Bad Dreams

Friday night was a long one. Hannah made it through night #4 without waking up so that was great but somehow we still managed to be up all night...with Maddy. As I've said before, each week at school, Maddy's class has a theme. They talk about it all week, read books and do art work related to the theme. Friday was a special day and they were able to watch a movie related to the theme. Last week's theme was FARM and Friday's movie was Milo and Otis. Now I've never seen the movie but I'm making the assumption it's pretty tame if a room full of 3-year olds can watch it. However, Maddy went to bed Friday night and proceeded to have nightmares about all things animal and farm related. She would wake up screaming about her "yucky" dreams. We made it through the night but it was rough.

So, Saturday afternoon the tears started again when it was time for nap because she didn't want to have "yucky" dreams. I explained to Maddy that she needs to think of things that make her happy when she goes to sleep so she can dream about that instead. We rattled off a few things that make her happy like butterflies, baby dolls, glitter, etc. She made it through nap without incident. The same thing happened Saturday night before bed so I started the "what makes you happy" conversation again. The evening answers were much different. My favorite response being...the laundry hamper! If there were any doubt before it is official now that this child is mine! Putting laundry in the hamper, washing it and folding makes my little peanut happy! Happy enough that she wants to dream about it :) Some find this troubling and my response is whatever your opinion about my type A personality and that of my child...it worked because we slept all night!!!!

**Unfortunate side note - Maddy's nightmares Friday night were the final straw to convince her some things are worth getting out of the bed. All this time we've had the kid that refuses to get out of bed without someone coming to tell her it's ok. This has been amazing as we hear others complain about finding their kid in the playroom at 5am. Well scary farm dreams convinced Maddy to come find Mommy and Daddy so now she knows the world won't end if she gets out of bed. This morning after a laundry filled restful sleep I found Maddy sitting in the dark, on the couch, waiting patiently for someone to wake up at 6:40am!