Rhinoceros Knock On Our Door?

Our collection of books is extensive ... fiction and non-fiction alike.  Recently, Natalie has shown a lot of interest in a book called Mammals.  Sounds educational and delightful, right?  One animal in particular has caught her attention ... and caused great concern ... 

Upon seeing the photos of this admittedly unattractive animal and asking, "Watts dat aneemal called?" she developed a concern that a rhinoceros would come to our house.  Daddy assured her that wouldn't happen.  He even got a globe and showed her where we live and where most rhinoceroses live.  I am fairly certain that concept went way over her head, but it was a good effort.

Over the next few days, Natalie continued to ask, with a certain about of fear in her voice, "R-eye-nos-ris come to our how-se?"  And we assured her that wouldn't happen.  Somehow she even got the idea that a rhino would knock on our door ... I am guessing it would be more likely that a rhino would knock down our door, but whatever.  She now says, "R-eye-nos-ris no knock on our door?"

This little story takes a bit of a turn ...

Natalie has been jumping on the couch lately, and none of our discipline tactics are curbing her enthusiasm for the joy of the jump.  Time outs are hilarious ... she puts herself in time out, sits there all proud and triumphant, says she's sorry and tells us that she loves us.  And, well, we just don't have the extra energy right now to develop a new discipline strategy ... which has led to some serious improvisation.

Which takes us back to the Rhinoceros ...

As Natalie rebelliously jumped on the couch, Chad requested that she stop several times and told her she would be in trouble.  Our two year old did little more than ignore him ... until ... daddy upped the ante a bit and said, "Natalie, did you know that a rhinoceros scoops up little boys and girls who jump on couches?"

Her reaction was immediate.  She stopped jumping and starting making sure that "a r-eye-nos-ris no knock on our door."  For the next two days, Natalie did not even think about jumping on the couch.   It seemed CPV had found our new strategy ... or not ...

We've also discovered that Natalie doesn't want to play in the front room, nearest the door, anymore.  She doesn't even want to run laps from the kitchen to the living room to the dining room because that path leads her too near the door ... the door that she fears a rhinoceros will knock on!  And she doesn't want to sit at her seat for dinner because it puts her back to the door.  We have assured her over and over again that a rhinoceros will not knock on our door.  That rhinoceros only live at the zoo in cages or far away from our house.

It is so sad to see her so afraid ... illogically afraid ... but very much afraid nonetheless.  We are continuing to reassure her, and hopefully her parents are learning from our mistakes ;)