Posts Tagged "playtime"

Fears Take Flight

Posted by wendy on Mar 30, 2010 | 1 comment

Every kid has fears.  My nieces used to be afraid of dogs.  Kieran is afraid of strangers and anyone who wants to come between him and his nursies.   I’m sure Lennon is afraid of something, but aside from tofu,I haven’t come across it yet (it’s certainly not heights, speed, animals or chocolate).  Most fears you can plan for, and usually get around or deal with somehow.

Then there’s Jack, whose fears depend on the direction of the wind and the mood of the gods.  Last week Jack loved the movie “Cars,” this week he’s terrified of the tractors.  One day he adores balloons, and the next (after an especially big one pops), they’re straight from hell.

Yesterday we made our last trip to the San Diego Zoo before our membership expires, and both big boys had been excited about riding on the double-decker tour bus.  The same one we’ve ridden on every visit.  Jack has even been building double-decker buses with his Little People vehicles and giving his little trains guided tours of the zoo he built in his room (especially Julia).  The entire 2 hours in the car he was all a-chatter about the lions and tigers and bus, oh my.

Then we approached the bus, and it happened.  It made “the sound.”

“I don’t love that sound.”

And that, as they say, was that.

He wouldn’t get on the bus.  He wouldn’t go near the bus.  He wouldn’t walk past a bus for fear we’d make him get on it.  And when it made “that sound” (the whoosh of exhaust as it departed), he stuck his fingers firmly in his ears and wouldn’t take them out until it was well out of sight.

He did, however, want to ride on the SkyWay.

Much less scary than a bus.

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Have you ever had to change your plans on a dime because of an unexpected fear?  Has your child ever jumped right into a new or unexpected situation?

An Update on Julia

Posted by wendy on Mar 13, 2010 | 0 comments

Julia is still sick today.  Evidently her doctor forgot to go the store we built to buy his medicine.

And they say we don’t need health care reform.

The Scary Movie

Posted by wendy on Mar 12, 2010 | 2 comments

We don’t need horror films in this house to have a child run screaming from the room.  Any given show or movie has a scary scene, especially those awful Pixar films.  Buzz Lightyear?  Screaming.  The cow-like tractors in Cars?  Frantic, panicked howling.

Of course, it’s not just the evil geniuses at Pixar who set the child into a tizzy.  Plex, the magic robot on Yo Gabba Gabba, Stepney the train on Thomas and Friends, any random dinosaur, shark, fuzzy bunny or monkey can be evil on any given day.  And if there’s any sort of menacing music… well, forget that.

Jack jumps up, belts from the room, runs around shrieking until we shut it off.  Of course, as this gets old super quick (and the other kids would kind of like to enjoy a complete show now and again), we often refuse.  He’ll then stop, and peek around the corner and watch from there.  Evidently the wall is a good buffer from the horrible Curious George or Elmo.  Occasionally he’ll make it back to the couch, but only grudgingly.

This behavior is pretty much an everyday occurance around here.  Unless Jack is really tired (which seems to really exacerbate things for him), it’s almost a game we play.  Let’s see how long we can watch *this* show before we have to switch to another one.  Kiddie TV roulette.

When it’s really bad, he asks to watch The Rachel Maddow show or Countdown with Keith Olbermann.

There’s always a silver lining.

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Is your child afraid of something really silly?  What crazy things have you done to accomodate them or work around it?

Julia the Male Train

Posted by wendy on Mar 12, 2010 | 1 comment

Jack has a black steam engine named Julia.  Julia is a boy, and today he was quite ill.  He required a visit from the doctor, who promptly put him in bed for some rest.  Jack’s bed.  With Jack’s blanket and Jack’s pillow.  At naptime.

Jack said he would have to build a store so the doctor could go buy some medicine for Julia to get better.  In the meantime, Julia had to rest.  Jack made himself a little bed on the floor and prepared to nap there (or at least lay down until I left the room, when he would promptly pop back up and commence the building).  I pointed out that Julia had his pillow.

“Oh,” he said.  “Well, I want the pillow.”

There was a time I questioned whether I would ever see my little boy express his imagination or play with his toys “appropriately.”  Pretend play seemed like a mountain so high we’d never get over it.  But one day his Little People started riding in their cars.  Then his blocks became castles.  One by one favorite toys got names, and then personalities.

Not so long ago I was trying to figure out how to explain the finer points of pretend play… today I was sent on a mission to find “wheels” for a tractor to take Julia’s doctor to the store he’s building.  Very specific wheels, but wheels.

Tiny victories.

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What is your favorite little victory?