Alligators

Benson's current obsession is alligators and crocodiles.  At first I thought it was cute and funny.  He would sit and watch Animal Planet with Ben and be totally engrossed in the show.  Nothing could pull him away from his alligators. 

A few months ago, we were at Kroger and Benson was looking through their toy bin and found a little toy alligator that of course we had to buy.  That alligator went everywhere with him, but then his obsession began to change.  Instead of loving alligators and thinking they were the coolest things in the world, he started freaking himself out about alligators.

For example:  if you are pretending to be an alligator and say "CHOMP! CHOMP! The alligator is going to eat you Benson".  He would start screaming and crying and get really scared.

Another example of Benson's fear:  He has convinced himself that under all water grates there are alligators lurking ready to eat whoever walks over the water grate.  He WILL NOT step on a water grate.  Even if I walk on top of the water grate and show him that the alligators didn't eat me that is still not enough to convince him that water grates are alligator free.

A few weeks ago we were at the park and his ball rolled out into the parking lot and it rolled a long ways away.  {Side note:  this park was completely deserted so it was fine that he was running around in the parking lot.}  All of a sudden I hear a blood curdling scream and Benson starts sobbing.  I thought for sure he was hurt so I sprinted across the parking lot to see what is wrong with my poor child.  His ball was on top of a water grate!  That's it.  His hadn't broken a limb.  He hadn't fallen and split his head open.  And no one was trying to steal my poor helpless child.  His ball was on top of a water grate.  He was terrified that an alligator was going to get him that he couldn't move.  It was kind of pathetic and I couldn't help but laugh at how ridiculous he was being.

And now I really know that his obsession is getting out of hand because he is now convinced that there are alligators that come up through the drain in our bathtub.  He won't lay down in the bathtub anymore because if he does he can't see the drain, which means the alligators are going to come up through the drain and get him while he is laying down.  There is no reasoning with this boy either.  So taking a bath is kind of getting hard especially when I try to get him to lay down so I can wash all the soap off of his body.  I think I may have to give up on giving him baths and move on to showers because I guess alligators can't come up through the drain while the shower is running. 

He is seriously ridiculous!  I blame his current fear on Animal Planet and his dad!