"The light, the light switch! It's scary!!"
Zoe chanted as she pranced about the Baby/Kids section of the Gap last Monday morning, stopping in front of the salesladies to let them in on the joke.
They, of course, couldn't really make out the words that were so clear to me, her mother.
Not surprisingly, my translation did little to clear up the confusion. From the looks on their faces, it may have even made it a bit worse. What light switch? And why is it scary?
Indicating Liam, cowering nearby in a rack of sale jeans, I set out to explain the situation:
A few weeks before Christmas, while the kids and I were out Christmas shopping at Mayfair Mall, we found ourselves in the GAP bathroom taking care of business. For those of you who don't know this bathroom; it is HUGE with a sink and change table along one wall and as far away from the door as possible is the single toilet. That's where I was when Zoe turned off the light.
Liam immediately went into a state of shear panic while Zoe exclaimed "it's dark" with a certain amount of wonder in her voice. I of course, was otherwise occupied, so I tried to talk Liam down and get him to feel for the light switch - I mean if Zoe could turn the light off he should be able to turn it back on! But alas, getting Liam to do something while in that state is like..., well, you just can't. Eventually I was free to turn the light back on and do my best to calm my sensitive little boy down.
I thought nothing of this event even though the next time we visited the bathroon there was some tension. But this time around the tension started in the car as we pulled into the parking lot.
"No mommy, I don't want to go to the Gap. I'm scared!"
"Scared of what?"
"The light switch! I don't want to go! I'm too scared!"
(The light switch? ... oh yeah, THAT light switch) "Well, we all went pee before we left so we shouldn't need to go to the bathroom this time. You'll be fine"
NO, I'm scared, I don't want to go!!"
Sometime during this conversation Zoe started up with her chant. As we walked into the store she kept it up, cheerfully exclaiming to one and all that the light switch was scary; chasing Liam with her arms raised, wiggling fingers and 'woooo-ing' just to add to the effect. The 'effect' being; making her older brother fears seem even larger than life and sending him cowering under clothes racks, nearly in tears.
I completed my telling and the salesladies chuckled as understanding of the situation dawned. And then the questions: "how old is she?" & "Isn't she younger than him?" came simultaneously!
"Just past two and yes she is younger than him. But she's a little devil and she knows how to push his buttons!"
Somewhere in the telling Liam decided that maybe he was overreacting just a bit and the rest of the visit saw the two of them chasing each other around the store, pretending to be afraid, calling out "the light switch! it's scary!!"
