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Grace And The Vacuum Cleaner |
Grace is afraid of the Vacuum Cleaner, or as I like to call it Mr.
Sweeper. What ever we call the contraption, Grace finds it too loud and
noisy for her delicate ears. So yesterday I ran it while she was
napping.
I finish the job but don't put the sweeper away. After about an hour
and a half she wakes up and we play in her room for a while and then
finally crawl out to the living room. We're both crawling, mind you.
But she stops and I keep going on to our bedroom thinking she'll follow
like she usually does. So after a minute or so I see that she hasn't
joined me in the bedroom and I listen for a clue as to what she might
be up to.
And I hear this soft faint humming of a whimper. It's the softest, most
consistent tiny hum of distress you could ever imagine. She's not
crying. She's not weeping. She's just softly coping with her fear with
this gentle pleading whine. So I go back out to the living room to find
her sitting on her haunches with her fists clenched over her chest and
staring at the sweeper like it might suddenly decide to get her. She's
frozen in place as if the lightest move might attracted the sweepers
noisy grumbling attention.
I pick her up. She still doesn't cry. I take her over to the sweeper
and tell her it won't hurt her. She's 11 months old and not really
responding to my reassurances. She's just being very still., wide-eyed
and still.
So I decided to show her how we put Mr. Sweeper away. I wrap up the
cord, all the while saying, "Bye Bye Sweeper". I roll it over to
the closet, "Bye Bye Sweeper". Grace has stopped whimpering but
she's not really responding to this whole Bye Bye tactic either.
Finally we're at the closet and I put the sweeper in and wave one last
time, "Bye Bye Sweeper", still nothing from Grace. And then when I
close the door... she smiles the biggest smile I've ever seen.
Amazing. She's learning to cope. She's learning to be brave. And I hope she's learning that I love her very much.
Ted Lyde
Father Of Grace
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