Nigh-Nigh Beasts

When I put Vivi to bed tonight, she assured me that she would go to sleep “wif no cry-cry! Nigh-nigh, Daddee! Nigh-nigh!” I went out to check my email and wait for the semi-inevitable cry-crys, and sure enough, a few minutes later, I heard some noises that did not suggest sleep. I went over to listen at the door, but she wasn’t yelling – only singing a song that went, “Something something something Ohhhhh-bama! Obama! Obama! Something somethiiiiiiing OBAMA!”

I went back to the computer, hoping for this was some sort of weird lullaby. Inevitably, the singing soon turned to calling. “Daddy! Come IN! Daddy!” I went in right away, hoping to arrest a slide into full-on screaming and crying. “What’s wrong, honey?”

She half-sat up and said, “Daddy? What’s that? I see a ghost! On Oo-lia’s bed!’ I looked over at Julia’s empty bed, and sure enough, the turned-back white comforter did look a little bit scary. “Oh, no, honey, that’s just Julia’s blankets. Here, I’ll straighten them out.”

As I pulled them back flat, Vivi asked in a low, trepidatious voice, “Daddy, a monster coming?”

“No, honey, there are no monsters coming. Monsters don’t exist.”

“Beasts?”

“No, there’s no such thing as beasts, either. They’re just pretend, in stories. Like Sleeping Beauty and Snow White. Just make believe.”

She sat up higher and looked right at me. “But I YIKE Snow White. And Seeping Beauty! I yike them!”

“Oh, I know, honey. I like them, too. But they’re just in stories, like the Beast or a ghost. Not real.”

“Not re-ah?”

“No, they’re not real. We like them, but they’re not real. No ghosts or beasts.”

She laid back down. “O-hay. No beasts. Nigh-nigh, Daddee. Nigh-nigh.”

It’s kinda sad when kids are scared of things like “beasts,” but on the other hand, it’s awfully cute, too.