Blame it on the Bunny

At precisely midnight, my five year old came trotting heavy footed into my bedroom.  The sound of fear could be heard even through my earplugs.  Without thought, I took the silencers out of my ears while Addie's face met mine, nose to nose.  "Mom, I am scared" she said.  Her voice sounded panicked.  I imagined if I could hear her heart, it would sound like she just ran a one minute mile.  "What happened, did you have a bad dream?" I asked.  Addie replied with question after question:  How does he get into the house?  Is the door locked downstairs?  Will he come into my room?  Does he talk?  How big is he?  

I pulled back the covers and planned to wait until she fell asleep to carry her back to her room.  After an hour, I carried a very awake child back to her own bed.  There, she grabbed my arm and said, "You can't leave me, the Easter Bunny might be downstairs!"  So, as any mom would do for a frightened child, I climbed into her bed.   Finally, after two hours of trying to sneak out of her bed, I climbed back into my own bed next to my husband who remained naive to all the excitement.  At some point I fell back to sleep.  It felt like it was under a minute before I was woken up with the words "Come on mom, come on!"

The Easter Bunny is mysterious.  There are a lot of unanswered questions about him.  Questions that pop into the mind of a five year old as she tries to sleep.  The Easter Bunny is not as "known" as Santa.  Addie went to sleep on Christmas Eve and never awoke once.  She even convinced herself that she got up to greet Santa and had a snack with him during his visit. Santa feels more familiar, since there are so many stories and movies about what he is like, how he gets the presents under the tree, makes the toys, and even how his laugh sounds.  He is relatable.  He is not a large rabbit who may or may not talk.  As Addie said on Easter morning as she looked at an egg hidden high upon a shelf, "Wow, the Easter Bunny must be tall!"  Yes, he could be tall, but that is all she really knows about him.  There is always fear of the unknown.  The questions faded with the morning light and were not asked again.  I remember as a kid, I really did not want to know all the answers because maybe I would hear an answer I wasn't ready to hear.  Until the sun fully shines on the subject of EB, I will continue to thank him for my sleepless Easter Eve's!  At least there are abundant jelly beans to keep me going!