Spashlight Fun

Brianna is at the age where a simple flashlight can provide hours of entertainment. We know, 'cause we gave her a small penlight the other day and she was enthralled by it all day. She was calling it her "spashlight" and shining it into her face, on her fingers, and then later in the evening, into dark rooms. She would walk over to one of her parents and say, "Hey, want to come in the dark with me?" Then she'd take your hand and proudly lead you over to a darkened room and shine her "spashlight" around. It was kind of funny because she would also shine the light up, into her face when she was talking, just like you do when you're telling scary stories. She liked the "spashlight" so well she insisted on taking it to bed with her. I thought, oh well, what harm could it do? Well, it didn't do her harm so much as make her into a night owl. Two whole hours after we'd laid her down we could still hear her in there, talking to herself. Finally, Travis peeked in on her. "What's she doing in there?" I asked him. "She's still playing with the flashlight." he informed me. Finally a short while later she was asleep. But, alas, catastrophe struck around 2 a.m. when Brianna happened to have a wakeful moment and she realized that her precious "spashlight" had used up it's batteries and wouldn't shine anymore. This led to a pretty good meltdown and a 15 minute calm down talk. Makes me wonder about the wisdom of my choice of a Buzz Lightyear flashlight for one of her Christmas presents. While I'm sure she'll thoroughly enjoy it I'm thinking the new rule is no "spashlights" in bed.