I was awakened rather abruptly by the sound of Sydney crying out. Not even pausing to find my glasses, I ran for her room, hoping to quiet her before she woke her brother. By the time I reached the kitchen, she was crying out quite loudly. She wasn't saying anything in particular, just making a lot of noise. Clearly she was upset.
I couldn't tell if she was scared, perhaps a bad dream? Or maybe she was horrified to wake up and discover she'd wet the bed? Bracing for the worst, I made it to her room, just as she screamed with perfect clarity, "It's coming right at me!"
"Sydney, it's okay. Mommy's here." I quickly started doing my best to calm her, relieved that I didn't have wet sheets to clean. "Honey, it was just a bad dream. You're okay."
I laid down next to her, unsure if I should just try to get her to go back to sleep (would that send her back to the same dream?) or should I try to get her to talk about it so that I could explain it was just a dream, in which case she'd likely stay awake for at least an hour? I chose the first option, climbing into bed next to her and rubbing her back.
My mind raced, trying to figure out what could have inspired such terror, not to mention a line straight out of a horror movie. Could it have been Scooby Doo or some other cartoon her brother was watching? She hadn't watched TV at all that day, and in fact, because of AJ's crazy hockey schedule, had barely watched any TV the last few days.
Sydney answered the question a few minutes later. I thought she'd fallen back asleep, but her mind was obviously still racing, too.
"Mommy?" she asked. "Are there spiders in my room?"
All that terror... inspired by an imaginary spider.
"No, Sydney," I answered, "There aren't any spiders here. They all go away in the winter."
It seems to me that when AJ was this age, he used to come home from daycare talking about hunting for spiders and squishing them with his friends. I guess it's safe to assume I won't be hearing similar stories from Sydney.
Dana.....Since when do spiders go away in the winter? Where do you think they "lay their eggs"? That white sticky stuff in corners? And then those little buggers hatch over the winter. Having lived on a lake most of your life, with a room on our lower level, you should certainly remember that. I HATE SPIDERS, by the way.
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