Conquering

I have been very proud of my daughter lately. She has worked so hard to overcome some things and it's showing.

One of her phobias has been bugs. Anyone who has been around both of my children in the spring time when the bugs come out, particularly ones that fly, know what a treat it is, screaming, freaking out, hysterics, you get the picture. This last week she became fascinated with ladybugs while we were digging up the flowerbed. She has calmed down a lot in general with bugs that don't fly, and as long as she can watch them and they're not crawling on her, she does okay. So, she studied ladybugs. The next day while at grandma's, she found a ladybug in her house. Grandma held the ladybug and eventually talked Hannah into letting it crawl on her. Hannah did. And, because big sister let a bug crawl on her, little brother decided it must not be too bad and let it crawl on him, too. Two for the price of one.

Another phobia she is conquering is allowing water to get on her face. I wish I would have poured water over her head regularly when she was little, but as they say, hindsight is always 20/20. Again this last week, she decided she wanted to try the shower. I've tried this before with her and she just wasn't ready. This time she was. She actually stood under the shower, although still not directly full face, but letting water drop onto her face, and loved it. And now she has become a showerer!

And finally, she is trying again to let her nails grow. Unfortunately, she picked up this bad habit from her mother, who still has not conquered it. She has "quit and started" biting her nails several times, but every time she tries again, I'm really, really proud of her, and I tell her that eventually she'll quit for good if she doesn't give up (hypocrite that I am).

Maybe victory is catchy....