phobia development - and an update (3y4m+)

Over the past five or six months, Leona has developed a phobia of animals. Before we left for Taiwan last year, we were taking a walk, with Leona in the stroller, and came upon three horses that had broken out of their pen, wandering around by the side of the road and eating flowers in people's gardens.

I pushed the stroller over to them so that Leona could get a closer look, and they walked over to us. Leona was strapped in the stroller and unable to get away (not that she tried, but still), and one got right into her face. She didn't stick her hand out to pet it, but she also didn't seem nervous about it. It was I who was a bit nervous and maneuvered her away after first failing to - gently - push the horse's face out of her personal space.

Fast forward to the last few months, where if we are outside and a cat or dog starts coming towards us, she freaks out. If it gets really too close she will start crying/screaming out loudly - unless I am crouching down holding her with my body between her and the animal. Then she still says 'nononono' and tries to burrow into me, but not the terror of if I am not there.

Thinking about it, I realized it is perhaps us who have sowed the phobia seed in her, explaining that it is best not to touch a dog or cat if the owner is not there, because we do not know the animal and how it relates to us - some animals may bite or scratch (and the neighbor's cat, that we have fed for a stretch of days a couple times when the neighbors have been away, or been around when visiting with them, is such a cat - not very kid friendly ... ok with the girls being close to it, but not necessarily petting it to a big degree).

And the dogs around here that go off-leash are quite energetic and friendly - the 6 year old that lives in our basement apartment often walks a dog, and it has run up to Leona several times, as had the neighbor's kid's dog a couple times when the kid (25 years old or so?) has been home. These dogs aren't big...but neither is Leona, so thinking about it the 'Lassy' dog is like a 'Beethoven' for Leona. That'd be pretty intimidating. So I understand the phobic development.

I want to try to undo some of the fear, and the first step I came up with is to borrow some kids books at the library where a kid has a dog that is a good friend or something, and talk more with her about it. I think being cautious around unfamiliar animals is important, especially for her who is so small, but I want to try and take the edge off the fear at least, so it doesn't keep developing into a full fledged terror.

I also thought about step two being to maybe ask if anyone in the village has a dog that is mellow and super kid friendly, and then go visit them so that she gets exposure to a dog she could be comfortable around after a while, but then again, there's no rush really. Just getting the edge off is enough for now.

In other news.

A few fun words Leona's been focused on or that she says awesomely:

• Differentiating between the pronunciation of pajamas and vagina when she says these words (beejana and bejaina).
• Differentiating between 'peanuts' and 'penis' (this is an old one, but still valid as being words she concentrates on to make sure she says them different)
• Kitchen and chicken. With this one she doesn't try to say them different - they are both chicken. I am now so used to her saying 'chicken' for 'kitchen' that I catch myself not noticing that she says it wrong.
• Beads and seeds. She says 'plastic seeds' (those small plastic beads you can make designs with and then iron...if you want to iron them) and 'sunflower beads' (sunflower seeds).
• Candle and handle (she uses 'handle' for both)
• Cahtupu (computer)
• Tebeh (tablet...as in Judge's transformer-tablet)
• Pesteh (toothpaste)
• Maybe (definitely)
• Doditi (dirty)
• Memer (remember)

She has also started to really get into playing with her train-sets, and loves loves LOVES to play with Eliana. Not all the time of course, but especially upstairs in the bedroom before bed, as well as tons of other times. They are turning into great partners in crime - caught them munching on crispy onions together from the box of said 'treat' that Leona had climbed up onto a table to get down for them.

[Eliana the destroyer in the middle...]

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