke his ego and praise him when things are great. Lots of positive feedback for sure. It doesn't prevent him (seemingly) from forgetting what I like. Also I feel like some circumstances call for some level of criticism (e.g. "Please stop doing that, it's really uncomfortable for me," if he does something I don't like after several attempts at redirecting him). I've yet to find a workaround but that's why I'm posting.