Facing His Fears

I've noticed lately that Evan has been facing his fears. I don't know what clicked in his brain, but everything that used to scare him (and I mean, really frightened him!), he is insisting on checking out.

Last year around Halloween time, QFC had one of those animated witches set up by the florist department. Evan hated going in there and we had to avoid that entrance. I totally understand - it's really scary for a little one! The same witch is now displayed at Fred Meyer - where we shop every weekend. Now, Evan holds my hand and asks to walk by the scary witch. As we shop around, he keeps asking, "Where's the scary witch? Can we walk by her?"

The first Diego episode Evan ever watched was a special 1-hour long episode that had a witch that was really a mosquito that landed on a magic wand. She was cruel to the animals and she turned elephants to stone, took away the zebras' stripes, etc. Evan was so afraid of this witch, it took him about a year to try out another Diego episode (the regular episodes are much tamer and he absolutely loves them!) However, a few days ago, he asked to watch the episode with the witch. He made it through the show and I think he was proud of himself for not being afraid. He has now asked to watch it again after his nap today.

He's also started watching movies like Monsters, Inc. and Lion King. We skip the scary parts, but he sometimes insists on watching those too.

Costco has a big inflatable Halloween display set up. Evan insists on walking around it to see the "scary car wash". I looked at it from the back and thought, Yeah, it kinda looked like a scary car wash. It had a frame and streamers hanging down it like a car wash. When we got to the front, I realized it was not a scary car wash, but the gates of hell. Okaaaayyy... But Evan calls it the scary car wash and wants to check it out at every visit.

Now there are two other fears that I'm not pushing him on. One is a tiger. I think one of his most vivid nightmares was of a tiger in his room. Whenever he has a rocky night of sleep, he says the tiger came back. This hasn't happened in a while, but I'm not going to go there. The other thing he's afraid of is thunder. Sadly, I think our warm days are over... but that also means no more thunderstorms! We talk about this a lot - everytime it rains, so A LOT! He always asks if there will be thunder when it starts raining. And then we talk about how Poki is afraid of thunder too. I think that makes him feel better.

So, the little guy is growing up so fast. I'm really proud of how brave he is and wow, what a change in just a year!