Goblins Gonna Get You

Lily loves her library books. We pick out a huge stack each time we go so we have new books to read at bedtime (for a while at least) every night. Lily goes through them pretty fast. She could sit through reading all of them at once if someone was willing to do that for her. We would probably lose our voices in the attempt. Mike is so awesome - he reads her 2 or 3 every night, and some of them are pretty long.

(Lily probably had another stack with her over on the couch)

Anyway, I try to get some seasonal themed books for Lily at appropriate times through the inter-library loan. It's so nice to be able to reserve books online and just go pick them up from my spot on the shelf when they come in! The down side is we don't always know just what they're going to be like before we pick them up,  and don't always take the time to look them over before bringing them home. (Did I tell you the story about the bed wetting book? Lily did not have a problem with that until the night after Mike read her that book. Message: Lots of kids wet the bed-you can still go to sleepovers-it's okay... Luckily it must have been a just a fluke or ironic coincidence.) Well, with Halloween coming and the girls dressing up like witches I reserved a bunch of books along those lines. This book of Halloween poems, innocent though it may seem, turned out to be maybe not such a good idea...

Lily has been afraid for some time of going to the bathroom alone, or into the next room, or sometimes even just across the room by herself to wash her hands or fetch things. Sometimes it's probably stubbornness or laziness, or wanting a little extra attention, but sometimes it's genuine fear! You've got me why. But... as a kid I had a pretty overactive imagination...and I think we can safely say Lily has, too.

Well, things were getting better. With a little extra coaxing and a bribe or twenty-two - Lily had finally gotten in the habit of going to the bathroom on her own. SO nice for busy parents who would rather not have to stand guard for imaginary monsters. But...since reading this book Lily has been a little extra clingy, and I swear Sierra has been too (though I am sure it's not for fear of ghost or goblin in her case). I feel like I am attached to my kids at the hip right now...and it's throwing my back out.

Lily is imagining this green goblin sitting in the little plum tree in our backyard waiting to play with her. I have to admit - it is kind of creepy. It probably didn't help that when I read it to her I put a little extra inflection in my voice to set the mood (it's habit!).

Who thought a children's library book would create so much drama!? This ghost poem was pretty creepy too.

It really brings it home to kids the idea of the unseen. Look at the terrified expressions of the little girl and her cat. ...My poor little Lily and her overactive imagination! I still feel guilty for that time I jumped out and yelled Boo! at her when she was like two and she burst into tears! Honestly, she can be a pretty dramatic little girl!

Isn't this a cool Haunted House picture? I printed out a few copies of these for Lily and her cousin to draw their own monsters and pumpkins on today. I have to say I do love these illustrations! :)

On a side note - since we have been talking goblins here... Anyone else remember a children's Halloween song that went: "Goblins gonna get you if you don't watch out....Goblins gonna get you if you scream and shout!"? I think there were some "Oooo---"'s in there too. I don't remember all the lyrics, but my brothers and sister and I loved that song when we were small - we had a record of it and now we can't find it anywhere. So fun - I'd much rather have that to play than any creepy haunted house sounds on Halloween!