Browsing Tag

bat and wobble penguin

kids inc

Monsters are under my bed

Boo

Boo

Watching a kid grow up, you don’t really notice the small changes that take place, like how they start to understand you when you say certain words, or the glint in his eye that has developed into full-blown mischief. I have to fight the tendency to baby him and give him the space to explore and grow, which is a lot harder than it sounds.

Soon, he’ll be a big boy and that will be the end of my snuggles and smothering kisses. Sometimes, I wish he’d be a baby forever. Or I could just keep having more to replace the ones that are all grown up.

Recently, I’ve noticed that Tru’s been having all sorts of irrational fears. I think he’s beginning to understand that some stuff are pretty scary and not so fun. It all started with this yellow duck puppet that he used to love. Then one day, he decided it didn’t look so friendly and he was terrified of it. And of course there’s the B-A-W Penguin. Which I saw him trying to stab with a spoon.

Just last week he was having fun at the nursery playgroup when he stopped dead in his tracks and crawled back to my arms faster than you can say “scary purple lamb attack”. Apparently he saw a life-sized lamb plushie/riding thing that was all green and purple and it really scared him. Granted, the lamb looked pretty bizarre, but I’m sure just a month back, he would have smacked it on the head and moved on.

Then the most surprising one happened during bath time at my mom’s house. I kinda lost his bath tub (it’s a long story) so I decided to improvise and made him sit in his Bumbo chair while I showered him with the shower spray. He used to love being sprayed with water during his bath, but he suddenly decided that he didn’t like it anymore. Now every time he sees the Bumbo in the washroom, he screams bloody murder like it’s some ancient torture chamber.

So it’s quite a dilemma. I have this urge to make him confront his fears to show him that it’s really irrational. Ducks and penguins and lambs aren’t scary. Ok, the shower incident, I’ll give it to him (remind me to get a new tub ASAP). But the rest of the stuff ain’t gonna hurt him and I want him to grow up without any of these irrational fears.

Although I know if I push him too hard now, it might just backfire and he’ll end up with a whole new set of issues. So I’m trying to talk some sense into him, and somehow help him to overcome his fears. This is probably just the start though, and the list is only going to get longer. Soon there’ll be monsters under the bed or ghosts in the closet or a whole host of scary-looking animals.

Maybe I’ll buy him a lightsaber. Who knows, it might help.

kids inc

Revenge of the penguin

Tru got a ton of new toys for his birthday and like all kids, he had a blast ripping them all open. I think he was more interested in opening the presents than actually playing with them. We decided to ration his toys so that he’d be able to have a “new toy” every week rather than have a whole bunch of stuff he’ll spend all of 3 minutes on and then chuck away.

The first toy to make it to the play-list was this Bat and Wobble Penguin that wobbles around and bounces back after its hit. I thought it was really cute since it’s about the same size as him and they could be like best friends.

Bat and Wobble Penguin

But apparently Tru HATES it. He smacked it once and it bounced right back and hit him in the face. After that, he decided that penguins are malevolent and should be avoided at all costs. It’s the second time I’ve seen him afraid of something (the first one was a duck puppet – I told you birds are evil) and it actually is hilarious. I feel totally evil for having so much fun at his expense, but I spent the better part of the afternoon terrorizing him with the nefarious penguin.

I managed to capture some of it down on vid. Have fun. Oh yah, turn up the sound will you?

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AfUaXhke3Jg