Fears

So I have recently discovered that Blakely is INCREDIBLY afraid of bugs, all kinds.  She basically panics when she sees one.  I was pretty surprised by this.  I am not scared of bugs at all.  Ok I am scared of caterpillars but that is about it.

The other morning she was playing in the living room by the window.  She loves putting her toys on the window sill and then knocking them all off.  I was in the kitchen when all of the sudden I hear a blood curdling scream.  It was so loud and unlike any scream I have heard from her.  I fully expected to walk in and find that she accidentally stabbed herself with a knife or something.  No.  She was backing away from the window with that scream face.  You know the one.  The one where their face is in a total scream but nothing is coming out but you know in about 3 seconds it is about to get really loud.  

I kept asking her what was wrong and she kept pointing to the window and saying bug.  It took me a minute to figure out what she was saying because I haven't ever heard her say bug and it sounds just like bird.  Anyway, I walk over to the window and sure enough there is a dead moth laying on the inside of the window sill.  I point to it and she becomes even more hysterical.  Then I pick it up just to make sure that is what is freaking her out so much and I thought she was going to combust.

Really?  This much of a freak out over a dead moth?  It took her a good 30 minutes to calm the heck down and it basically ruined her morning.  

Since then we have had multiple episodes about BUGS.  The weather has been great so we've been going outside to play as much as possible.  The caterpillars are AWFUL right now.  Big, fat, juicy, furry, slithery, disgusting caterpillars.  All over the driveway.  

I showed her the new beach chair I got her and then she spotted the caterpillar.....

She wouldn't get out of the chair and curled her legs up as tight as she could while it inched closer to her.  

You don't even want to know what happened when a fly landed on her tray during dinner.  OMG.  

This video is when I was trying to get her to come inside but she spotted a caterpillar by the door.  She would NOT come inside.  I started this video about 10 minutes into her freak mode.  You can see when she started to walk away from me that she looks down and stops mid scream.  I think she thought she saw another one.  LOL!  Crazy girl.  

I really have no clue why this started.  No one that watches her is freaked out by bugs and I've asked them all if something happened to make her scared.  They all say no.  How weird! It has gotten to the point where I have to walk away so she doesn't see me laughing!  It is so funny.  I feel bad because she is genuinely scared but I am not going to react to her freak outs about bugs.  I mean really.  We live in Arkansas.  Bugs are everywhere.  

Do your kids have any weird fears?  How do you handle it?  I would love some suggestions! Happy Friday!