Not a KINKAJOU!!!

Ashlyn is our child full of phobias. Thankfully we have been able to convince her out of a few of them, but unless she gets a grip on the world around her, she's going to have a rough life. When we were still in Texas, whenever she would stop stone still and start to scream, we knew a cricket had entered the room. We FINALLY can get her to dip a toe in the swimming pool, which is quite the accomplishment, since she would scream anytime we came near her with a swimming suit at the beginning of the summer. Shiny floors have caused her to break down near the point of hysteria - Wal-Mart, Lowe's, the church gym, etc. She has finally learned to crawl across bridges on playscapes at the park. The holes or cracks were just too much for a long time and still can't be taken standing up. Eric took the kids on a small hike yesterday - in the desert - and said she was loads of fun with her fears of cactus and rocks. Let's not forget about trains, busses, etc. The list goes on, but I think you've got the idea.

Last weekend we went to a ward party at a park that was behind a school, so you had to take a fairly long trail from the parking lot to get to it. By the time we left, it was dark and there was no lighting along the trail. Mine and Eric's arms were full with chairs, blankets, etc., so the kids were forced to walk. Ashlyn was cowering behind - worried that a coyote was going to come out of the Tucson, AZ rain forest - but at least she was moving along. Suddenly she collapsed on the ground, sobbing, and wouldn't move an inch. After several attempts to get her to move along and her only increasing in her hysteria, I finally shifted my load and picked her up to see what the matter was. The only thing I could get out of her was "A kinkajou!" as she pointed and then buried her head against me. Yes, a kinkajou. According to Wikipedia (I can't always keep up with all of the random animals my children come across) it is a nocturnal rainforest mammal, somewhere between a raccoon and a monkey that they describe as "playful, generally quiet and docile." Oh no! Beware of the kinkajou!