Just a bee...

I was on the phone with Brian the other day and feeling a lot of morning sickness. All of the kids were upstairs playing. Suddenly I hear a scream, then two, then three. These were heart stopping - somebodies dying screams. I started running upstairs. I think I took the steps 6 at a time.

All the while, I'm thinking that something has happened to Graedon, he's bleeding to death, he fell down the stairs, he's trapped. I hear Ellie screaming "Get Graedon, get Graedon." For some reason I was still gripping the phone.

When I got to the top of the stairs, there was Graedon looking at me with tears in his eyes. Lauren grabbed him and took him to her room. I was so frantic, I couldn't get the upstairs gate open. So I kicked it. Didn't work and hurt my toe. Finally, I wrenched it free and ran to Lauren's room.

Ava was hiding beside Lauren's bed but looked fine. Ellie was in her bed and was fine. Maddie was crying. Graedon was holding a toy and was fine. Lauren was holding Grae and was fine. I looked around for the blood, protruding bones, smashed heads and didn't see anything. So I sank to the ground to catch my breath and try not to throw up.

"What on earth happened?" I roared. "I don't see anything wrong."

"There was a bee in my room," said Maddie.

"A bee. A small stinkin bee. I rushed up the stairs to save you from a bee? Was the bee chasing you? Did the bee sting you? Did the bee ask you for directions to Baskin Robbins - cause that would freak me out too." I asked not so calmly.

"No, it just scared me. I don't like bees." replied Maddie.

I can not begin to tell you how frustrated I was. I was prepared to call the ambulance, to look at a crime scene, I didn't know what. The screams were that awful.

Turns out it was just Maddie screaming in terror. Ellie was screaming because Maddie was screaming. She didn't know what was going on. Graedon was crying because his sisters were screaming and running past him. Lauren was trying to shout "Calm down."

I went to Maddie's room, found the bee (no it wasn't a wasp Maddie) and killed it with Ava's shoe. I left it in the window and told Maddie she didn't have to worry anymore and she had better not react that way again to an insect. It is alright to be scared of bugs but it is not alright to scream bloody murder.

I did devise a plan to fetch the dead bee when Maddie was sleeping and tell her it came back to life when she was sleeping and that I didn't know where it was - but Ava beat me to it and threw it away before bed. Not that I would have actually carried out my plan. 'Cause I am a perfect Mom and would never intentionally try to scare them. ;)