I never said that I was brave. I’m therefore cutting myself some slack for a rather cowardly performance as "boogie-man vanquisher" last weekend. I was watching television when I heard Rowan through the baby monitor.
"Mama!" he yelled. "Mama, get in here!"
Thinking that he had to pee, I rushed upstairs.
"I saw something," Rowan whispered. Then he reached his arm out from under the blankets and pointed behind me. "It was right over there."
As I glanced over my shoulder, a prickly feeling crept up my spine.
"It had two eyes," he continued, cupping his hands around his eye sockets. "Then one of the eyes disappeared." His left hand closed into a fist on "disappeared."
"Well…I’m sure..." I started, but Rowan quickly interrupted me.
"I'm
serious," he insisted. "Close the door and you'll
see it."
At this point, I'm thinking, "No way, kid! Don't suck me into your scary imagination! I've seen enough horror flicks to know that when little blonde children say creepy things, it's a
bad sign."
Of course, I didn't say any of this to Rowan. No, I kept my composure and did what any freaked out mama would do: I snuggled into bed with him, pulled up the covers, and called out for reinforcements.
Kyle wasn't impressed.
He discovered that Rowan's monster was actually the smoke detector. "Oh, right," I thought. "That makes sense."
Deep down, though, I know that my cuddles reassured Rowan as much as Kyle’s investigation did. At least that’s what I’m choosing to believe.
So we now have a new division of labor: mama cuddles while daddy investigates.
Works for me.
-Angie