Apparently, it's very easy to unwittingly terrify a 5-year-old. This must be the age when the subconscious goes on a paranoid nightmare spree? Because of this, I've spent the last two nights in my daughter's bed.

Example: I had noticed that Lily never wants to sleep with any blankets, even though she has a really cozy, down-filled pink butterfly blanket I bought on ebay.

Finally she comes out with it the other night, the big question: "If I use covers, will I die?''

What are you talking about? I asked.

"You told me a  long time ago that if I used covers I would die.'' 

 I have no idea what she is referring to. Maybe I said if she wraps up in a plastic trash bag she'll die. But I'm quite sure I never told her she'd die under her cozy pink butterfly blanket from ebay.

"You must have misunderstood,'' I told her.

Then she woke up crying in the middle of the night. I had to go get in bed with her. I asked her what she was dreaming about, and she said, "A bear.''

Gulp. When I washed her hair that night, I used strawberry shampoo, and I joked, as I always do when using strawberry shampoo, that "now you smell like strawberries and a bear is going to come eat your hair.''

She thought it was funny. But I guess her subconscious was terrified. Ooops!

On Saturday she had her dance recital. Her grandma warned her not to lick her trophy or use it as a drinking cup because it might contain lead. And actually, we just wrote a story about kids' toys with too much lead in them. Lily took all this in quietly. Hours later she started telling Bob (her dad, my husband) that the trophy has 'boisons' in it that ruin your brain.

She's also been asking lots of questions about what kind of activities would land a person in jail.

I guess she's on a fearfest.