Several posts have documented Punky's utter fearlessness.
She runs, jumps, climbs, rolls... She still stands on her rocking horse and I have to admit she has great balance. It's been a long time since she dumped it and I've stopped stressing over it. She learned to put the throw pillows on the floor so she can jump off the couch and have a soft, cushy landing instead of making an ouchie. I thought that was some complex problem solving for a fourteen month old. She still tries to climb on everything and remains undeterred when chairs and stools tip over on her. She loves to play rough and wrestle.
She touches...everything. No objects scare her. She's not afraid or leery of new stuff in her environment. Not even loud, noisy things. She'd be thrilled if we could find a way to strap her to the vacuum so she could just ride it around instead of chasing after it.
All that being said, let's take a walk down memory lane to last summer, shall we?
The day she turned six months, I put a blanket on the grass and took some beautiful pictures of her outside. She was smiling, happy, and content. A few weeks later, I tried to put her on a blanket on the grass at a cookout and it didn't go well. She was fine for a few minutes, but once she crawled to the edge and felt the grass she burst into tears. She was afraid of grass...of all things.
Throughout the summer, I repeatedly tried to get her used to it but failed miserably. When I attempted to put her down to stand in it, she'd lift her feet up so they wouldn't touch the ground. She'd cry if I tried to put some in her hand so she could touch it. Resting on a blanket only lasted as long as it took her to reach an edge.
It was kind of comical and not really a big deal. After all, she was just a little baby. Next summer will be different when she's older and running around...
After work yesterday, I took Punky out for her first ride on the tricycle Santa brought (but didn't assemble until last week). It has a high handle in the back so it's easy for parents to push, and it has bars and straps to hold baby in place. It converts to a regular tricycle once she's old enough.
Anyway, when we returned home I thought it would be fun to run around the yard with her for a while. I had forgotten all about last year's grass fiasco and didn't give it a thought as I put her down in the yard. It only took ten seconds for it all to come back to me...
She was not impressed. Not one teeny bit. She immediately put her arms in the air. "Up! Up!" She sounded so pitiful, so scared, and when I didn't pick her up quickly enough the tears started.
I tried to reason with her...as much as you can reason with a fourteen month old anyhow. I tried again to show her it was nothing to be afraid of and held up a handful for her to touch. I knelt down with her and ran my fingertips through it. I tried explaining it in words she's familiar with... "The grass is nice! It's so soft! Mama loves the grass! What color is it? It's green!"
So much for my motivational speech; Punky wasn't persuaded in the least. A new summer is only weeks away and my little peanut is afraid of grass yet again. And I have no clue how to fix it.
She did, however, thoroughly enjoy sitting in the stone-filled driveway licking random rocks and smearing mud on her hands and face. Apparently rocks and mud aren't scary like tiny blades of grass. Imagine that.
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