luca's new fears

over the last week, luca has developed new fears. he has always shown a healthy sense of caution - not really a daredevil, but not overly cautious. but last night and this morning he wouldn't walk down stairs. he told me, "too dangerous." and even more extreme is his newfound fear of the "animals" and the "dark" in his room. on sunday night, he told jesse, "too scary. animals in my room. alligators, tigers, giraffes. . ." (okay i don't know why giraffes made the list but luca was very serious.) we experimented with leaving a light on his room and tried to explain to him that only pictures and toys were in his room. he kept pointing to his rocking horse and animal poster and telling us they were scary. i hesitated from taking them out, because although i want to be sensitive to his fears i don't want to play into them either. we ended up convincing him that the toy and picture animals are his friends and he slept without a night light like usual after a couple hours. this is also the boy who has begun to jump off the couch and belly flop onto the cushions. so these seem to be isolated concerns: falling down stairs, animals turning mean, the dark. in other circumstances, he is a typical growing rambunctious boy. definitely a new season of parenthood. we are learning more and more just how much more there is to this job. once the diapers, baby food, potty training, etc are over, a whole new world awaits.