The Shredder

A few months ago, I was in my office, and Anna was with me playing with some toys on the floor.  I knew she was a little nervous about the shredder, but I didn't realize how nervous, because she never made too big a deal of it except to make a little sound (imitating Cara).  And she would use this same sound when "lions" would appear on her Veggie Tales DVDs or CDs, knowing that we would just say "It's ok, you don't need to be scared of the lions."  So it almost seemed routine.

This particular day, though, I went to shred one piece of paper, and it must have really caught her off guard.  She jumped up, made that same sound, only much more urgent, and ran out of the room terrified, calling for mommy and saying she was scared.  I jumped out of my chair to try to catch her, but it was too late.  She had already reached the stairs and was trying to run down them to get away. She fell down, and I got there just in time to see her tumbling down the staircase.  I felt horrible and wouldn't have been able to forgive myself if she had been seriously hurt. Thankfully, she escaped with just some bruises, which made me feel really bad every time I saw them, until they were gone.  Needless to say, I no longer use the shredder when either girl is around.