Third post

My 1-year-old is exceedingly afraid of the vacuum cleaner. The only way he will tolerate it is if I carry him while I vacuum, and the whole time he stares down at the thing, probably willing with all the telepathy in his tiny toddler brain for it to stop. Fortunately, since we have 4 carpeted rooms, this does in fact fulfill my exercise quota for the day.

I may or may not be able to trace this fear to the fact that once when he was about 6 months old and I really wanted to vacuum his room, I put him in his crib and vacuumed. He was super-traumatized. You should know that he sleeps in a Pack'n'Play so he was face-to-face with the lighted-up, roaring base of the machine going back and forth, back and forth inches from his nose. No wonder he's frightened. I don't know what I was thinking.

Seriously though, if I leave the hall closet open and he sees the vacuum hiding there, unplugged, he starts wailing. He knows. I have tried playing "Hello, Mr. Vacuum Cleaner" (a game I made up which you can probably envision), which so far has not worked. I will let you know.

Or maybe you can let me know if you have any advice. I mean I'm kind of a clean freak and I vacuum often.