The Scary Show

The girls picked a random show from Kids Netflix to watch this evening while I cooked dinner, and man, did it scare the bejeebers out of them.  Julia was actually so scared that she left the room and refused to watch any of the rest of it.  Madeleine soldiered on through, only to become intensely terrified of pretty much EVERYTHING for the rest of the evening.  She spent the next few hours with a blanket wrapped around her head like a shroud, and she needed a companion to go into another room, even if the room was adjacent to the one we were in and we could LITERALLY SEE EACH OTHER while in separate rooms. 

The show obviously pumped up her adrenaline and got her mind whirling, because she had a SERIOUS case of verbal diarrhea while I tried to put her to bed tonight.  Add that to the fact that she was too afraid to let me leave her room, and it turned into a marathon bedtime session.  Even after I suggested she try to settle down and get sleepy, Madeleine just kept jabbering on.  About once per second I was barraged by: "But Mama" or "Well Mama."  Or "But Mama, just ONE MORE QUESTION.  How come...uh...just TWO MORE QUESTIONS.  How come...blah blah blah blah blah..."

I think my favorite conversation we had was this one:

MADELEINE: So Mama.  When I grow up...I'm gonna live with YOU.
ME: You are?  But you might want to live in a house of your own.
MADELEINE: No, I'm just gonna live with you.
ME: How come?
MADELEINE: Because.  I'm just gonna have babies here and live with YOU.  But...me and Julia are NOT gonna watch tv.
ME: Oh.  Okay.
MADELEINE: And Mama?  I bet that I won't be scared of the dark when I'm a grown-up.  Because...I think that I will just...fall asleep REALLY quickly.  And I will be BIG and STRONG and I won't be scared when I'm a grown-up.  But...maybe I'll have to work and YOU won't.
ME: Oh, really?
MADELEINE: Yeah.  And maybe when it's night-time, Daddy will go to bed and *I'll* stay up and do the dishes.  (laughing to herself) That would be RIDICULOUS!

I'll tell you what's ridiculous.  This kid here: