Timeout Boy usually wakes up about 5 to 10 minutes before the alarm goes off. (And by alarm, I mean "Sesame Street" on Channel Thirteen.) Sometimes, he'll just lie there in his crib. Or he'll play and we'll hear him saying cute things to his stuffed toys. Sometimes he'll go back to sleep, and sometimes he'll climb into our bed and cuddle.
Not too long ago, he woke up around five in the morning crying. He climbed into our bed, and when I hugged him, I felt that his heart was beating real fast. So I asked him what was the matter.
"Are you scared?" He nodded his head.
"Did you have a bad dream?" He nodded again.
"What did you dream about?" He didn't say anything. I didn't want to probe further and remind him of his bad dream, so I let it go. I comforted him and told him everything was all right now.
After a while, I knew I wasn't going to be able to get back to sleep. And I saw that he wasn't sleeping either. So I asked him if he wanted to watch Sesame Street. He nodded yes, and we went over to the other room so we don't disturb Mommy.
We had an early breakfast, and I made hot chocolate and toast for when my wife wakes up. When Timeout Boy had calmed down, I asked again what his dream was about. I guess I wanted to get some insight into his subconscious, maybe learn what's weighing on his two year old mind, and maybe it'll help me somehow to respond to him better.
He didn't seem interested in talking about it. "Did you dream about a monster?"
"Yes," he said. Then we watched "Sesame Street" together. (I recorded a bunch of them so we can watch them back to back without him going nuts when the show is over.) It was a particularly cold day that day, and I warmed up the car so it was nice and toasty when my wife got in.
Later that day after work, I decided to ask my son again about his dream. He just pointed quietly towards the wall. There's this picture of a playful monkey with the words "Monkey at Play" that we bought from the dollar store when we were still expecting. "The monkey?" I said. He nodded his head again. "The monster was a monkey?"
"Yes," he said. I laughed. I told him that monkey was nice. I was trying to figure out what my son thinks about, and what goes on in his dream psyche and stuff like that. I guess maybe he was staring at the monkey before falling asleep or something. I don't know.
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