Peek-a-boo, I see you!

It's your lucky week - call it a Christmas gift - but I am blogging twice in one week. The events of last night (er, this morning) warrant another post so none of us forget (and I remember to pay Matt and Samantha back for their "thoughtful" Christmas gift to Aly). The picture above is from last month, but I had to use it so you could get a good image of the culprit in last nights mystery (and no, not Aly). Read on for the Case of the Ghostly Games.

Despite getting her third tooth in, Pumpkin was sleeping relatively peacefully last night. That means Aaron and I were also deep asleep. Suddenly, I am jolted from my slumber by these words: "Peek-A-Boo, I see you!" It wasn't Aaron's voice and Pumpkin doesn't talk. It was a high pitched, sing songy, creepy almost mocking sound, faint but clear. I never thought such childish words could invoke such terror.

I sit up, convinced I must have been dreaming when, in that same awful voice I hear in the distance, "Hug me, you're my friend."

Then, a few moments later, "This little Piggy went to market..."

So I have figured out that it is Pumpkin's favorite doll...what I haven't figured out is how or why it is going off at 4 in the morning. I shake Aaron awake, terrified and refusing to go walk into the den to find out why this doll is going off. I've tried to figure it out - and, since you have to actually push the button to make the doll talk, I convince myself it can only be one of three things: (1) Pumpkin has learned to climb out of her bed, crawl across the entire house, and find toys in the toybox; (2) a giant rat is walking around in the toybox; or (3) the house is haunted and the doll has turned into Chucky. The more I think, the more convinced I become that it is #3.

Aaron goes out the living room and I hear silence. I'm secretly hoping he has butchered the doll. When he walks back in, I nestle into my pillow just in time to hear "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes" in that haunting voice and look up to see a red glowing heart beaming from Aaron's arms. I all but jump out of bed screaming. Somehow he silences the thing and hides it under our bed, but I cannot sleep with that thing so close and I just lay in wait for the next horrifying cutesy song to start.

Honestly, before last night I never knew just how creepy a "Peek-A-Boo" could be. Now, I am unsure when I'll ever be able to play the game with Pumpkin again. But don't worry, we didn't throw the doll (or its batteries) away and Pumpkin played Pat-A-Cake with it this morning when she woke up. I just made sure to say on the other side of the room :)

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