J has been exhibiting all kinds of strange behavior lately.(Let me put it this way: I googled "can my toddler see ghosts" the other day. I sure did.)
The most alarming and distressing change, though, is a sudden and VERY INTENSE phobia of bugs. It started a few weeks ago, and then Mike took him camping and he was bitten by a mosquito. And he saw it, and he felt it, and boy oh boy did he remember it.
Now every tiny little bug is life-threatening to him. He has always had bug x-ray vision--I swear this kid could spot a gnat from a hundred yards away--but now that ability is mixed with heart-stopping fear.
It doesn't help that this is the stage when the imagination really starts to develop big time.
Also? this happens to be one of those buggy years--more ants seem to be around, fruit flies are hanging out here and there. A few spiders, and those dreaded leggy bugs every New Englander hates (see here for what I mean). They are the absolute worst. Every house I've lived in here has had them. They don't bite, but uggggh I get the willies just thinking of them.
I told my midwife about this new fear ('cause she wants to know all about J, and I love her advice) and she gave me a bug box. You know, sort of like you used to have in your third grade classroom that a lizard would live in? She explained to us that we could take the box and go hunt some bugs, put them in the box, and then J could see that they weren't all that scary after all.
I didn't know J was really listening when she told me this, but this morning (after another bug freak out), he grabbed the box, asked me to open it, and walked around the house saying, "Come here, bug! Come here!" beckoning with his little hand.
We were laughing so hard. And shaking our heads. Sort of one of those oh-so-common funny/sad little kid moments.
Oh if only it were that easy, to just take all your little fears and beckon them into a tiny box, where they couldn't get at you anymore...If this were the case, he'd definitely put the prospect of a new baby in the house in there, too. sigh.
Plan B: renting A Bug's Life.
(We're ready to try anything.)
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6 comments:
Ugh, house centipedes are the worst! There was a giant colony of them living in one of my apartments in Chicago. It was enough to make me not want to go home sometimes.
I have no suggestions, other than focusing on the not-so-creepy bugs. I used to catch grasshoppers when I was little and watch them eat leaves. They grabbed the leaves with their front legs and I could watch their little jaws move. I thought it was cool - but maybe I was a weird kid. Well, I know was a weird kid and this *might* have been a manifestation of that.
Wy has bug vision too! I'm honestly shocked sometimes at the bugs he sees from so far away. I hope it works! I kinda wish Wy didn't like them. Cause I hate em. (I wanted to check your link, but thought better of it...I'll take your word for it!)
Bug's Life made Cy cry. Is it Antz or Bug's Life where the grasshoppers hold the baby ant in front of the crazy hungry grasshopper to threaten her mom or sister or something...Maybe Antz.
Ah bugs. They're everywhere.
I knew exactly what bug it was and clicked on the link anyways. Aaaaag! I am actually just creeped out looking at the picture.
I have to say...could you bring that box over here? I have some fears to put in there.
Oh, poor little J. It always feels so sad to me when my kiddos have fears and I can't just take them away. I guess it's a mother's urge to protect and shelter... hard to see them get so scared, and not really be able to help it go away.
As for the ugly creepy centipede things... EWWWW!!! I also knew exactly what you were talkiing about and clicked on the link anyway. HATE HATE HATE those things! Might as well curl up in a ball and join the fear fest when those come around, eh? yuck.
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