Vacuum Phobia

Our son is deathly afraid of the vacuum. And yet, he's drawn to it. When I turned on our new vacuum cleaner the other day I kept waiting for Shreve to go nuts. Instead, I hear over the vacuum's motor a shriek from down the hallway. I look and see my son beet-red and wailing and tensing up all his muscles — in other words turning into the mini Incredible Hulk, just like he did at the doctor's office when they tried to draw blood last month. There was no consoling him. I held him and even brought him face to face with the contraption (in the off position) and touched it to show him it wouldn't hurt. I think he'll come around to it in time. Now, at least he'll voluntarily go up to it and touch it even though he's crying his eyeballs out. Mikel and I both jokingly wondered if he had some sort of bad experience with a vacuum cleaner while in the baby home.