Lately Magoo bawls his brains out every night because he’s scared of the lamp-shadow-turned-ghost that hangs out in his room on the wall directly behind the lamp. And this is sad because he needs his brains. They are small and developing and if he bawls many more of them out, he’ll be in bad trouble. He really is a simple little melon-head that one. From my limited experience, he’s quite intelligent for a 3-year-old but that really ain’t sayin’ much. He’s a little vague and requires an incredible amount of “reminding” to accomplish things like walking in a straight line to the dinner table.
When Magoo cries about the ghosts in his room, he says, “Mom! I’m Scary!”
I try not to laugh because in his current phase of life he IS a little scary. He’s mostly a-freaking-dorable but partially a bit scary.
Tonight when Dan told me that Magoo had cried at bedtime about the ghost, I asked him if he thinks Magoo’s actually seeing dead people.
He does not.
My daughter had a garden room when she was three, complete with indoor shudders.
She was terrified of the shudders.
Go figure…
Oh, poor Magoo! I hope he gets over the shadow fear quickly.
And the walking in a straight line thing – hilarious! My boys are all like that. They’ll be walking straight toward me to do something, hear something else, and then do a complete 180 and head in the opposite direction (always away from me and toward the “something else” – no matter how fun my something was 🙂 It’s either classic boy or maybe just classic toddler.
Just a thought…try keeping a spray bottle of water next to the bed. Like the wicked witch in the west – perhaps the monsters melt when squirted a bit!!
it worked for our little one (although the clothes hanging in the closet ended up a litle damp).
I have a three year old boy too. He just turned 3 on Sunday. If your three year old is anything like mine- I would not put a spray bottle next to his bed….
My Ethan would have way too much fun with that!
The scary nights are hard. I remember being terrified by “a ghost” when I was little. It turned out to be a bathrobe hanging on the back of the door. Just keep loving him and showing him what his fearful objects “really are” and this phase will pass. It may take a while, but hey, I’m never afraid of bathrobes any more.
Boys are so much fun:) I have an 18 mo old after having two older girls – wow what a change! He will be okay:) Loving your blog BTW:)
lol. you are so much fun to read. thanks.
When my son was three we would pick out his dreams each night (after several nights of terror). I would sit on the edge of his bed and look around the room and point at some imaginary fun things that were floating in the air (anything that he might like – toys, trips, movies, funny bugs, pets). Then he would have to grab the one he wanted to dream about from the air. I told him to hold on to it while he went to sleep – he kept his fist clutched around the dream idea. This helped to distract him and let him choose a good thing to start his night. It worked for my son and might help Magoo too. Uhh…in regards to ghosts….at one point my son started talking to his grandfather …the grandfather that passed away when his dad was 14. That didn’t last long but was really different and is still hard to explain.
I used to have to tell the ghosts, dinosaurs, elephants, snakes, monsters and wolves to leave, that it was time for them to go home to bed. That worked for a two year old.
Now I occasionally have to take all of the books out of his room and take all the toy dinosaurs out, because they MIGHT come alive because my son says he is magic and MIGHT make them alive…I’ve tried reasoning with this…”Well, honey, just don’t MAKE them alive….” but he says he wants to make them alive…
Now I just take each night at a time…
Dan doesn’t think Magoo sees dead people, but you didn’t tell us what *you* think. 😉
When our Biscuit was even littler than he is now (also almost 3) he was on a heart medication that is also given to people for stage fright. Naturally one of the side-effects of something that can calm you down is hallucinations. So when he started staring off into corners and occasionally waving I decided that my grandparents were watching over him and had come to visit. It helped *me* deal with the overwhelmingness of impending heart surgeries to feel that I had extra help. The Biscuit was unfazed.
Nowadays he will do whole soliloquies to the corners and is kinda sheepish if he sees we’ve noticed. Since he only speaks Biscuit-ese I’m hoping that my grandparents have learned it. He seems to have really important things to say!
And there is no way I would give him a squirt bottle at bed time. That’s just asking for trouble. 🙂 I sure like the idea of choosing your dream though. I may use that on myself!
i love “i’m scary”!
my sister used to yell, “you’re scared of me!” when we would tell her spooky stories at night, and my 3 year old daughter said the same thing the other night when her brothers were playing with her. i’m going to miss these baby words along with all the others that have dropped off along the way :0(