The Vacuum Blues

I'm not sure if that title is for me or for Jackson. I have been meaning to vacuum for a couple of days now, but it never seems to be the right time. I can't do it when he's sleeping because, well, it's just not worth chancing it and waking him up, and when he's awake we're either gone or playing on the floor. Well, today I had enough and decided to put Jackson in his jumper while I vacuumed. He's not a whimp, remember, so this shouldn't be that big of a deal, right? WRONG! He boo hooed (sp?) from the moment I turned that thing on until the moment I turned it off and even a little bit after. I tried to go really fast, but he was truly scared. I stopped mid-vacuum to give him a snuggle and tell him it was okay, but all he could do was look over his shoulder at the "monster" while I was trying to love on him.

After I was done, literally 3 minutes later, I left the vacuum in the living room so I could hurry and comfort him. I got him all happy again and playing on the floor. I decided to put the vacuum back in the closet, and it riled him all up again. It wasn't even turned on! Just the sight of it freaked him out again. I don't get it! When he was tiny, I used to put that thing right up next to him and it lulled him to sleep. How can something that used to be so comforting scare the bajeebies out of him now? I guess he's just going to have to get freaked out for 3 minutes every day. (Ha! I'll just let you all go on thinking I vacuum every day! : ) )

Here's my little pumpkin back in the day when the sound of a vacuum used to be music to his ears...