Fun Fact

Every time Dylan goes down for a nap my phone rings and/or the dogs come near the bedroom window and start barking for no apparent reason. Every time. Every single time. Without fail.

It must be a cosmic joke.

Thoughts on Fear & Halloween

I use to wonder if fear was inherent or learned. Halloween gave me some insight on this matter. 

I like apparently everyone else in the country, made the awful mistake of going to Party City the day before Halloween. You see, I was having a little party the next day and I needed to get just a couple more things. I took Dylan, of course (my wingman) and we headed out. Usually Dylan loves shopping... he seems fascinated with people, he loves the inevitable attention he receives and, like his mama, he enjoys exploring anyplace he hasn't been before. Party City the day before Halloween, I later found out, would be the exception. Granted, I went kinda later into the evening (Dylan has a smaller threshold when nearing bedtime) but he started out just fine. When we walked into the store the lines and the sheer number of the people was a little overwhelming but again so far, so good. As we made our way down the chaotic iles more and more creepy Halloween items began to appear. Dylan looked on with intrigued concern and began to wince and grimace a little bit. I comforted him and tried to brief him on this pretty weird holiday but he seemed uneasy. When we made our way to the last ile I unknowingly placed his stroller infront of the scary mask section while I hastily looked over the butterfly and angel wings. The next thing that happened confirmed my belief that some fears are inherent. Dylan let out this earth-shattering scream/cry, the likes of which I have never heard from him before or since. I looked down to see what happened and saw that he was looking at the creepy masks (Jason masks, zombie masks, devil masks etc... all of which were indeed horrifying) I had to quickly rush him to the kids party section where he was relieved to see the smiling faces of Elmo and other super heros. Luckily he recovered quickly and was smiling again in line as some young girl cooed over him. Later that evening while I was getting ready for the party I put on my black wig and dark eyelashes. Dylan would look at me and then hide his face, the way he does while looking at strangers. He seemed creeped out again and didn't like it. Moments later he crawled over to the edge of the bed and hung upside down with a giant smile on his face, which is ironically the scariest thing I have ever seen.

Moral of the story: some fears seem inherent... like terrifying murderous masks 

and others, like heights, appear to be learnt.