Botanophobia

Nolan has been battling some interesting "quirks" in his toddler years. An example of his "quirks":

• A fear of balloons
• A fear of puppets
  
• A fear of plants

The fear of balloons is a very interesting one- he is fine as long as the balloon doesn't actually move. If a breeze catches his balloon, he assumes that it is both alive and hungry, and possibly wants to consume him. The ensuing panic is something that has to be witnessed to get an idea of his level of terror. This terror is surpassed if the balloon is in the car, in which case it becomes the "floating head of death" and Nolan nearly has a heart attack trying to escape his car seat. As a consequence, we don't often get balloons in this household.

Puppets rate somewhere between balloons and plants- fearsome when inert, but absolutely terrifying if animated by an unassuming adult. We're working on these fears, and making some headway. Nolan actually "pet" a puppet in motion today, so he's gaining some courage in this area. He also held a balloon even when it was moving in the breeze the other day.

The one fear we have not been able to overcome is his fear of plants. I thought it might be called "herbiphobia," but Google claims it is "botanophobia."

Yes, he's blowing the dandelion. But he made me hold it.

Whatever- all I know is the kid freaks out over flowers. And grass. Or any other piece of vegetation which strays in Nolan's path. It is as if every plant is a "Nolan-fly-trap" and he is going to be hurt by it. It used to be a little comical, watching our boy get stopped in his tracks by a single blade of grass. Now we are really working on getting him to do something really brave. You know, like hold a flower.

Nolan's typical reaction to flowers.

We still haven't made much progress on the flower holding front, but Matt has been a big help in showing Nolan that plants are not harmful. Nolan likes to follow Matt into the woods, and inevitably starts screaming, "My STUCK!" because the only way out of the woods involves going past some stray grass and weeds. Matt, being the awesome big brother he is, went in for the rescue this morning.

Thank goodness you're here!

You go first, I'll follow.

We just might survive the asters, this time.

Little Nolan will get a reprieve soon- the snow will kill off all those conniving flowers. Hopefully his fear of plants will disappear before next spring arrives. I don't look forward to tulip desensitization if it doesn't!