Holy Scary Lamp, Batman!

Punky and I made the long drive home Thursday night to spend a four-day holiday weekend with family.  I considered waiting till Friday morning because I also had to travel for work on Thursday, but I had a dentist appointment scheduled in the morning, plus a hair appointment in the afternoon, so I made the trip at night.  It added up to over ten hours of driving...one hell of a long day.

We spent much of the weekend with my sister, of course.  I have a brand new neice to snuggle and spoil after all.  Just why is it that babies' heads always smell so damn incredible?  Seriously.  They oughta bottle that scent.  I want one of those silly car air-freshener tree things in that scent.  New car smell has nothing on new baby head smell.

During our first visit, Punky seemed to care less that I was holding and coddling another baby, but she developed a touch of jealousy as the weekend progressed.  It was so hard to imagine that she was once even smaller than her new cousin.  Holding my neice made me really miss those teeny-tiny baby days, but it also made me remember the stress and worry and sleepless nights.  To my sister's dismay, it didn't make me want another baby.  It actually reinforced the argument to not have more.

I don't know if I want to go through it all again.  Punky is seventeen months now, and although she's been sleeping through the night for about fourteen of them, I still don't.  I'm up at least once, if not two or three times, to check on her through the night.  Even though the risk of SIDS barely exists at her age, I still put my hand on her chest to make sure she's breathing.  I worry about choking with every bite she takes.  I worry about the falls, the head bangs, the illnesses...all of the dangers lurking in her world.  It's getting a bit easier as she gets older.  I don't know if I could handle going back to square one and starting all over.  

Anyway, Punky had some fun playing with my nephew this weekend.  He found it absolutely hysterical that almost everything he did made Punky absolutely hysterical.  They ran around in circles, chasing each other from room to room and giggling non-stop.  Until he showed her Batman.  The giggles turned to cries and my child was terrified.

Since his new sister got the baby animal lamp that was previously in his room, they bought him a new big boy lamp.  Batman.  A caped figurine posed in front of the Gotham city skyline.  When the lamp is first turned on, a fan blows the cape around and loud Batman music blares.  The effects last only about thirty seconds, but that was thirty seconds too long for Punky.  

Aside from her previous fear of grass, she's never been afraid of any object...no matter how loud.  The louder, the better.  Moving parts?  All the more interesting.  I have no clue why this silly lamp scared the crap out of her, but she made it very clear that she did not like it.  Not one bit.

My nephew used to be afraid of a silly singing flower.  I had to hide it in the closet whenever he would visit.  I guess this is Punky's equivalent.  Holy scary lamp, Batman!