Evelyn adores the film Finding Nemo and asks to watch it about five times a day. Yesterday I took her to the tropical fish tank at the back of the library and let her watch the fish. She immediately spotted fish of the same species as Nemo and Marlin and Dorie and began to frantically wave and say Hi Nemo! Hi Dorie! Hi Marlin! She could have stayed for hours. Suddenly she turned to me with a concerned face and said Shark? She’s terrified of the sharks in Finding Nemo. Right before the scene with them begins she runs to the other side of the room and says No! No! No! and stays hiding until the scene is over. Most of the time I just skip the sharks. Yesterday we ran errands at Target. We had time to kill so we aimlessly walked around, aisle to aisle. Evelyn is also into these little plastic animals made by a German company. So far she has an elephant, a horse, a monkey, and a giraffe. We passed them in the toys aisle and I asked her what new little animal she wanted.
I held up a zebra.
No, she said.
A cow? Moo.
No, she said, and shook her head.
I know! A kangaroo!
No.
A sheep?
No.
Okay, dear. What animal would you like?
She pointed down to the bottom of the rack and said SHARK! A shark, a sharkasharkashark!
I was perplexed and held up a shark.
You’d like a shark!
A sharkasharkashark! she said ecstatically.
I handed her the shark and she waved it around happily.
We bought the shark at the checkout and brought it home. last night she watched the shark scene in Finding Nemo and got excited and talked about their big teeth. Perhaps she could help me cure my fear of sharks? Here are some photos after bathtime. Click for bigger size.
