Godzilla!

Oops.

I said that something (I can't remember what) looked like Godzilla.  Then Leif said, "No mommy, Godzilla is a gorilla."  Then I said, "No, it's like a giant lizard."  Erik backed me up, and then offered to prove it by showing Leif some old Godzilla movie clips on YouTube.  You can guess how this might turn out.

Leif and Erik enjoyed the clips.  Laika did not.

Erik stopped the clip as soon as he sensed her tension, but the damage had been done.  She is now afraid of the giant fire-spewing lizard, and I'm just waiting for her to run to our bed in the night.  

We spent all evening talking about how Godzilla is actually a nice man named Jeff, who lives in Japan (but I thought that 'Jeff' sounded really non-threatening), has two kids and now works in a hot dog stand.  He doesn't even have that Godzilla costume anymore!  The buildings were made out of cardboard!  Then Leif sat down with a piece of paper and a felt.  He drew a picture of a tall building and a small man.  He said, "OK Laika, so this is how buildings REALLY are. But this is how they made the man in the Godzilla suit look big. . . " then he turned the paper over and drew a big man and a tiny building.  He said, "This building is made out of cardboard." Laika said, "I get it Leif!  I didn't know they were made out of cardboard."  So, she GETS that Godzilla isn't real, and really believes it, but is still worried that he might catch a plane to 'our village'.  This is part of being 3.

At least this fear is a little more understandable than Leif's big fear: 

the scary letters on the Curse of the Were-Rabbit poster.