All three of our children have been sick for the last few days - with various levels of fever, blocked noses, and sore throats - the product of a visit to a birthday party last weekend.
Our four year old was by far the worst afflicted - running huge temperatures, and waking in the night with nightmares and speculated hallucinations.
Monday night was broken by a little girl on the upstairs landing calling “Daddy” inbetween sucked breaths of air - I was of course on my way there before she called. Something told me the footsteps I heard from the other end of the house were not altogether right.
There were apparently spiders in her bed. After a thorough search in front of her, I kissed her forehead, tucked her in, and switched the lights off.
On Tuesday evening myself and W were busy cleaning the kitchen when we heard screams. We both raced upstairs to find four year old and three year old screaming at the top of their voices in the dark.
“What’s wrong?”
“There’s a Lion!”
We switch on the lights and show them there is no lion, and both return to bed in immediate silence. The four year old is hot to touch.
Neither of them were awake at all on either occasion. It’s been the lesson of the last few days really - seeing an apparently awake child in front of you doesn’t mean they are awake at all.
Who knew that fever can conjure spiders, monsters and lions ?
The morning brought gentle questioning over cornflakes, and apparent non-recollection from the children. The eldest of course woke up during the screaming episode - and complained bitterly “why did they have to scream at something that they dreamed?” - I guess we’ll remind her when she has a nightmare.
I remember nightmares. I had them rarely, but I remember them clearly… all except the one I had as an adult a year or so ago. W woke me in the middle of the night - I had been screaming with my mouth closed. Figure that one out. I had no memory of why I was screaming either.