Conquering Fears

Ella had a lot of firsts and conquered a few fears on our Vacation.

As you may know Ella has a healthy fear of "Big Fuzzy Things". This fear includes dressed up characters (like Mascots), large animals (alive or stuffed) and Santa Claus, among other things. I can't tell you how many pony rides I have shelled out for, only to walk away with bruised arms where she pinched me until we were a safe distance away. (Please don't think I force her, she always says she wants to until the moment I try to actually put her on the horse.)

We spent some time at my Uncle's Cabin on Armenia Mountain when we were in Pennsylvania. This is a hunting cabin by the way. In one of the rooms Ella found this hanging on the wall.

This definitely met the criteria of big and fuzzy. She had to walk right under it to get in the room, not realizing it was there. As you can see by her expression it was not easy to talk her in to leaving the room. We had to run through the doorway.

Ella did take a step in the right direction while were were away. She had her first pony ride. The man at the animal farm even let me lead Sunny around. (Or maybe Sunny was leading me.)