Courage

One of JW's biggest challenges in this, his fourth year, has been overcoming fears and anxieties. Suddenly, he has been afraid of various things with a very real and potent terror.

It started soon after he turned 3, when he saw an episode of Scooby-Doo (which he'd watched before and enjoyed), and the villain was a "fire monster." After that, he became our family's fire marshal: he needed to know the location of every smoke detector and fire extinguisher in the house, how we would escape if there was a fire, and every time we cooked, he checked with us to make sure the stove and/or microwave weren't TOO hot or on fire.

Since then, we have dealt with monsters, dinosaurs, aliens, thunder, the dark, the hot tub in our new backyard, and various other potentially scary creatures and ideas. But over this year, JW has also decided on his own when exactly he was ready to move past those fears. Occasionally, he'll randomly say, "Mama, I used to be afraid of X, but now I know it's not real." Or, my favorite, he asserts, "Mama, I'm brave now!" He watches Monsters Inc. and laughs, reads books about T-rex while pointing out how sharp his teeth are, and sits with us in the hot tub, just chillin'.

Just like Dorothy's leonine companion, I think JW gradually discovers that the courage he needed was really there all along. (backdated 2/23/2006)