Anxiety

I don't remember Jack ever really being afraid of anything as a toddler. So much so that I do remember thinking that a little bit of fear wouldn't be a bad thing, especially in the case of moving cars and other such appropriate things. Schaeffer and Logan are a completely different story. Schaeffer is beyond terrified of Monkey Joe...the mascot-like monkey that walks around to say hi to kids at Monkey Joe's. We were there a few weekends ago and he totally freaked out when he saw MJ, clung to Paul for dear life and actually trembled. Later as we were getting ready to leave Schaeffer spotted MJ a ways away and ran to a corner where he tucked himself into a ball, whimpered and shook. Other than the terrifying MJ, Schaeffer has seemed fearless, until last night. We were playing outside at my parents house. Schaeffer was climbing the rock stairs, up and down he went for quite a while. Then out of the blue he froze and freaked out. Just stood there like a statue, terrified to move and crying out for help. You could tell he was afraid, but of what I had no idea. He was standing in the landscaped are that is covered in pine needles, pine cones, leaves and whatnot. The best that we could tell he had suddenly developed a strong fear of pine cones. I picked one up and held it out to him, he jerked away. I tried to make him touch it and he refused and kept whimpering. The rest of the evening as he would walk we could see him get freaked out by pine cones he saw on the ground.

Logan, on the other hand, was covered in sap from carrying pine cones around much of the evening. So pine cones are not his kryptonite, but several other things are. Logan is currently afraid of dogs (especially barking ones), birds, leaves, and pretty much anything moving. The dogs I understand. The birds...I guess maybe. If he sees a bird anywhere, no matter how far away and no matter if it is outside and he is inside, he gets nervous. And if the bird happens to move, which most birds do, then he gets really nervous. It's the leaves that I really find odd. He's actually improved quite a bit in the last two weeks regarding leaves. At first they all terrified him, but now he only gets scared if the leaves are blowing along the ground. When I first realized what was making him so scared I picked up a leaf and made him touch it. He flinched but then he was ok and actually held it. So he knows they won't hurt him. It's just that sudden movement from the wind that makes him cling to me like a monkey. Often when we are outside if he is riding a trike I will seem him get real stiff and still and pull his feet up as high as he can and sure enough you'll be able to fine a bird or a leaf or a bug moving around somewhere in his sight path. Schaeffer of course will carry any leaf around and wave it in Logan's face.

So I've actually had several good laughs about these two and their silly fears. I know the things they are afraid of are safe (except perhaps the dogs and the occasional bird i.e. geese) so I've been trying to get them to touch things for themselves. We've also found that having them tell the scary object hi and buy has helped really calm them down. So when we are outside now you hear Schaeffer and Logan saying hi and buy a lot and waving a lot and even blowing kisses. And if you didn't know them you'd really be confused because it looks as though they are talking and waving and blowing kisses to nothing. But it's a big bad world full of leaves blowing in the wind and pine cones laying stealthily on the ground and I need to teach these two how to conquer it!