The Haunted Pictures

A few weeks ago, the girls took a trip to CVS with their aunties and returned home with their very own Halloween decorative items.  Julia had a plastic framed photograph of what looked like a prim little girl at one angle, and a demon spawn at another angle.  Madeleine had a junky plastic glowing light in the shape of a pumpkin, which promptly broke.

Yesterday, the girls discovered that there was a second picture stuck to the back of Julia's demon girl.  They immediately began fighting over who got to have it.

JULIA: Mommyyyyy!  There was another picture on the back of my picture and Madeleine thinks SHE should have it!
MADELEINE: Mama!  Julia won't let me have it, and it's not faaaair, because she already has one, and my decoration BROKE!
ME: What is the picture?  Is it a part of the original photo or is it a separate picture?
GIRLS: It's SEPARATE!

They were absolutely right.  Somehow a second plastic-framed photo had been wedged into the plastic backing of Julia's picture.  The newly-found photo was of a grandmotherly-figure who, at a different angle, turned into some sort of ghoulish skeleton face.

I ordered Julia to relinquish this picture to Madeleine, so that they could each have one.

JULIA: But Mommy!  I wanted to KEEP it because I like WRITING about the characters!

She speaks the truth.  She wrote up a whole name and back story for her demon girl:

"KEIRA EVILSON, age 10
1776-1829
Keira led a hard life.  At age 5, whenever she was mad, she went crazy.  This happened to her paernts, too.  But not her 10 brothers and sister.  She was the 10th born, with 1 younger sister.

P.S. Happy Halloween!"

Huh.  What a coincidence that someone with the last name Evilson actually *was* evil.

At any rate, Madeleine became the rightful owner of the grandma-skeleton, and apparently having that face in her room gave her nightmares.  After being woken repeatedly throughout the night by Julia, who was having trouble falling back to sleep after waking up to pee, I then had a visit from my buddy Madeleine.

MADELEINE: Mama?  Can you come snuggle me?
ME: (desperately wanting to sleep) Mmmph...why?
MADELEINE: Nightmare.

So I went into Madeleine's bed for a few minutes and cuddled her until she felt safe once again.  As I prepared to leave and head back to my own bed, Madeleine wanted to make certain that her nightmare wouldn't actually come true.

MADELEINE: Wait.  Mama.  Are you SURE there won't be any crab or lobster standing on two legs dancing around on the floor by my bed??
ME: I'm sure, honey.  Good night.

This morning, when I asked Madeleine to go get dressed for school, she was still scared.

MADELEINE: Uh, Mama?  Can you come with me?
ME: Why?  Are you still scared of the crab and lobster?
MADELEINE: Well Mama?  I just don't know if that thing is CALLED a crab or a lobster. 
ME: Oh, so there was only one thing dancing around, and you just aren't sure if it was a crab or a lobster?
MADELEINE: Right.
ME: And you're still scared of it?
MADELEINE: No, I'm not scared of that anymore.  I'm just scared of my PICTURE.

Turns out giving Grandma Skeleton to Madeleine wasn't such a great idea, after all. 

MADELEINE: It's just that when you turn your head, she starts looking REALLY CREEPY.  Like Mama.  Look at her!  She looks like a SKELETON with NO EYES and no TEETH!
ME: Should we just give it back to Julia then?
MADELEINE: Uh-huh.  (grabbing the picture) Delivery!  (running to Julia's room to get rid of it.)

So Julia got her way, after all.  And she wasted no time getting right to work on the old lady:

"Nora Raveing was Keira's great aunt.  She was a school teacher.  She started teaching at the age of 16.  She was very strict.  Like Keira, but in a different way.  When someone misbehaved, she turned into a skeleton."

Well, I'm glad that Nora Raveing will no longer be haunting Madeleine's dreams any more, though I sure hope the lobster-crab doesn't make any further appearances either.  Mama sure needs a good night's sleep!!