Nightmares
I must have missed the bulletin which announced a huge sleepover in my room last night. Both Gleek and Patches got the bulletin though. Patches arriving in my room is fairly frequent, so that wasn’t too surprising. Gleek’s visit was prompted by a truly terrifying nightmare. I know this nightmare was terrifying because as we approached bedtime this evening she curled up in my lap and cried to me while she told me the details. She also requested with big watery eyes that I please allow her to stay up until Howard and I go to bed. Then she can just go to sleep with us and be safe. Specifically she wants Howard to snuggle her because he is the safest person. I didn’t give her request a definitive answer because there were three other things going on simultaneously to the conversation. Gleek ready to snuggle and talk is a rare and precious event. I really wanted to savor it and focus on her, but Patches was having a meltdown because he couldn’t get ketchup to come out of the bottle. After 5 minutes of distress I finally set Gleek down for a moment and blorked some onto his plate, at which point Patches set to whining because he’d already run out of hot dog and now had nothing to dip in the precious ketchup. I couldn’t help it, I laughed. Then Patches dissolved into full-on crying because Mommy Laughed At Him. So Patches needed snuggles and Gleek needed snuggles. Both wanted undivided Mommy time. Moments like that are one of the hardest parts of parenting. It seems like I’m always being tugged in multiple directions by conflicting needs.
The three of us snuggled into the rocking chair and had a talk about dreams. Gleek talked about her dreams and Patches seriously discussed the dreams of his stuffed Yoshi. Apparently Yoshi has sad dreams that no one will play with him. (I think that Patches was discussing his own scary dreams, but doing it safely by displacing them onto Yoshi.) Gleeks dream featured monsters with glowing red eyes which catch people and suck out their souls. We talked about what causes dreams (no more Harry Potter for a while methinks) and what we can do to make them less scary. We dreamed up a whole arsenal of imaginary weapons that Gleek can use should those monsters dare to show up again.
After all that it was 8:30, no homework was done and no kids were in bed yet. Today was supposed to be the day of re-establishing a normal schedule. Sigh. At least Patches is in bed asleep. Kiki and Link are both quietly working on homework and Gleek is laying on a couch not sleeping until Howard gets home to snuggle her. I figure I’ll concentrate on the older two for awhile. Gleek may fall asleep on her own, thus solving the issue. One night of catering to a particularly frightening dream isn’t a problem. I do have to watch for patterns though. Hopefully she’ll have good dreams tonight and by tomorrow night the nightmare will have faded enough that it won’t be as big a problem.
Oh, and Link acquired a retainer today, so needed to talk over why he needs it and what it will and won’t do. Why do they all have emotional crises on the same day when I’m so worn out?
