Strange Abilities and Behavior

Jax has been behaving a little strangely for the past few days. I first noticed it last Friday after we came home from the Nascar event. While we were checking out the Border Patrol car, an agent came over and presented Jax with a light-up bouncy ball. He held onto that ball the entire time, only putting it down once to build a wooden race car at the Home Depot exhibit. He even napped with the ball once we returned home. So it came as no surprise that he wanted to bring it with him when we were heading out to watch the fireworks.

Knowing that the ball would get lost if he took it out to the crowded park, I persuaded him to leave it behind. The odd thing was not that he readily agreed (actually that was pretty shocking), but that he insisted on hiding the ball before we left because "it would get stolen." Um, okay? Who's going to steal it? We're all leaving. Surely a burglar would be interested in the higher dollar items like electronics and jewelry, but I wasn't going to explain this to a 3-year old. To Jax the ideal hiding place was in a shoe. Convinced that his prized possession was safe, we all headed out. By the time that we returned home, I had completely forgotten about the ball, but not Jax. Nope, he headed right for that shoe and sure enough, the ball was safe.

A few days passed, and I had forgotten about Jax's paranoia until a package from Grandfather arrived. Jax is always excited to receive a Grandfather package, but we were all a little relieved this time because it had actually gone missing for about week while in transit. Inside were Kung Fu Panda toys (because Grandfather knows he's currently obsessed with this movie), a kite (which he has asked to fly every day since it arrived), a Boy Scout mug (which now must be used every day at lunch), Silly Putty (which oddly ended up on Baylor's belly when he was napping), and 2 new Cars toys (yeah, just what he needed, more Cars). So you can see why we were all worried the box had been lost. Priceless items!

Anyway, Jax was playing with his Cars toys when we were trying to get packed up to go house-hunting. When it was time to go, he wanted to bring the toys in his backpack because "they would get stolen" if he left them behind. Again with the paranoia. I still don't have a clue where this is coming from, but he's truly convinced someone is after his things. So that's the latest strange behavior.

The oddity I've recently noticed is his newly acquired ability to sniff out monsters! Yes, he'll go walking through the house, sniffing, and then suddenly stop and announce, "There's a monster in there" while pointing to where the evil creature is lurking. I've yet to see these monsters, by the way. When that happens, you'll know that we both need to be committed.