the perceptions of a 3-year-old

Yesterday evening, Kyle came downstairs to visit with his dad and I; he should have been sound asleep. This is what followed:

Kyle, calmly: I'm getting kind of disturbed in my room.
Dad: Why's that?
Kyle: Because. I keep hearing what sounds like chickens?
Dad: Really....?
Kyle: Yeah.
Dad: Do they sound like "chirp chirp chirp"?
Kyle: No, they sound like "COCK-A-DOODLE-DOO!!!!!!!"
Dad: Ok...
Kyle: And they're on all the chimneys.
Dad, stifling laughter: Ok, well, it's time to go up to bed now. You can turn on your CD to help drown out the chickens...


And then last night at 3:45 AM, Kyle came bursting into our room, very upset. He must've been really agitated because I went to turn on my lamp, which I don't usually do when he comes in at night.

This move brought on screams of horror-movie quality. He really let loose. I thought he had a mouse in his hair or something! Talk about adrenaline ~ my heart was really going after that.

It turns out that when he saw my arm reach for the lamp, he thought there was something flying. It really scared him; he even mentioned that it was going to get Ben. After Jeff got him calmed down a bit, the three of us lay there, trying to return to normal breathing. Then we heard a soft knock on our door. It was Ben, and we called him in.

Me: Come in, honey. Was that loud? Did you the noise scare you?
Ben saunters over to my side of the bed, glancing around casually.
Me: That was pretty loud, huh? The noise?
Ben, wide awake, calmly: What noise?

At this point Jeff and I just lost it. The thought that he hadn't noticed the blood-curdling screams, when his door and our door were opened was just too funny. Besides, we had more than a bit of built-up tension from the incident we'd just endured. It took me some time to get my giggles under control, I just couldn't stop....

I'm sure the screams did wake him up, but that he just didn't consciously hear and remember them.

After getting the boys resettled, we received a few more visits from Kyle, who announced that he was "feeling startled." The night ended with both Ben and Kyle bringing their sleeping bags & pillows into our room and camping out next to the bed.

It was the only way Jeff and I could hope to get any more sleep!