Everybody DOESN'T love Raymond

The other day I did some research on the internet. I know that there is an official name for just about every kind of phobia, and I was curious about what the fear of dressed-up characters is called. Well, I never found it, although I did come across people blogging about it online. In fact, it is a real phenomenon, although nameless, and I know this is true because little Eli has it. From Santa Claus to Chuck E. Cheese, the sight of one of these costumed characters sends Eli right to Mom or Dad, his little hands covering his eyes. When they are far away, he can handle it pretty well. But when they start making their way over, he starts getting real nervous.

So I've stopped making him sit on Santa's lap, and we try to avoid Louie and Fetch when we're at the Cardinal's game.

When we were on vacation last month, we went to a game at Tropicana Stadium...home of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. It's also the home of Raymond, the Devil Rays mascot. (No, I'm not sure exactly what he is...) After the game, we asked Eli if he liked Raymond. His big brown eyes got even bigger and he answered, "I don't like the Raymond!" So for the rest of the trip, he would just bring that up, out of the blue, that he didn't like the Raymond. (Of course Susan put like an Italian accent on this so we started saying, "I don't lika zee Raymond!" which was even funnier. )

Anyway, even after we were home, he would still bring it up. One day I finally told him, Eli, Raymond isn't going to do anything to you. He nodded his head 'yes'. So I said, What do you think Raymond is going to do to you? He looked all serious. "Get me", he said.

Oh, I know it's normal behavior for little kids to be this way. It's just that Duncan was never frightened of going up to strangely dressed people and hugging them and sitting on their laps....well, I guess when I put it like that, maybe I shouldn't worry about Eli after all.