Velcro Boy

"Stuck like glue."  "Velcro."  These are the things I think of when I think of Tommy these days.  It's been coming on for a couple of months.  He freaks out when I have to leave the house.  We are talking FREAK-OUT.  We sing, "Grown-ups Come Back" from Daniel Tiger; we sing "My Mommy Comes Back," from Hap Palmer.  And I do always come back.  Songs promising my return and proof of that promise upon my return don't seem to help.  It's very hard...on both of us!  On Adam too, who feels like he can't help.  It breaks my heart a little bit every time I have to go, hearing him cry for me. 

Tommy will only let me help him with anything.  No brothers, no Dad.  When we are out he doesn't want to play at the park or with his friends at their house, even if I am there, watching, staying, he has to be right by me.  He says, "I want to go home, Mommy."  He seems uncertain and uncomfortable.  Even if it means ' doing something boring instead of fun,' he'd rather be with me than without.  He will still smile and talk to strangers, as he clings to my leg, so I know he's not feeling too shy. 

I'm not sure what it is.  I'm thinking of having his hearing re-checked.  I wonder if his tubes are displaced and he's having a hard time hearing just right and it's unsettling him.  Or maybe it's just a stage, I can't remember if the other boys had a clingy phase at three.  Perhaps it's a little residual anxiety over my trips to WA and CA and then our vacation; being in new places, away from his safe and known places for so long.  And I'm off to UT in a couple of weeks again for Women's Conference.

I don't mind the snuggles and the extra love, giving and getting.  I don't mind holding him a lot and sticking close as often as I can.  I don't mind being his helper whenever I can.  I don't mind him hanging with me.

I am simply worried about what is causing him so much anxiety.