My BRAVE little boy

Eric and I were relaxing downstairs at 9:30 tonight when we heard a little voice yell "daddy!!"... then a pause and a "mommy! mommy! mommy!" Eric and I ran upstairs to see what on earth was wrong. (Gabe went to bed hours ago and never calls to us or leaves his bedroom this late) Gabe was sitting up in bed amidst piles and piles of books (obviously not a lot of sleeping had been happening). He was very concerned about a noise he was hearing outside. It was the neighbor kids throwing those little firecrackers - the ones that pop when they hit the ground. When I explained it to him, he said over and over how he did NOT like them. We could literally feel the controlled fear emanating from him. Gabe has always been our little sensitive guy... definitely not a thrill seeker of even the toddler variety. (You know, like being thrown in the air super high!) :) Anyway, so we told him how the firecrackers are fun and not scary at all. We watched out the window for a bit and then tucked him back in bed saying that they would be over soon. About 10 minutes later, the neighbor kids starting throwing them again so I went upstairs to listen through his door out of curiosity to see how Gabe was dealing with it. Inside I could hear him saying: "They don't hurt ya! Firecrackers don't hurt. They don't hurt ya." Then a little later: "It'll stop in a minute. They'll stop in a minute." He continued in this way reassuring himself in the sweetest, most positive tone of voice. It made me get a lump in my throat at how brave and wonderful he is. It is so hard to see your children be afraid of anything... and it melts my heart to see how courageous Gabe is in fighting his fears. There are so many times when he does this - for example once when he saw a commercial for The Incredibles... now that show is obviously way too much for my little guy who upon seeing the "intense" commercial cautiously came off the couch during it to stand with a very worried look on his face! But we talked about how the hero was a good guy and really nice and from then on, if Gabe saw a commercial or picture of The Incredibles, I could hear him telling himself: "He's not bad, he's good! He's not scary." I love my brave little boy so much...