Giant Pink and Black Spiders

Our poor daughter. We discovered a black widow near the door of our house a couple of days ago. She is three-years-old and has never liked spiders anyway, but apparently seeing the large arachnid was the last straw.

That night, she woke up three separate times screaming, nearly hysterical, after dreaming about spiders. I do know that, at one point, she had a dream that giant pink and black spiders were crawling down her walls to sit on her tummy while she was in bed. We finally just let her lay in our bed for a while and eventually I exchanged my pursuit of sleep for a zombie-like stupor while she watched an episode of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. 

All day yesterday, she talked about the spiders. She was so frightened of them, she wouldn't even go into her room with the lights on until I went with her and showed her that there were no giant pink and black spiders hiding in her covers. 

Exhausted, she fell asleep in the car for a while yesterday. When she woke up crying about spiders trying to get her in the car, I knew this wasn't just going to go away. 

So yesterday evening, we mixed up some spider spray. A special spray of water with lavender essential oil that she could use to spray all over her bed and her room and it would keep those nasty giant spiders from even coming near her. We sprayed her bed, the walls, her umbrella, each of her stuffed animals (especially her teddy bear so that he could help bonk spiders on the head), the rug and even the ceiling. Then her daddy brought in a wooden mallet that she and her teddy bears could use to really knock those spiders out, though she shouldn't expect to see them on account of all the spray. 

Our daughter was nervous. But after saying a prayer for peaceful dreams and giving hugs and kisses, we left the room. 

Thankfully, she fell asleep almost immediately and slept peacefully all last night. This morning, she woke up with a triumphant grin. "There weren't any spiders in my room!" 

We have a lot of extra anti-spider spray and we may have to use it again tonight. But here's hoping there aren't any giant pink and black spiders wandering the house at night anymore.