Last week, I think on the 12th, the kids were in their room playing quietly (i.e. not fighting!) while we grownups were reading online. We'd already eaten dinner and everyone was basically relaxing a little before showers and bedtime, putting the time this happened right around 7-7:30 p.m.
The boy was building with Legos, and we thought his sister was helping or at least doing the same thing. We soon found out differently!
I was sitting at the dining room table, reading Fark.
Poseidon was across the room from me, at the desk, reading somewhere else.
Miss Hurricane came into the room and stood by me for a minute, all the while looking back into the bedroom (which is just out of sight from where I sat).
Mister Twister was still in the bedroom... so I asked her if something was wrong.
Being siblings, sometimes they irritate each other - that is what I thought may have been going on at the time. She ignored my question and crept back into the bedroom.
At this point, I thought she was acting a little strange; however she has acted this way before, and I didn't hear any yelling or anything from the bedroom, so I let it go. I figured if she wanted to tell me, she would eventually.
So... she ignored and went back. I went back to reading. Not thirty seconds later, I hear her scream. It was the kind of blood-curdling scream that scares a momma out of her skin. I have heard Miss Hurricane let out this particular scream a few times before, and it's usually only unleashed when she sees a snake in the back yard.
Timeline now is: girl screams - I fly out of my chair - she runs out of the bedroom screaming.
I saw a look of absolute terror on her face. I thought for sure there was a snake in the room. *THEN* Mister Twister starts screaming and he also ran full-speed out of the bedroom, with his own terrified look.
And here's where I freak out, thinking now that maybe there is actually a *person* in their room. I thought I may have heard three screams, but I felt certain that one came from outside the house (neighbor kids, possibly). That did not matter at the time, because as the kids are screaming, I am trying to corral them into the kitchen and Poseidon is freaking out a bit as well.
Now we're all screaming - parents trying to figure out what just happened, kids freaking out over something that terrified them both. Mister Twister's eyes were solid black - he was so scared that his pupils dilated completely! Both kids were crying and even cowering in the corner of the kitchen, with Poseidon and I separating them from the rest of the house.
I took a step toward the bedroom to see if someone was in there, and I couldn't see anything amiss. So I grab the girl child and start the snuggling and asking what happened. The boy has his hands over his ears, eyes still as big as saucers and tears streaming down his face. I felt totally helpless and scared too.
Amid all the freaking out, I heard two words that explained it all: Miss Hurricane's little voice said "scare maze". Dots connected in my brain and I started giggling a little bit. I told their father what she said, and we two were okay and could now focus on calming the children. That is also when it clicked for me - I *did* hear a third scream.
After a few minutes I found out that she had been watching YouTube videos on the iPod Touch. I have always let her use my account (which is why my 'favorites' is loaded with Mario videos LOL), and she's always gone looking for either Mario videos, or funny animals.
**Here's a warning for the faint-of-heart or those who scare easily - also, if you have kids you may want to mute this or use headphones and don't let them see it until you know how it ends.**
Click HERE to see the video that scared our kids nearly to death. It isn't bad, not gory or anything, but for a child who isn't used to seeing or hearing those things it can be frightening!
This entire scene unfolded in a matter of minutes. Maybe three or four minutes, but its effects were felt throughout the next day.
It was a family bed kind of night - my husband slept with a kid on each side in our bed, and I took the pullout couch since I am the first one up on school mornings. Those poor kids... but it was funny in hindsight. The next day while they were at school, I went into my YouTube account and deleted the history so she wouldn't find that video again! I am also going to give her her own account (the boy will have one of his own too) and will set her up with some favorites - and SafeSearch turned ON. (That's my bad, I had it off and forgot... bad momma!)
File this under "Won't Do THAT Again, Will Ya?".
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