and Pirates! Oh My!

Apparently, monsters aren't the only thing that scares Lukie!

The other night, Daddy thought that it would be fun to capitalize on Gracie and Luke's obsession with money.  They like money.  They like playing with coins.  They especially like putting coins in their piggy banks.  So, Daddy took all of the coins he could find and scattered them all over the floor of our bedroom.  He turned off the lights and told Gracie and Luke they were going on a treasure hunt to find the buried treasure.  He handed them their flashlights and showed Gracie and Luke how to find the coins. 

Gracie was all over it!  She found 5 coins before I could even get Lukie down off of the bed.  He immediately balked.  He did not like the lights being off and he most certainly did not like looking for buried treasure. 

"Lukie, look for treasure like the pirates!"  Daddy said.  "Arrrrr!"

At this, Lukie started to cry.  He grabbed a hold of me and would not let go.  "No piwats!  No piwats!"

I turned the lights back on and showed him that there were no pirates in our room.  We had to walk through every part of the room and shine the flashlight in each nook and cranny.  After I proved there were no pirates, Lukie finally settled down.

Flash forward to tonight:  Standing in the bathtub, bubbles all over his head and body, he declared, "Momma, no monsters and no piwats!  Okay?"

"No monsters and no pirates?" I asked.  "Alright, I'll look for them."

After the bath, we went on a Monster and Pirate Hunt.  Flashlights in hand, we checked every corner, under the bed, and in the closet.

"No monsters, Lukie."

"No monsters and no piwats!  Right, Momma?" 

"That's right, Lukie.  No pirates.  Too bad that means no Johnny Depp!"

Monsters

As a grown up, there are plenty of things I am afraid of. Scary drivers on the freeway frighten me. I don't like the idea of terrorists. The nightly news' recounting of home invasions scare me to death. Reports of North Korea's crazy leader make me shiver. Adults have lots of "monsters" to contend with. But when you are very little, it is the unknown that is scary. The unexplored where there are monsters lurking.

I don't remember when or where Gracie and Luke first learned the word "monster." It seems like they have been saying it for months. Lukie's favorite thing to do is growl like a monster and holdup his hands like claws. Gracie will scream (playfully) and run away. They've both watched Monster's Inc. about 150 times as of today and they love it completely. They talk about Mike, Sully and Boo all the time. When we talk about Randall, the villain, I always describe him as mean. Randall is a mean monster. Mike and Sully are nice monsters. (Wait, can you be a nice monster?) Gracie and Luke have been fine with monsters so far, but recently, nighttime and monsters seem to have taken on a whole new meaning.

I first realized things were changing when Luke started balking at bath time. Lukie loves water and he loves splashing. He started crying and running from us to keep from getting into the bath. At first, I thought it was just his attempt to avoid bedtime. But when it escalated into being afraid of book time too, I realized it had to be something bigger.

The other night, after we got them jammied up and we were cuddling in Mommy and Daddy's bed, Lukie said to us, "Momma, make the monsters go away. Go away, monsters!"

I stared at my son as if he had grown another head. Monsters? Where had that come from? I asked Lukie where the monsters were and he pointed at my half opened, dark closet. Then, everything started to click. We put their jammies on in our bedroom every night. Every night, my closet is hanging open. Every night, he has been balking at bath time and jammies.

My jog? Rid the closet of any monsters. So, I borrowed Lukies "flylight" (flashlight) and went monster hunting in the closet. I made a big show of calling for them to come out and saying, "Go away Monsters! Go play somewhere else!" It took about 5 minutes before Lukie started to look relaxed.

When I was done, I slid the huge closet door shut. "They're all gone, Lukie. No more monsters." As I reached the bed, Lukie launched himself at me.

"Thank you, Momma!" he said and gave me a very wet, slurpy kiss.

Hey, kid, anytime! And keep those kisses coming.