Braveheart

Over the course of the last couple of years, Em has garnered a fear of quite a few things:

• Loud noises
• Automatic flushing toilets
• Car washes
• Flies
• Spiders
• Dirt
• Hot water  (great combination, huh?)
• Automatic hand dryers (blowers... she loves the automatic towel dispensers!)
• ...feel free to add to the list if you're remembering something I'm not! 

And, over the last couple of weeks, Em has tackled a few of her fears.  When we went camping and visited the Cincinnati Zoo, she had a complete meltdown in one of the restrooms because she had to go potty, but was terrified of the automatic toilets.  She would NOT even trust me enough to hold my hand over the sensor while she went. 

However, a couple of weeks ago, Em faced that fear and has used at least 2 "scary" potties since then... and then comes out victorious and tells everyone she meets how brave she was.  That was a fun story to explain to all my colleagues at the local high school homecoming game!

Sunday, Emily tackled another fear.  For about a year and a half, she has built up a fear of car washes.  Whenever I've needed to run through one, I've always asked her (without pressuring her) if she wants to give it a shot and then answer has always been "No, they're scary."  Imagine my surprise when I asked her again on Sunday and out of the blue she said she wanted to try it! 

Enjoy!