Tired and cranky is the new black

I'm overcommitted, as usual. And under-rested.

Last night, Bean suddenly developed the screaming heebie-jeebies that burglars were going to break into her room and take stuff. She saw a shadow on the wall (a tree) and, quite simply, freaked the hell out.

I ended up letting her sleep with me and Dr. Pig slept in the guest room. Normally, this wouldn't fly with us, but she was terribly upset. I put her to bed in our room and went back later. When I got into bed, she pretty much wrapped herself around me and slept that way. (Well, she slept. I don't sleep so well with a leech attached.) That alone lets me know we made the right decision on sleeping arrangements, because she's never, ever done this before. Normally, if she has a bad dream, she'll get into bed with us for a few minutes and then go back to her own room.

Hopefully, she'll get over it today, because the whole sleeping with Mom thing is not going to become a habit. Yeah, yeah, famous last words and all that, but I sleep poorly enough as it is. I'm not inviting a hyper monkey to sleep with me. The way she flips around in her sleep, you'd think she was spring-loaded.

So, if anyone has any advice about how to get a small child over the fear of burglars (extensive discussions of the fact that we have a locked gate on the backyard, a dog, and a burglar alarm were to no avail), I'd appreciate it.