component does not invoke the lightning controller code on the second and subsequent attempts
<aura:attribute name="pageReference" type="Object" />
<aura:handler name="change" value="{!v.pageReference}" action="{!c.handlePageChange}" />
( //controller.js
handlePageChange : function(component, event, helper) {
console.log("pageReference attribute change");
component.find("userRecord").reloadRecord(true);
}
})