Signs

First off, I know I've been posting a lot lately, but don't expect the trend to continue. I'm sure I'll soon revert back to once every two or three weeks. Just thought I'd throw that out there; the pressure of frequent blog posting is too much for me!

Lydia has been terrified of fighter jets ever since the Hillsboro Air Show, which was at least six weeks ago. The Thunderbirds flew right over our house (I believe they were F-15 bombers) and were super duper loud, like shake the windows loud. Lydia happened to be asleep the first time they made a pass by our house and she bolted out of her room, ran screaming to me and collapsed into the fetal position at my feet, covering her ears. I then had to spend 45 minutes with my hands over her ears as they practiced their passes over our house. She cried at least half of that 45 minutes even though I was holding her. She was traumatized, to say the least.

Fast forward to the present. Lydia would start talking about the fighter jets and how they came in her room and were loud every morning when I opened her door. She would talk about them as were were in the car running errands. She talked about them at the dinner table. I decided I'd had enough with the fighter jet preoccupation. I borrowed a little trick from my parents, which they used to banish my childhood nemesis from bothering me (my preoccupation was with big blue monsters from California, not fighter jets.) With Lydia dictating, I made a sign and stuck it on her door.

The morning after we put the sign up, I went to get her out of bed and she said, "Mom! The fighter jets didn't come! They saw my sign and they stayed away!" (Probably from repulsion of the hideous artwork :) Needless to say, I was overjoyed that it seemed to work. We're several days out from the posting of the sign, and while there have been random mentions of fighter jets, it's nowhere near the level it used to be. Thank goodness for Sharpies, pink construction paper, and a great idea from Grandma and Grandpa!