Lions, Tigers, and Bears......and Shadows?

Audrey was afraid of the vacuum for a really long time.  Every time I brought it out she would hide in the corner.  She eventually got over it.

This last week she developed a new fear.  Wait for it....   She's afraid of her shadow. I poke fun, but for her this is a real fear, the shaking crying kind. She first noticed it when we were outside drawing with chalk.  She immediately wanted to go inside, screaming for me to hold her.  Then last week she noticed it was inside.  I tried to explain to her that it was just her.  That she could wave and it would wave back.  That made it worse. All I got was, "No Dow No Dow!". Eventually I was holding her more than I wasn't.  She would only walk on this small carpeted area in the living room.  Then on Saturday I noticed she started crawling and walking on her knees to avoid seeing her shadow.  She found out if she got low enough to the ground that her shadow would disappear.  She was reduced to the army crawl and me holding her.  I was going crazy trying to figure out which blinds I could close and which ones I could open to reduce the shadows.  Eventually I found the best formula.  I could open the windows facing North and South, but not the ones facing East and West, but that didn't help in the evenings when I had to turn on the indoor lights.

When your daughter becomes afraid of shadows you start to realize that they are EVERYWHERE!  I might be going crazy.

I think it's getting better though. She saw the shadow of her arm on the table as she was eating breakfast.  She pointed it out to me.  I told her to say hi.  She waved and said, "Hi Dow" but then followed it up with a quick, "Bye Dow".  I think we are making progress.