abominable fear

Dennis wanted to watch Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer today (we're still having a little leftover Christmas in July, I guess). He found the video and asked to watch it, so I put it in and we snuggled together on the couch. He excitedly pointed out "there's SANTA, Mommy" and "look at deer". I was thinking how much fun it was to watch something with him from my own childhood. All of a sudden, we were watching Rudolph and Kirby and Yukon Cornelius travel through the snow when they encountered the Abominable Snowman. The Abominable Snowman scared Dennis to pieces. He immediately started crying and got down and hid behind the couch until he went off screen. I was flabbergasted, having never seen Dennis get afraid of anything like this before. I didn't even make the connection to what he was crying about right away. The creature came back on-screen and Dennis ran again and said "come on, Mommy, we get out of here" and urged me repeatedly to leave the room. I tried to tell him that it was just a movie and that the snowman actually became friendly, but he wailed and wailed and covered his face with his hands. In hindsight, why in the world did I not just turn off the movie? I wanted him to see Abominable helping the elves decorate the tree at Santa's place, so I urged him to come back to the couch. He was happy watching Santa and the elves and the reindeer, but when Yukon and Abominable ("Bumble", Yukon calls him) showed back up, Dennis was out of the room in a flash. Dennis had to take a nap after this (much eye rubbing and yawning ensued), and I didn't want him to have nightmares, so I settled him in bed with Mickey Mouse playing on his portable DVD player and left the light on. He was sleeping peacefully when I checked on him a little later. This is one movie we'll be putting away for a few years, I suppose.

Today while I was waiting for Curves to open back up after lunch, I went to the flea market next door and was delighted to see a Little Tikes gas pump. I hoped against hope it would be $5 or less (the amount of money I had with me at the time) and could not believe my luck when I saw $1 on the tag!! It's kind of beat up and the stickers are mostly gone and torn, but the gas nozzle and hose are just fine. Dennis was beside himself when he saw it (I brought it to the lake house with me when I went to pick him up, and where we are right now) and asked "where's the car? I put gas in it". So now I can't wait til we get it home and he gets to try it out with the Little Tikes car, which actually has a gas cap and place where the gas nozzle will fit. Maybe I can teach him early not to drive off accidentally with the gas hose still in the tank (as I did one horrible and embarrassing time).