To Freak Out or Not to Freak Out? Imma and Frosty the Snowman

This is our friend Frosty:

Our old pal, Frosty

Frosty has lived with Brian and I for about 8 years.  He sings, dances, and is a regular jolly guy.  I love Frosty and one of my favorite events of the Christmas season is hauling him out of the closet, pulling his head out from under his body, attaching his head to his neck, pushing down on the spring, and watching him bounce up and come to life! There's nothing like a little Frankenstein Syndrome to get one ready for Christmas.  There's just one problem. . . . Imma is terrified, TERRIFIED, of Frosty this year.  She has had a love/hate relationship with Frosty for the last 5 years.  When she was little she would impishly totter over and touch him, running away as quickly as her little chubby baby legs would carry her.  She would eventually warm up and then start dancing as he sang such greats as, "Jingle Bells" and "I Wish You a Merry Christmas."  Last year it was a little more difficult.  She was really scared for a long time and I thought maybe we should put him away.  But eventually she got to where she not only wanted him out, she wanted him on ALL THE TIME.  That got a little annoying and I actually started to dislike Frosty a little bit.
This year, Frosty is upstairs, in our guest room closet, still in his box with his head under his body.  Why?  Imma is literally petrified of him this year. I got him out of the closet when I was getting my Christmas stuff out and she freaked out!  "NO!  No Frosty, Mommy!"  If anyone even walks past the room where he is kept, she starts yelling, "No!  Don't take him out!"  So, Frosty stayed in the closet this year and I've been so busy I've hardly missed him, though Imma reminds me of his existence everyone time I take a step in the direction of the guest room.
So imagine my surprise today when I walked into work and saw this:

The Frosty in the display case at school.  Photo by Imma

Uhm, ya, that's Frosty's twin, uhm, Frosty.  He was in the display case at our school!  Every 6 weeks a new team of teachers switches out the decorations in the over-sized display case near the office and this wonderful team of teachers had used a snowman theme. It's gorgeous and creative and I absolutely love it. Except I was sure Imma was going to FREAK OUT!! when she saw it.  I mean, really, what are the chances that two Frostys live in our little bitty town? Not very likely!  But, here he was, standing there in the window ready to scare the pants off of my little girl.
So, naturally I did what any over-protective mother would do. I panicked. I went to Imma's teacher, interrupted her class a little bit, and said, "There's an s-n-o-w-m-a-n in the display case and if Imma sees it she is going to start screaming!"  Imma's wonderful teacher (who could probably tell that Imma is not the only one on the verge of  freaking out calmly said, "Ok.  We don't go past there until Friday so she'll be okay until then."  But then I realized that Imma goes past there twice a day with her resource teacher and she also has to walk past there to get to speech!  So I ran off to find her other teachers and warn them of the inevitable screaming fit that was about to happen.
Luckily, her teachers are much more calmer than I am.  They assured me that they would try to distract Imma when they went past and would reassure her that it would be okay.  Now, keep in mind Imma literally covered her eyes and ears for an hour after Santa visited, so I'm not sure my own freak out attack was completely unwarranted.
Nevertheless, Imma did not freak out today at school--thank God!  Her resource teacher was able to walk her past without much of a conversation, though Imma did notice.  Then, on the way back to her class, Imma stopped and told her teacher about the snowman.  After school, I found Imma standing outside of the display case window, talking to Frosty and taking his picture with my phone. I walked over to her and said, "What are you doing?"  She said, "He's best friends! And he's got a storybook in he's hand. See?"  Her resource teacher happened to walk by and Imma told her the same thing.  She went back out to visit Frosty two more times before we went home and had to tell him good-bye. I was amazed that she didn't freak out!  But I think her teachers staying so calm really helped.
Unfortunately, ever since we walked in the door, Imma has been screaming and acting very upset.  She has told me several times, "Don't take it out, Mommy!" I'm not sure if she thinks that was our snowman at school or if she now realizes there isn't just one. She is currently sitting next to me repeating, "No, it's not okay!" and  I have no idea what she's talking about. Something tells me we're in for a long six weeks!