Scary Shadows

A few weeks ago Blaine experienced his first real fear. We had been watching Daniel Tiger (of all safe things) and there was a part where Daniel sees a big shadow on the wall that scares him, but it turns out just to be his mommy. Neither of the boys had acted scared of affected at the time, but I had noticed Blaine watching very intently as I thought back later.

Later we were getting ready for naps and Blaine kept saying "scawy show-a". I was thinking he was saying scary shower and I kept reassuring him that showers are fine, although I was puzzled since it was random and they never take showers. Finally Pierce repeated him and I understood Blaine had been saying scary shadow. I quickly put everything together and did my best to explain that Daniel had just seen his mommy and that shadows weren't scary at all. I told him that they come from the sunshine and that we can even make little shadow puppets with our hands. I was trying to think of everything I could to make them seem harmless. So I put them down and went about a normal naptime. They chatted in their for a bit, but after awhile Blaine started crying hard. I figured he must have lost his paci or something and quickly went back in. He was standing up sobbing and talking about the scary shadows again. He broke my heart! I called BJ to see what he thought. I knew Blaine was tired, but I knew he would probably be scared no matter what. So I ended up with the idea of having him sleep in our bed where it was lighter and different. I could see how exhausted he was. So I layed him on my propped pillow and cracked the door. He didn't protest and within minutes was fast asleep right where I had layed him. It was precious!

Bedtime wasn't too bad that night and ever since then he talks about them quite a bit, but takes himself through the whole spiel that goes something like this... "No scawy shadows. Come su-shine. Make puppets." I'm so proud of him for being brave!