Night Fears

Saturday night, we put Keltan in bed, and he was sleeping soundly.  About 2 hours later, he woke up and started crying.  We let him go for a while, thinking it was the normal little "I want to be around Mommy and Daddy" cry, but finally I looked at his monitor, and noticed that his feet were no longer touching the mattress!  I hurried into his room, only to find him laying across the top of his crib, wanting to make the drop to the floor, but rather nervous about doing so.  By the way, this was the 2nd trip into his room.  Mommy had gone in to sooth him a few minutes earlier, and he was asleep when she left the room.  
Well, I picked him up, and he was shaking, and had a wild look in his eyes.  I knew it wasn't the normal night time upset, so, after I got him calmed down, I sat him on the changing table to talk to him.  I asked him to tell me what was wrong, and he said "bug, bug."  I asked where the bug was, and he pointed to the ceiling.  I looked on the ceiling with him, and showed there was no bug there.  He kept saying "shoo, bug", and hitting his leg like he was trying to squash a bug.  Normally, he would laugh when he did the "shoo bug" thing, but this time there was no laughter.  Apparently, the kid had "seen" a big bug on the ceiling that he was afraid of.  After we talked and I got him calmed down, I attempted to put him back in his crib, but he kept trying to climb out.  Finally, exhausted and nothing else to do, I relented and took him to our room.
Sunday night:
At bath time, I decided to try something I had read on the internet.  I turned out the bathroom lights, and got a flashlight.  At first, he was apprehensive, but when he saw how cool his various toys looked sitting on top of the light glowing, he started having a good time.  We put all his toys on top of the light, and saw which on glowed and which did not.  It was my hope that, by doing this, I could help him realize the dark could be fun.  When I put him in bed, I also left his door open and turned on the closet light to increase the light in the room.
2 hours after putting him in bed, he woke up - screaming.  Inga went to check on him, and he was kneeling in the back of his crib, hiding his face against the wall.  When she picked him up, he was again shaking.  She had to finish her work, so I took him, and rocked him and talked to him about what was going on, and how Daddy wouldn't let anything hurt him, and how Jesus would take care of him, but I don't think he was too much listening to that.  There was surely a bug on his ceiling, and it wasn't going away.  My bum got tired of sitting in his rocking chair, so I finally took him and laid him on our bed while we were getting ready for bed.  I then took him in to his crib, and laid him down.  Crisis averted!
Until 2:39 AM.
I woke up and heard him making noise.  As I listened for him to cry, I heard a little "pitter patter, pitter patter", then our door flew open, and there was a little noggin running around the bed!  He spent the rest of the night with us, and Daddy gets to convert his crib to a toddler bed tonight.  Oh, and we are in the market for a twin bed with storage underneath so that we can sleep in his room with him when he has his night terror episodes.


In other news, Uncle Craig was down this weekend.  Keltan had a blast with him!  At mealtime, I allowed Uncle Craig to take my spot next to Keltan in order for him to have the FULL experience!  By full experience, I mean the food from Keltan's plate being systematically transferred to Uncle Craig's plate, the hands being covered in cheese and ketchup being wiped down his arm, and the climbing up behind in the chair to put his ketchup-covered arms around him.  Needless to say, you wear short sleeves when sitting next to Keltan!