Afraid of Clouds

Turns out Audree is now afraid of clouds...that may lead to rain...that may have thunder and lightning. I hope this is a short-lived fear.

We were walking home today and she was in a mood to begin with. Didn't want to walk, didn't want to hold hands, until finally she did the I'm-not-going-to-move-and-you-can't-make-me thing that kids love to do. If I walked away, she screamed, alerting the entire neighbourhood to my parenting techniques (or lack thereof!). Until finally (and this was before I realized her fear) to try to get her moving I looked at the few clouds in the sky and said "I sure hope it doesn't rain on us" thinking that she wouldn't want to get wet.

Well, she starts a screaming, mad dash home. Unfortunately I had Lucienne in the stroller and two other kids walking so catching her was not a real option. My girls have always been fantastic about stopping when the sidewalk ends and waiting for me to catch up to cross together. Turns out when she's in a panic run she doesn't think about this. Luckily, one of my neighbours was out and caught her as she went to run across the street. Again, feeling like a stellar mother I caught up and we crossed together only to have her run like mad home (luckily no more street crossings needed). When I caught up again I found her crying and banging on the door with both fists screaming "let me in, let me in, let me in...". I got everyone in and she's standing in the middle of the livingroom still bawling and shaking saying she's cold and needs a blanket (this is in 30 degree weather).

She had a panic attack. It was so sad.

I know it's from a fantastically loud storm we had a few weeks back. We were just getting out of the car when thunder literally shook the ground. It must have been right over top of us. It startled me but completely scared her. When I told Rene this story he said he had tried to console her by saying that as long as she was in the house she didn't need to be scared of the storm.

Her fear of ladybugs only lasted a few months so I hope this one peters out too.