Afraid of the dark!

I have to tell the saddest story just to get it off my chest. Last night Daddy and I were getting you ready for bed. We have quite a routine at bedtime. We give you a bath, and lately you've been really into turning on the cold water ("COLD!") and splashing it on yourself and Daddy (Mommy hides). You scream with delight when you splash Daddy and see his reaction and scream with exhiliration when you get splashed with it! I always try to turn the water to warm but you protest for more COLD!

We dry you off and put your cream on, jammies on and then we go to the nursery where you say "Bubbles!" You and Daddy go and fill up the humidifier and watch as when the tank is replaced the bubbles come up. Then we do "Jump" where Daddy lies on the floor (and sometimes you tell him exactly where to lie) and you stand on his chest and jump off. Sometimes you come up short and end up landing on your bum on Daddy's chest and you get a kick out of that too.

Then we read a book of your choosing and last night it was The Busy Little Mouse. So the book is about the little mouse going around the farm and meeting all the farm animals. The last two pages are about the little mouse going to bed, resting his head, blowing a kiss, turn out the light, and the last page says Goodnight. We looked at your face and you had the hugest pout on, and you just stared and stared at the page.

This was such a strange reaction for you, I didn't know what to make of it. I put the book aside and you insisted that I read it again. I started at the beginning but you flipped all the way to the last 2 pages and so I read, the little mouse goes to bed, rest his head, blow a kiss, turn out the light, goodnight. Then you just broke out in tears and turned and clung to me sobbing!! I couldn't figure out what had happened. I sat with you and tried to console you for a while and then it dawned on me....you're afraid of the dark! It was the line "turn out the light" that you were reacting to.

We used to have a little Grobag egg which is illuminated and told the temperature in your room but it conked out about 3 weeks ago so we took it out of your room. Then you had this aquarium attached to your crib that lights up but I thought it made too much noise and that maybe it was keeping you up so when it ran out of batteries a week ago we didn't replace them. You had really been protesting our leaving you at night this past week but I didn't put 2 and 2 together! So poor little baby had been having a really hard time this past week with the room being much darker than you are used to. It is so frustrating that you can't tell me these things.

I had Daddy replace the batteries in your aquarium and we turned it on and put you in your crib. We talked about the fish and crab and bubbles for a while and you didn't protest when we left, you were just fine with it. UGH!

So that is how we discovered that you are afraid of the dark. I looked up some info about fears at this age and the dark topped the list. Poor baby. Anyways, all is well again and thank goodness we read that book!