Lately, when the boys wake up, they have gone out into the hall or down into the living room and played without disturbing Andrea and I (much).  This morning, they wouldn’t leave the area around our door.  When I asked Ben why he didn’t want to go play in the living room, he said it was because he was afraid of the man who’s jaw changes.  When I asked him to explain, he said that one of his classmates told him he had seen a guy on TV who’s jaw changed and became scary.  Andrea pondered the thought of some other little boy being allowed to watch a horror movie and I wonder if the kid had accidentally seen the commercial for “Fright Night”.

Either way, when we got down to the family room, near the fireplace, Ben continued to explain that if you hear a ghost noise coming from the chimney and you look up into it, the guy will pop out and try to bit you.  I explained to him that it was just a story and that people tell them because they like getting scared. Me?  Just writing his little story is giving me the creeps and I may have to sleep with the light on.  It’s 11:30 at night and I have most of the lights on, now!  It disturbs me to have my back to the family room as I type.  I’m surprised I could calm Ben down at all.  And, how bad is it that a five year old can give me a case of the creeps?

It isn’t the first time, either.  A few months ago, Ben woke up in the middle of the night claiming there were bugs all around his room.  As he was explaining this, his eyes were darting to all the corners of his room as he cringed in fear.  Of course, he had been on a bug kick at that point and his imagination just ran with it, but he sure had me feeling like my skin was crawling.

Another time, in our old house, he creeped out both Andrea and I.  He complained about hearing music coming from the attic at night.  Once he had pointed this out, Andrea and I each heard it on separate occasions.  I remember one night lying in bed with Matthew (he was having a tough time sleeping and I was trying to comfort him) and that was all I could hear.  We eventually figured out that it was the old antenna that was on our roof, just above the kids’ rooms, and when the wind blew across it, it made a whistling noise.  I was ready to get the hell out of the house, though, before we figured it out.

Anyone else have any good stories of their kids giving them the heebie jeebies?