two steps forward, one step back

so i was just saying the other week how proud i am of jack's progress in desissy-fying himself. i'm sorry, does that sound mean? a touch mommie dearest? forgive me, but i just had to talk down a shrieking, homicidal 4 year old because he thought the coffeemaker brewing was actually a bee buzzing, so i'm a little testy. jack has decided that THE BEES ARE OUT TO GET HIM. who do we have to thank for this revelation? winnie the motherfuckin' pooh, that's who. DAMN YOU, POOH!

my mother has some winnie the pooh video that has the gluttonous little bear attempting to steal honey from a beehive, and in the process stirs up trouble with the bees. they're pissed. they chase pooh. pooh gets away. pretty weak as far as heart-pumping chase scenes go, but apparently not for a 4 year old. jack keeps bringing up this video, and we keep explaining that if pooh had left the bees alone, the bees would've left him alone. simple enough, right? WRONG. this weekend we were outside on the front porch, and i left him there to run to the backyard for something. dave was inside feeding natey, and could see jack through the front door. all of a sudden, i hear a high-pitched scream and "DADDY!!!" it took a few seconds for me to realize that maybe it was jack, because it sounded like nothing i've ever heard come out of his mouth! i ran to the front and saw him inside with dave, crying and freaking out. he saw a bee. flying by. it did not touch him. it probably didn't even know jack was there until his earsplitting screams deafened the poor thing. now it's really difficult to talk to a 4 year old about these kinds of things. you ask questions, they don't answer. or their answer doesn't make sense. it's pretty frustrating, especially when you're trying to get to the bottom of something like the sudden onset of extreme bee fear.

jack eventually calmed down, but he was so freaked out by the possibility of bees being around that he refused to go back outside. he's been kinda clingy the past couple of days, too, especially when we have to go out to get into the car. and now the coffeemaker-that-sounds-like-a-bee incident! i just don't know what to say. i appreciate that he's afraid, but i'm worried -- his fear seems a little out of control. SIGH. hopefully he'll get over it.