The Dark

It took a few days to come to this conclusion, but Robbie is afraid of the dark.  It started Wednesday night when he was fighting going to bed-we just thought he was overly tired.  After several trips to his room, telling to go back to bed, I pulled out my no fail trick.  I turned on our video monitor, which has a 'talk-back' feature so that I can talk to him through the monitor.  This ALWAYS works to get him to go back to bed--I think he thinks I'm the voice of God and he must obey.  The next time he turned on his light and started to get out of bed, I told him through the monitor to go to sleep.  He listened this time, laid his head down and went to sleep-leaving his light on.  I didn't think much of it and turned it off on our way to bed.  This same story repeated itself Thursday night.  I still didn't think too much of it until we had the following conversation while putting him down for his nap on Friday:

R: "No lights"
Me: "I'll turn them off"
R: Whimpering begins, "Lights off"
Me: " I know Bud, I'll get them." turning off the light
R:  Now beginning to cry, "Nooooo, lights off"
Me: "They are off."
R: Hysterically crying at this point, "Lights off."
Me: Now totally confused, "They are off, do you mean you want the lights on?"
R: Still crying, "No lights; lights off"
Me: Turning the lights on, "Is this what you want?"
R: Slowing the crying, "Yes"

I came away from this conversation with two conclusions: my son clearly has 'on' and 'off' confused and he is officially afraid of the dark.  Thus he has slept with his overhead light on for every nap and night since then.  We've tried a night light and a lamp, neither of which make him happy.  He must have the 'big' light on.

I feel bad for the poor kid, and hate to think of him being scared.  I'm hoping this is just a short-lived phase caused by all the changes with Baby Sam.  He's done amazing with the addition of Sam, I shouldn't be surprised its causing some change in him.