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Thursday, December 31, 2009

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 ;)

9 comments:

Oliver'sMom said...

Ok, I'm seriously laughing so hard right now that I'm crying! So sad for poor little N, but I have so "been there done that" with that very same issue! Thanks for making my night, and Happy New Year!

Lisa said...

I'm with Olivers mom! I'm sorry for the baby girl but that's funny. It is weird how they will latch onto something and it will terrify them.
Rhinos are UGLY!

Yall might not wanna take her to the zoo until this is over....she will then know they live closer than dad said.

Janelle said...

I hear you on the discipline issue...it's just too exhausting to think about getting up to discipline a toddler. Does it really matter if they play with the stereo?

When we went to the ER a few weeks ago Brody got to pick out a beanie baby animal and picked a rhinoceros (of the 30 choices). I don't know if he had ever seen one before but for some reason he was fascinated by it. If you need to borrow it to show NHV that they aren't scary...let me know.

Emmett Joseph said...

That is hilarious---though I don't want to scare Emmett, I am seriously wondering how I can work in a rhinoceros to deal with Emmett's throwing issue???

Go Zesty with Dee! said...

LOL, that is priceless! :-)

Shell said...

That is hilarious! I'd so threaten my kids with that if it would work. Gotta find something they are afraid of, first!

You have an award over at my blog.

Epiphius said...

Too funny!!

Here I thought this was something about dry skin! :) There's a commercial with a rhino and dry skin for lotion of some sort.

FranticMommy said...

Dang that's cute. Someday you WILL look back on this and laugh and YES this too shall pass. :)

Chi-town momma said...

Ah CPV and his parenting strategies...hilarious! Hope she is lsoing the fear, but still not jumping on the couch! I agree with Missy - I need to find something to scare the bejesus out of B when he starts throwing a fit!

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