Err in judgement

So up until about 6 or 8 months ago, we didn't have cable TV. Even though we have it now we don't watch it all that often. We haven't joined the masses and gone into TiVo or DVR territory just yet. (mostly because I haven't had the time for my Myth project www.mythtv.org) One of the things that Ellee, Isaac and I like watching is Animal Planet. It has lots of different shows. Everything from Animal Cops to some crazy show called Living with the Wolfman. We haven't watched the latter. (No he's not a werewolf, but its all rather disturbing.) One show that we did watch was named Weird, True, & Freaky. (Now one would assume that the title of the show would have threw up some kind of flag, but alas we commenced to watch...)

The particular episode that we watched was counting down the top 10 freaky animals. It started out with a cow with what they described as having a "parasitic twin." It showed this cow with a couple extra legs growing out the top of one shoulder. (Nothing too troubling right?) Needless to say, the list started on a steady decline into more groteque images of two-headed snakes, two-headed pigs, two-headed this, two-legged that. While Ellee was watching the list regress (with every image being firmly embedded in the depths of her imagination) Isaac must have become bored and wasn't paying much attention towards the end. The grand finale, and most abominable creature on record, was this one-eyed, cyclops, newborn piglet. One eye right in the middle. (I must admit that it was mildly unsettling.) As luck would have it, this show ended around 8:00 or 9:00 in the post-meridiem so I turned my attention towards getting the kids into bed before their mother got home. (Yes, I failed to mention that Katie was out that evening with some friends, blissfully unaware that I was warping our first born child's imagination.)

There I was, in a race against time. The brushing of teeth, and changing of diapers has never taken place in such an expeditious manner. Isaac laid down for the night with very little reservation. Ellee, however, was not being as efficient as I had hoped so I went to help the cause. Quite some time after I got Ellee into bed, Katie got home and went in to check on what should have been two sleeping children. As Ellee told her mom (every detail) about the show that we watched I peeked my head around the corner and saw the look of concern on both of their faces... That was weeks ago, and just this morning (at around 4:00 AM) Ellee came into our bedroom because she was having a bad dream. With tears in her eyes, she told me that she was scared of me because in her dream I was the cyclops! I felt like such a schmuck. At 4 am I didn't consider this, but its kind of appropriate that I was the disfigured person in her dream. That will teach me.