It seems Buby has developed a funny fear of tigers. Yes, tigers. We're not sure how it happened, but it keeps popping up in daily life.
Case 1: Buby and I were driving on a bridge over a wooded area. It's a route we've taken dozens of times. Staring out his window he yelled "BUBY NO FALL DOWN THERE!" I reassured him I was driving safely on the road and he would not fall down there. Then I asked him why he was thinking about that. He said, "TIGERS DOWN THERE. TIGERS EAT ME." Oh, okay. Random. I explained that there were no tigers... they are beautiful animals, but they live in zoos or in the wild. There is nothing to fear.
Case 2: The next night he woke up out of a deep sleep screaming. Buby never has nightmares, so we sprinted to his side. Buby claimed he saw tigers. They were trying to get him. Again, we reassured our little guy there was nothing to be scared of. We showed him pictures of Tiger in his Winnie the Poo collection. He fell back asleep. But he has since had 2 more mini tiger traumas at night.
Case 3: A few days later, Buby hung Mike & John {his hometown hero figurines} from the back of his dump truck while we were playing cars. They looked hilarious hanging by their hands like mountain climbers. I asked, "Hey Buby, what are Mike & John doing?" He replied, "HANGING ON SO TIGERS WON'T GET THEM!" What?
Case 4: This morning I showed Buby a beautiful image of a tiger, and he responded "TIGERS SCARY, TIGERS BITE!" Then he piled all of his Little People into the highest tower of his parking garage and said, "DON'T WORRY MICHAEL, DON'T WORRY SONYA LEE. TIGERS WON'T GET YOU. IT'LL BE OKAY." Wow. Who told him this? We certainly never did. I've seen every book, moving image, and real-life tiger Buby has seen. We briefly passed by tigers at the Bronx Zoo in July, and we saw them again in Florida in early October, but he wasn't at all frightened. We might have said, "Don't put your fingers in the cage.. tigers can bite." But that would've come after lots of oohing and aahing at the creature's beauty. The baby tigers were adorable! The same day we got very close to an alligator in a boat, so I doubt he cared much about the tiger. And it was a full 2 months later before his first nightmare. Anyway, I'll keep wondering what started it all. And by the time I figure it out, he'll be over it.
artwork: dkimages
2 comments:
I know what NOT to get him for Christmas...or maybe a cute, stuffed tiger that he could cuddle would help? That's so strange! One of Reagan's friends just started the fear of monsters and darkness. They're not sure how that popped up, either.
Oh no! I can't believe he's so afraid of tigers. Poor Buby. Wonder what could have happened to him with tigers. They have such wild imaginations, don't they?
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