Nightmares, Playground Fun and Lunch

The last two nights we have had a kid in bed with us in the middle of the night. Not that I mind. However, it's hard to sleep with feet in your back and a snoring husband. When Colin came in on Wednesday night, he was TERRIFIED. We asked him what his dream was about. He said he dreamt that his head exploded and he died. Hmm, that's pretty graphic. As he continued to explain, he sounded like he was going to hyperventilate. We don't let the kids watch scary shows or play rough video games. Tom and Jerry is about as violent as it gets around here. However, after playing an exhausting round of Super Mario Bro. Wii last night, I think I have discovered where the fear came from. Those little dudes explode all over the place. They spit fire, throw ice and kick butt in general. It's a "cute" violent, so I never thought it would have much affect. Guess I was wrong. Thank you Super Mario Bro. Wii for giving my child the type of nightmare that he will probably never forget.

Now onto to nightmare #2. Camden came into bed last night. He was crying and sad. His nightmare was very easy to decipher. Here's some background on our day yesterday.

It has been raining nonstop since yesterday morning. When we walked to the bus stop yesterday, there were worms all over the sidewalk. Camden was fascinated. He picked up worms along the way and wanted to take them home. I assured him that there were plenty of worms at our house and if he really needed a worm, we could get one when we got back from school.

While I was at a Dr.'s appointment yesterday, Steve stayed home with the boys. They did an experiment for school where they had to boil and egg, peel it, look at it and taste it. Not too tough but a little creepy in my opinion. Colin's class has an incubator in their room. They are trying to hatch 12 chicks. They have been talking about the life cycle of a chicken. I have tried to shield the kids from the fact that the cute little chicks will actually become dinner to someone someday. I guess their teacher has a different plan. Since the end result of the egg experiment was to eat the egg, Camden put two and two together. The cute little eggs and the cute little chicks become dinner.

Back to his nightmare. He came in crying and asked is worms really pecked holes into the chicken eggs and then ate them. He was wailing as he said this. Thank goodness it was dark as I know that my face would not have implied empathy at that point. He morphed to major parts of our day into his nightmare. I will be surprised if I can ever get him to eat chicken again.

On a side note, we were at a park over the weekend and a bratty 7ish year old girl told the boys that Santa was not real. Can I just tell you that I wanted to kick sand at her? (Yes, I refrained.) Steve and I managed to cover, but still. Someone must have really wronged that kid at some point. She was cussing and fussing the whole time we were at the park. She was just mean.

Also, while we were at the park, Camden took a super dive into the side of a metal slide. I am not sure how that happened but it left a pretty big goose egg on his head. Steve was with him and I did not hear even a single whimper from across the park. As Steve and I traded off kids, I noticed that Camden's hair was sticking up on his forehead. I lifted his hair and immediately got, "I'm okay" from him. It was a big goose egg so I was surprised that I did not hear him cry. When I questioned Steve about it, he said that Camden didn't cry at all. He rubbed his head for a second, scrunched up his face and said, "I'm okay." Then he started playing again. I guess after two sets of stitches, a set of staples and a round of dermabond, Camden decided that he needed to play it cool when getting injured. I told him last time that if he had to go back to the ER, it was coming out of his allowance. He must really want that Lego that he is saving up for.

You can barely see what is left of the black bruise (which has now turned green) on his forehead. On the other side, you can see the scar that he keeps cutting open. At some point, they will not be able to put Humpty Dumpty back together again.

Last random comment. On Wednesday, I asked the boys what they wanted for lunch. They both decided they wanted to make their own lunch. Who am I to stand in the way of their Independence? Here's what they came up with. Yum.

Silliness

Just a few silly comments made by my kids over the last few days.

On Easter Sunday it was very cold and windy. I just did not seem right to let the day go by without actually being outside. Somehow I just feel closer to God when I am outside. So, we were all outside freezing when Cam comes over to ask me if he can water the flowers. I decided it wouldn't do any harm to let him play with the water hose for a few minutes. As I turned around I saw him with the hose pointed directly at his belly. He was soaking wet! "Camden, what are you doing?", I yelled. "Mom, I'm just watering myself so that I can grow." Hmm, that boy is pretty logical.

Today on the way home from school Camden was telling me all about the birds and the clouds. He was having a full conversation back there in the van all by himself. "Mom", he says, " God sure is imaginative." "What? " Since I know that a four year old should not know the word imaginative. "You know, he has a really good imagination to be able to come up with all of these things.", Camden explains. I guess I just got schooled on what four year olds should know these days.

Every night before bed Colin and I play silly games with his stuffed animals. He reminds me so much of myself when I was his age. It just such a good memory to be able to share with him. We line up his "guys" and wrap them in blankets, serve them a snack, read them books. It's just so cute to see him expressing himself though his stuffed animals.

Today we were getting ready to go outside. He brought down some of his stuffed animals and lined them up on the couch. He then drew a very detailed picture of each animal and the order in which they were sitting. When I asked what he was doing, he said that he wanted to see if any of the animals moved to a different spot while he was outside. He had a - in his words - "sneaking suspicion" that the animals played while he was at school. "Well of course they do," I said. He raised one eyebrow at me and went outside. Guess who moved the animals prior to going outside with the boys? You should have seen the look on Colin's face when he came back inside! Priceless.