Storms of Life

Ever since our kids were born I wanted to instill in them a good balance of fear (respect) and fear (scared) of things. Like, you should respect a snake enough not to just pick it up, but there's really no need to run screaming from it either. With thunderstorms, I just started explaining to Brianna from an early age that the things that sound so scary will not hurt her. Obviously, as she gets older and learns about natural disasters and hail and things like that she will develop a healthy amount of fear where she won't run outside to play when she sees a funnel cloud. But I also don't want to have to dread every storm we have for the next eighteen years either. The scariest part of a storm to a child, I think, is the thunder. It is startling, it is booming, it is incredibly loud, and it does shake the whole house. I can't imagine what it sounds like to a toddler. But I have explained to her that thunder cannot hurt her. It is very loud, and it is very noisy, but it is just a noise. It can't come into the house and hurt her. The lightning and rain have never bothered her because the lightning is pretty to her (I know, I will soon teach her not to run out and try to touch the lightning...) and the rain is very soothing to me so I guess she has just picked up on that too. Even when our power has gone out I have been rather excited, as I always looked forward to those times growing up. Mom and Dad would light the candles and I knew then that it was GAME NIGHT!! I'm sure I got scared at times but those sure aren't the memories that come up when I think of storms.

The other night we had a really terrible storm so we stood at the window to watch the rain. It was really dark outside so I had cupped my hand over my eyes to see if I could see through the window if I blocked the glare from the inside lights. The next thing I knew, I realized Bri thought I was doing this in order to hear the rain better, and she began cupping her forehead as well. SO CUTE!!! Obviously I ran to get the camera.

I think my favorite part is when I say, "Can you hear the thunder?" and she says, "Not yet!" I love when she says that. :)