Dreams

This morning, at 5am, I heard the pitter-patter of little feet as Lainey came into our room after having a bad dream. She said that there was a witch and a guy with red eyes trying to get her . . . maybe Nightmare Before Christmas shouldn't be her favorite movie.

My favorite nightmare of her's happened a couple of months ago. She woke up in a panic and yelled, "Mom, I NEED you!!!" It frightened me quite a bit to be honest. When I found out it was just a scary dream I asked her what it was about and she explained that a trash man was chasing her. To get away she jumped in . . . a trash can. Not her best idea seeing as the trash man just came and picked up that trashcan and started to dump it! She was terrified and rightly so!

Tonight as she and I cuddled she said, "What if I have that scary dream again?" (The one about the witch and the red eyes.) So we decided to come up with alternate dream ideas--rainbows, pink and purple zebras (her favorite animals . . . every Sunday as we drive to church she asks, "Can't we get a Zebra?") I suggested that one dream she could have would be "About frogs and they are hopping all around and you are chasing them and they find a pond and jump right in!" She giggled at the idea and then added her own ending . . . "And so I put on my bathing suit, put on my life jacket, put on my sunscreen and when it dries I jump in and catch those frogs."

So I have a few thoughts . . .

1. While I am extremely tired, I do enjoy and hope for the sound of Lainey's pitter-patter to my bed in the wee hours of morning or night. She snuggles and cuddles and falls asleep in the protection of my arms and, as she is an active almost 4 year old, I have to live up these times as much as possible since I know they are bound to end . . . sooner than later.

2. I wish that her nightmares and worries could always be about "trashmans" chasing her and witches with red eyes because those are things that I can protect her from. Those are things that aren't real like friends being mean and tests being hard and boys being jerks and insecurities and self-esteem and bad people and all those horrid REAL things of life. I hate seeing my baby growing up and knowing that she has to face life.

3. I am glad that she's so safety conscious, but MAN . . . swim suit, life jacket, sunscreen AND dry time? It's a dream!!! You don't have to do those things in a dream where you can do ANYTHING! I mean by the time she finished all her pond prep, the frogs would be long gone!