Lilly is 17 months now, and she’s going through a funny little phase.
In some areas of life, she’s brave as an ox, in others she’s a right little scaredy cat!
It started a month of so ago when she developed a sudden fear of small insects, and it happened instantly. There was a tiny fly on her window near the changing table, and one minute we were pointing at it and laughing. Next thing, she’s shuddering and clenching her fists and wanting to get out of there… fast!
A few days later we were outside in the garden. She spots an ant on the pavement. There is an all-out meltdown of fear. Our next encounter of an ant goes a little better, but it still stops Lilly in her tracks and means we cannot complete our journey down the garden path without Lilly being picked up and carried over the offending creature.
I made my mind up that we’d have to try and nip it in the bud. Next time we saw an ant, in Nanna’s garden, I made a big deal of pointing it out and saying what a funny little ant he was and talking all excitedly about what he was up to. After a few minutes, it worked. Lilly started pointing and laughing and soon we had a complete turnaround. Since then, she has been rather obsessed by ants and now we have to stop and look at them whenever one crosses our path!
A couple of weeks later, we went out with Grannie to a farm shop type place near Ormskirk. There were loads of peacocks roaming around, and, as it was mating season, lots of male birds with their lovely feathers out on display.
At first, Lilly thought they were wonderful and couldn’t stop giggling. She went racing over to one of them, pointing excitedly. But then it started to call – SQUARK SQUARK SQUARK SQUAAAAARRRRRKKKKK. Lilly was inconsolable! (Mind you, I can understand it, it took me by surprise… and did you know they kind of vibrate really violently when they’re trying to atttract a female… odd!)
After that she had a curious fascination with them… running up to them just close enough to let herself get scared and then running back to us again.
There are lots of other things she gets frightened of now. Motorbikes, unexpected noises, things on TV, the hairdryer.
But on the the flip side, she still shows no fear in the face of things that are, actually, a bit scary.
When we went to visit my uncle and aunt, she never flinched when their two big dogs were barking right at her… she thought it was hiliarious. On our recent holiday, she wasn’t one bit worried about splashing around in the waves in the sea. When we go to soft play places she isn’t bothered by the bigger kids who go flying past her head seemingly every two minutes (that terrifies me!)
It’s a funny development phase but a neccessary one. I suppose she’s testing out the boundaries and experimenting with new situations.
It must be quite a baffling life being 17 months old!
