We'll never take him to Disneyworld

Joseph has always been scared of certain things. When he was younger and would watch Dora and Diego on Noggin, there was a short commercial for some show where human hands had eyes and mouths drawn on them and talked. Whenever it came one, he ran screaming from the room. For a long time he wouldn't go in a room with a TV by himself. He is still afraid of the little "ding" sound that our friends' house alarm makes when a door is opened, and we have to ask them to turn it off every time we go over there. He is afraid of the nutcracker soldiers that abound at Christmas time, which is unfortunate because there is one that decorates the entrance to his school. And the Nutcracker commercials have started up again -- when one comes on he hides his eyes and asks us to tell him when it is over. He didn't like witches at Halloween, and when grocery shopping in October asked that I go really, really fast past the Halloween aisle. Last year he was afraid of the 4-year-old class at his school during the mardis gras parade, because they had made and were wearing animal masks. He didn't run the bases at the Astros game when given the opportunity, because the run-the-base promotion was sponsored by Chik-Fil-A and they had life-size cow mascots out on the field. We have realized for awhile that we are unlikely to take him to Disneyworld anytime soon. None of our kids (so far) are into Disney princesses, superheroes, or any other Disney characters. But no doubt such a trip would send Joe over the edge with all those life-size characters.

As he grows he is actually fairly calm about his fears. He covers his eyes, looks away, or moves, declaring that he "doesn't like" the offending character. But this latest one takes the cake. He has been wanting us to close their closet door at bedtime lately. And several times he asked me to come with him into the closet when he was picking out his clothes or shoes. Then he asked me if the "people" were in there. So I investigated, and this is what he has been afraid of:

These are little clips that are used to fasten a crib tent to a pack n play. They were in use for awhile, but we took the crib tent down and the clips have been sitting on a shelf in their closet. They are about an inch and a half long. And Joe is afraid of them.