Enter: The Scary Roope

Alex has been going through these spells where he gets scared of everything, and I mean everything! A few days ago he refused to go to the bathroom by himself, which is clearly in view of where we were sitting, because he was "too scared of the roope." We kept asking him what the "roope" was and he just kept spazzing and screaming that he was scared of it. Occasionally since then he's said he's scared of the roope, but I didn't know what the roope was until I pulled it out of his dresser to keep his pants up this morning--his belt, that is. Immediately when he saw it he clung on to me and said he was too scared of the roope. I asked him if that was the roope and he assured me that it was. I think he was maybe thinking rope?? I told him that the roope was really there to protect him (and I guess secondarily to hold up his pants). He didn't say anything else about it all day until I took the roope off of him. He acted scared of it for a minute, until I let him play with it. As we were putting him to bed, I put the roope in his dresser and he said, "Noooo, I'm too scared of the roope." We just laughed and told him he was crazy. Good job, us.

Seriously though, he has turned into such a scaredy cat. Sometimes it's kinda cute, but other times it's just plain frustrating. Like when he refuses to go to the bathroom or go upstairs to get a toy by himself. I've been wondering what I could do to make him not so scared of everything. The only thing that has really worked with the kid to date is to make him say a prayer. Pretty much every night after we put him to bed and go downstairs, he starts screaming that he's scared. When I go up to check on him, he's shaking and bawling. I'll tell him to say a prayer and that Jesus will keep him safe. After he does, he always goes to bed without crying again. I guess I shouldn't look for other ways to calm his fears, cause at least this is a good lesson, and pretty cute if you ask me.