Axel has been a pretty tough kid. Too tough, sometimes. He does not agree that jumping off of the concrete porch steps might be dangerous. He does not think that , as a general rule of safety and cleanliness, one should not stand on top of the kitchen table.
There are signs that this may be changing. He's developing new fears. If these fears related to things that were actually dangerous, like running into the street full speed ahead, I wouldn't mind. Unfortunately, Axel still thinks climbing onto our high bed and laughing hysterically while he jumps just inches from the edge is a good idea. It's lawnmowers he doesn't like.
Yes, lawnmowers. The child who never met a tractor he didn't want to try to give a high five is now scared of a piece of heavy machinery that looks like the nephew of a tractor to me.
It all started during an early morning trip to our local park, when one of the three industrial ride-on mowers making the rounds passed close to us and its engine backfired. Axel jumped and ran over to grab my leg. The mower backfired again a few minutes later, making Axel sob and demand to be picked up. I hugged him and told him the mowers were fixing up the park so we could play in it, just like his dad mows the lawn at home. He stared warily at the mowers, commanding them to stay back, a hint of desperation in his voice. The next time we went to the same park, the mowers were there again, and though they didn't backfire, Axel wanted me to hold him - and again told the mowers "Back! Back! Back!"
This fear of ride-on mowers has not resulted in fear of any other kind of mower - not our own small push mower, or the motorized mowers of our neighbors, or distant lawnmower relatives like bulldozers and dumptrucks.
His other current fear: dogs. He's not afraid of our dog, Angus, though he has been pretty forceful commanding Angus to back up when there's any food around, which is wise after several heartbreaking muffin thefts on the part of Gus. It's other dogs, especially black dogs, that's he's unsure about. All this is because of a scary experience with my parents' dog, a yappy little cocker. Sammi is a good dog, when she's the only dog or lap-loving being in the room, but not such a good dog when there are other dogs or small people around. She sees Axel as competition.
She's usually locked up when he's around, but one morning, Sammi was curled up under a chair. Sean pulled out the chair, and Sammi barked and snapped - right in Axel's face. Sean quickly scooped Axel up off the floor, and Sammi was banished to the basement. Axel wasn't even touched by Sammi, but it was enough to frighten him, and now he thinks all black dogs, even bumbling labs who never met a person they didn't want to smother in kisses, are possible threats. He tenses up when he sees them, runs behind my legs, and sometimes even cries, though he'll eventually warm up and wave at them from a few feet away.
What I'd like to do is take his fears and chanel them into a little healthy caution about high places and traffic. I don't want him to be frozen up in fright, but I certainly wouldn't argue with a little more concern for the state of his own skull.
