Fright.

When one lives alone in a house, one should not watch marathons of "Ghost Hunters" before bed. Especially if your kids are not there either. Just a helpful hint.

So, while I was awake last night...*cough*...I remembered the time, when Arianna was about 6, she had this thing where she'd wake up in the middle of the night and wind up sleeping on the floor at the foot of my bed. Now, at that point, I only had a full mattress, so most of the time, when I was sleeping, my feet would dangle over the foot of the bed.

So, on this particular night, she decided it would be a good idea to attempt to wake me by reaching up and grabbing my ankle.

Now...

I'm a light sleeper. So, when, in that fuzzy state between deep sleep and sort-of awakeness, you perceive that something is reaching up from underneath your bed and grabbing your foot....well, let's just say that every cell in my body retreated into the direct center of the bed. If it had been physically possible for me to cling to the ceiling like they do in cartoons, that's totally what would have been happening.

She must have heard whatever noise I managed to emit at that point, because she popped her head above the foot of the head, and asked "What?"

The stream of expletives that emanated from my body PROBABLY weren't good for a 6-year old to hear, but TOTALLY justifiable, in my opinion!!

(For the record, she just laughed her ass off once she realized what had happened. My child is a sadist.)