"I see dead people"

The other morning, I was walking down the stairs with Blue in my arms and we stopped to look out the window. It was very misty and still outside; everything was covered in frost.

We have a very wooded lot that is adjacent to the Fredericksburg Battlefield on two sides. The part we were looking at actually has a trench that runs along our property, parallel to our house.

"Who's that, Mommy?"

Blue has been mixing up the words who and what. Which sounds pretty spooky sometimes. Like when I am upstairs in her bedroom tucking her in at night and she says, "Who's that at my window?" (It's always the moon.)

I looked around for anything she could be talking about. I didn't see a thing. No deer, no squirrels. No signs of life.

I told her, "Those are trees, baby."

"No," she said. "Who's that?"

"Who's what?" Now I was really confused.

"The people," she said.

I looked again. "What people, honey?"

"All the people. Who's that?" she asked again, pointing.

By now I was getting a little creeped out. It's very easy for me to look out at the yard sometimes and imagine Civil War soldiers back there. And it was, as I mentioned, a very cold, still morning.

I hugged my Blue and dashed down the stairs and said, "Let's get some breakfast!"

How freakin' creepy.