Oh, The Horror!

My sister-in-law used to be able to cut her son's fingernails when she turned on the vacuum. He was so scared of the vacuum that he would freeze and stare at it, thus making the dreaded fingernail trimming an easy experience. You would think that Abby would share some of the frozen fear of the vacuum with her cousin, but such is not the case. Yesterday during Abby's lunch, I got the floor all ready to be vacuumed. I cleaned up the toys, picked up the crumbs that were too big to be sucked up, and moved chairs and the coffee table (we now get crumbs in all sorts of good places so we have to move everything) to the other room. Then I opened the closet door where the vacuum is. During this whole process, Abby was pleasantly chatting and finishing up her food. Then the vacuum came out of the closet. Fear and terror were definitely the response, but instead of freezing, Abby began shaking her arms and screaming. Loud. I tried to calm her down to no avail. Then she refused to eat, keeping her eyes on the vacuum the whole time. Keep in mind that at no point has the vacuum been turned on. I ended up vacuuming with Abby on my hip, her face buried in my shoulder and her arms flailing throughout the horrific experience. While I wrapped the cord up when we were done, Abby stood staring at the vacuum and would start to reach for it and then pull her hand away. A couple minutes of trying led to success and she touched it, screamed, and lunged at me for a hug. Who knew the vacuum itself could be so scary?