arachnaphobia

Yesterday was Tommy's fourth birthday. His party isn't until this weekend but we had cake and presents with our little family. His beloved cousin Reese sent him a very life-like remote control spider. His mother, my sister-in-law Regi called me to warn me about this gift. She sent my brother-in-law Dylan and Reese to the store and this was what they came home with, they were very excited. I wasn't particularly concerned, after all, I am the mom of boys. When the gift was finally opened Tommy was very excited and all was well until we installed the batteries and tried to demonstrate the remote control. The minute that spider started moving Johnny had a full blown panic attack and began crawling full speed in the other direction, Tommy burst into tears of terror soon thereafter. We continued to try throughout the day and neither boy would have anything to do with that spider. Johnny would burst into tears upon sight of the thing and Tommy was ok, as long as we didn't turn it on and make it move. If we did, he went screaming into another room. After many tries and slow desensitizing, we finally got Tommy to try driving the spider himself for the first time this evening. Now that he is over that hurdle, he can't wait to show all of his friends. Poor Johnny still finds it utterly terrifying and is not even allowed in the same room.