A Scary Bedtime Story

My oldest has a hard time with change. She's getting better with age, but big changes still frighten her, but who isn't leery of change?

When Studmuffin moved to Oklahoma, and we were still in Texas she developed lots of strange fears. Looking back, she developed similar fears/thought patterns when we lived apart for a few months before our move to San Antonio, but since she was only four, I didn't recognize it. Anyways, all of that to say that she had some fears. A lot of them...

One night, she woke up crying, afraid to leave her bed, and I came in to check on her. She was scared. She couldn't tell me why. Just scared. I offered to lay down with her for a few minutes...

"Okay." *sniff, sniff*....I started to climb over her and into bed...

"Watch out Mommy, you are about to lay down on Walter Wick."

Gentle Reader, every hair stood up on my body, and I immediately broke out in a cold sweat...

I almost expired on the spot of fear, declared my child in need of an exorcism, and began to search the web for holy water, delivered airmail...

Unless, of course, there really WAS someone in her bed named Walter Wick, which of course had all sorts of even more frightening implications....

"Walter Wick?" I asked in a shaky, please don't tell me voice...

"My hidden picture book. I was looking at it before I went to bed."

OH!!!! A BOOOOOook! Of course!

What else would "Walter Wick is in my bed, don't lay down on him," mean?

Only a totally dramatic over-reactor would think it was anything but a book!

And,clearly...That is not me.

Not. At. All.