Beware of the Spider Bombs

While I was in the kitchen this morning, Melinda asked me, "Mom, how do spider bombs get into our house?"

"What?? What are spider bombs?" I ask, totally confused.
"You know, spiders that get on arms."
"Spiders that get on arms? What kind?" thinking, maybe she's talking about those creepy little jumping spiders that always seem to be near our windows.
"They crawl on your arm and then blow you up."

....big pause, trying to process what she's saying...
"Spiders that crawl on your arm and then blow up?"
"Yeah. I had a dream that spider bombs crawled on Daddy's arm and blowed him up. I dont' want them to blow me up! How do they get into our house, Mommy?"

Where on earth did she get that idea?? Oh yeah... we watched Swiss Family Robinson yesterday, they had coconut bombs there...

"Well you know, Melinda, dreams aren't real. There's no such thing as spider bombs. Sometimes, brains remember things while we sleep, and try to make sense of them. Sometimes, they think of two things at once, like spiders and bombs, and then silly things like Spider Bombs are in our dreams. But they're not real, it's just your brain trying to think about those things some more. Does that make sense?"

"Yeah."

Okay. Hope it really did make sense. It sure threw me for a loop! And it's kind of hard to explain dreaming to a 4.5 year old, isn't it??