Scare...Mamma...Scare

The last several nights have been very rough for DJ and I. We are in our seasonal "Monsoon" season so get afternoon/evening thundershowers every day. The thunder is very disturbing to Cole and he gets very nervous. When the storms are in the late afternoon and it's still light outside Cole seems fine - he gets nervous but we are right there and he can see we are not afraid and can talk to him about it. The thunder at night-time is a different story. He cries and screams out to Mamma and of course I go running to comfort him. He gets up anywhere from 2-4 times and DJ and I just take turns. We are SO not used to this - Cole has always been a very good sleeper at night. 730-730.
Funny thing is, the last couple of nights we haven't had any "munder", Cole's pronunciation. So we don't know if he is scared of the dark or has gotten into the habit of us running when he calls. It's a tough situation because we both want him to self soothe himself to sleep but if he really is scared we don't want to mess with that. Last night when I put him to bed as soon as we walked into his room Cole said, "Dark Scare". I explained there was nothing to be afraid of and mommy was right across the hall and then went and got his nightlight. Then he cried "Tractor Dark Scare". So who knows, maybe he doesn't like his tractors outside in the dark.