Thursday, March 19, 2009

Growing Up and Elmo Fears

I've been away from this for far too long. Recompete drama, a huge addition in workload (dealing with PETA, ugh), multiple illnesses (Sasha's having more ear/sinus infection problems and recurrent pink eye), and finally getting a project done I promised the KBTF have had me tied up.

  • But the proposal is in.
  • PETA, well I have special "colorful" words for PETA that I cannot say pretty much ever.
  • Sasha's finished his meds again and hopefully won't need new ones.
  • And I sent in the package to the Foundation.

But Sasha is doing well now and is seeming more and more "boy" and less "baby" every day. Unfortunately, he's starting to smell like a boy, rather than a baby. But there are many, many good things about his development out of babyhood. One is his ability to express what is wrong and what we can do to fix it.


Last night I thought I was going to give him a great surprise. You see, he's become extremely enamoured with Elmo. He thinks Elmo is very funny and insightful and lovable. His Nana got him Pick-Me-Up Elmo and Elmo is hauled around and all are commanded by Sasha to give him hugs and kisses etc. He has seen Elmo clips on You Tube and they have him in fits of laughter. So I thought I'd get him an Elmo for home too. But one a little more cuddly and small than those giant, hard Elmos that laugh, tell jokes, or do the chicken dance.

So I got this.

Smaller, softer, and I thought less creepy and demanding.

Unfortunately, Sasha did not agree with me on the "less creepy" points. This Elmo is like a South Park Canadian in the cranial area and it freaks him out. He told me so by saying "Elmo, mouth." over and over while crying and trying to hide from Elmo.

So, I put it in a box in the closet (to be pulled out later when I thought he'd be over it) and told him Elmo had gone away and wouldn’t bother him anymore. Elmo was gone.

Unfortunately, I had bad timing.

You see, Hubby had just left with the dogs for a walk and had just told Sasha he was going to "go away" for a little while.

He re-freaked out, but I didn't make the connection. I asked what was wrong and I was actually, surprisingly, given an explaination. Not something I'm used to.

"Daddy go 'way. Kerry go 'way." sniff, sniff, sniff "Elmo go 'way" Sniff, sniff, sniff "Daddy, Kerry all gone!!!!"

Insert hysterical bawling here (notice no mention of the Hound? Yeah, she tries to avoid Sasha so he's not that attached to her right now).

I didn't realize he was able to make those leaps of logic and abstract language connections yet. Poor child thought his Father and dog had disappeared forever to the land of Scary Elmos...never to be seen again. I can't imagine how upsetting that would be.
Thankfully, I was able to explain that they'd be back. They weren't all gone. Only Elmo was all gone.

And then distract him with happier things.

Oh, the joy when the walk was over and everyone came back...and enter in a new concept to his mind. The concept of "be back". A good one for him to have. One to make him feel safer. One we can use now to allay panic when we leave him.

1 comment:

caramama said...

This is part of why I love this age. The ability to communicate what is wrong is soooooo good to have and be able to receive. Also, those cognitive leaps constantly amazing me!

I'm glad things seem to be calming down. I hope Sasha is all better from the sicknesses and that they won't be back. Maybe they'll go to the land of the Scary Elmos also.