fear

Last night, Isaac ran screaming into our room at 1:30 a.m. When we got him to calm down, all he could talk about was bees. Yes, the honey-making sort. Finnian has had a very real fear of bees recently. He has nightmares and becomes quite fearful when he thinks he hears buzzing outside. We've talked about how most creatures have something they can use to protect themselves, and bees have stingers. We talked about lions, tigers, bears, elephants. Somehow they are not scary. Probably because they don't live in our neighborhood. But bees' stingers? So, so scary. 

And now it seems, Isaac has learned this fear too. Poor little brother.

But when one fear enters, another one seems to leave. Finnian used to be terrified of swimming. He refused to put his face in the water and I had several wrestling matches with him on the pool deck, trying to get him to simply dip his feet in during his swimming lesson. 

Now, we're with a new swim teacher, new pool and the benefit of a little more age and experience. When he started with this new swim school just ten or so classes ago, he would not get his head wet and he clung to the teacher, asking her repeatedly if she was going to let him go or not. 

When I brought my camera to class last week, I couldn't even get a good photo of him in the pool, as he lives underwater now. He swam a few strokes (without any floaties) all by himself, he treads water and most importantly, he's confident in the water. It's so rewarding to see your child overcome a fear. 

And, it's so satisfying to see really fabulous teachers in action. 

Now if we could just do something about those bees...