The Bee

Yesterday morning began when Hannah woke up and I promptly began changing her diaper. That is when fear struck in the heart of my child, and she leaped off the changing table into my arms (half naked, I might add). She was pointing and grunting and pointing and grunting. That's when I noticed she was pointing at the smoke detector in her room. The same smoke detector that has been there since before she was born and the same smoke detector that has never gone off, not even once. As a matter of fact, a smoke detector has never gone off in our house since Hannah has been born. She couldn't stop staring at it and all the while her fingernails were digging deeper and deeper into my neck. I tried to explain to her that the smoke detector had been there her entire life and that it was not scary, but she was having none of it. Eventually I just had to put her back down and let her scream in fear while I finished changing her and got her dressed. She was screaming so much that it woke Kyle up and he had to come out and investigate what I was doing to our poor baby. From that moment on, until we left the house, Hannah would not let me put her down. That was impossible since I had to get ready to leave for work so she spent most of the morning clinging to my leg and screaming.

Now, fast forward a few hours. Hannah and I made it back home, Kyle has woken up (he is working nights and sleeps during the day) and I was busy cooking dinner. Kyle was with me in the kitchen when all of a sudden Hannah was clinging to his leg and crying. Kyle, just a tad annoyed, asked her what the problem was. She was pointing to a tub and saying, "Bee, bee, bee." We went over to investigate and there was a small dead bug in the tub (not a bee, just a bug). Kyle took the "bee" and put it in the trash. We showed Hannah it wasn't there anymore, but she refused to go into the kitchen for the rest of the night. All we heard about for the next few hours was, "Bee....bee....bee."

Now, fast forward to 2AM this morning which is when Hannah started crying. I went into her room to try to comfort her. I laid her back down in her bed and that is when the screaming began. This wasn't just any screaming, this was a terrified scream... like a monster was about to eat her scream. I tried to let her cry it out a little bit but when I realized that was not going to work (and I also felt bad for our neighbors whose room is on the other side of the wall). I brought her into bed with me for about an hour. She didn't go to sleep so I decided to just put her back in her bed and let her cry herself to sleep. Once again, that didn't work so she was back in my room. She stayed awake playing, laying in dog's beds, and falling off my bed until 6 AM. She finally fell asleep just in time for Kyle to get home, so I tried to transfer her to her own bed and as soon and I laid her down she began the screaming. This time though she stood up and was looking over the edge of her bed and into her closet. So...back to bed with me so that I could at least TRY to get some sleep. As soon as Kyle came home she passed out between us for 3 hours.

Now, fast forward to nap time today. Hannah will not lay down and is still looking and pointing at her closet. I put everything in her room in her closet and shut the door. She is now soundly asleep. I'm not sure what is so scary about her room, you know, besides the smoke detector.
Whew! I hope this "I'm Scared" phase doesn't last long!
Here is a video of Hannah talking about the "Bee"