bad salami dream

Last night B woke up scared and said he had a bad dream. So I climbed into bed (no small feat trying not to dislocate anything while crawling into the bottom bunk of a not so tall bunk bed...mind you at 12:30 a.m....after being awoken from REM sleep...but I digress) and snuggled him back to sleep.

Earlier this evening, on our way to church, B started talking about his scary dream. I asked him if he remembered why it was so scary. He said, "Well it was the salami's that my friends and I were fighting." I'm racking my brain about how in fact a large salami could be frightening in a young boy's dream. We had just read the "Hungry Caterpillar" by Eric Carle that night and I do recall that the said caterpillar had ingested a rather large salami. But why are B and his friends fighting these large salami's and what makes them so frightening?So I comment, "These were big salami's that look sort of like a hot dog, right?" "No, mommy, like the green guys on the show where they walk like this," and he sticks his arms out in front of him,"the guys we see on that old show 'Scooby Doo'"....Ohhhhhh, he's talking about ZOMBIES....zombies...salami's....well one can definitely feel like a zombie at night after eating a salami. Beware of zombies posing as salami's in your dreams...if so...throw back a few Maalox before bedtime...sweet dreams.

growing up

Lots of growing pains lately...for mommy. Watching my boys continue to develop their distinctive personalities, likes and dislikes, passions. (or should I say passionate likes and dislikes!)

The beginning of another year of school has brought even more changes. Both boys headed full on into school each embracing it according to his personality. J was initially excited; everything was new and interesting, however his excitement quickly subsided as he realized that in first grade the amount of "playing" during school has sharply declined. He's doing well grasping concepts, understanding the work and his reading continues to expand. Things have changed...he doesn't seem to be so impressed by his "new found knowledge"...seems to him new learning experiences come with new responsibilities for one's behavior and work. Don't get me wrong..the teacher reassured A and I thins morning that J is a good kid...he's just..."a boy"...this seems to interpret (in J's case) to a bit distracted, a little restless and somewhat impatient about ANYTHING taking too long!

Tonight J and I played our favorite bedtime game of writing a sentence for the other and then having that person draw a picture to go with the sentence. He really loves that game and I love to watch him use all his creative energy to come up with clever sentences for me to draw and then to illustrate the crazy sentences I hand down to him (i.e. tonight's was "The alien threw toast at his enemies!") As we snuggled to close out the night he showed me his new loose teeth...the two top front and center. It struck me like a knife to the heart...there goes my baby...when those two teeth are gone and his new ones come in..his face will begin to change...it will be just the beginning of his journey into manhood. The dance of our relationship will begin to change once more..and more frequently I will lose the grasp of his hand if only for one moment...but that brief moment will feel like an eternity.