scariness

Luke is a really tough kid. He's smacked his head various times throughout the past week without causing so much as a whimper. A chair leg, the edge of his drum, corner of his toy basket, the side of his crib. You name it, this kid's head has come into contact with it at some force over the past week or so. Each time, he rolls over gets up and keeps moving. I get more scared by the whole ordeal than he does.

Luke's weakness? A silly baseball toy that Keith and I got him for Christmas. He is absolutely petrified of the thing. Ever so often, I pull it out and I put him down next to it to see if his phobia has passed. I tried again on Sunday and this is what happened:

He tried to get away so fast that he pulled himself up onto the ottoman that helps corral him in the family room as he's crying and spazing out. He was shaking like a leaf, poor thing. The toy in question is the one that look like a t-ball stand behind Luke. I know Keith is watching the whole thing and I'm taking pictures, but we think its kind of hilarious. And in my defense, I think he has a cute booty. See?

Once Luke got up on the ottoman, we put him on the other side so he could see the toy in question and *hopefully* realize it isn't out to get him. He seemed relatively calm and stared carefully at it.

My parents always told me if you fall off a horse, you get up and get back on again. I thought the same analogy would apply to Luke and this particular situation. The more exposure he gets to they toy, the less scared he'll be of it. Right?

Wrong. He got away even quicker the second time. Maybe instead of learning the toy was harmless, he learned a much more effective and speedy route away because-Man!-he was out a lot quicker the second time.

So now the toy has been designated to a spot that assures me that Luke will not be escaping the confined space of our family room through the chair legs of our kitchen table chairs anytime soon. He plays with his toys closer to the couch and periodically shoots the look of death at the baseball toy. He refuses to go after a toy that comes within two feet of the thing. It's like the lost toy has crossed over to the dark side and is lost for good to him.

He always manages to keep things interesting.