Conquering Your Fears

For awhile now, Alex has been absolutely terrified of the vacuum cleaner. It's strange, really. I've been vacuuming every other day since he was six months old so you'd think that he would be used to hearing that thing fire up. He wasn't originally scared of it, but after about a year, he decided that it was, in fact, a horrifying, toe-eating monstrosity that was created for the sole purpose of destroying his evening. And believe me, he could hear the click of the wheel when I popped it into it's rolling position from across the span of the house. He would then promptly scurry for what I like to call his 'base'. It didn't matter where he was in the house or where I was vacuuming. His only acceptable safe-haven from the dreaded vacuum was the couch. So for at least two years he's avoided the vacuum at all costs. Slowly over the past month, he's inched his way off of the couch onto the floor at the same time as it was running. I'm proud to say that as of this week, he no longer fears the vacuum. He merrily grabs his pretend vacuum and follows me around the house to 'help' me. It's so interesting to see this kiddo conquer a fear. I'm hoping that Abby will follow close in his footsteps and conquer her fear of other human lifeforms. It'd be nice to not have to pry her fingers from my hair every single time a new person makes eye contact with her. I won't rush it though. She won't want me to hold her hand for the rest of her life and I'm trying to cherish it while she still needs me so much. Even when it annoys me, I know that I'll miss it when it's gone.