Dreams

I had a horrid dream last night.  In the dream I kept forgetting about my Tralee.  She was a toddler again, and first I forgot to put her in her car seat.  Then I left Tralee in the car while I went into a store with Jim.  Once Jim and I were in the store for at least thirty minutes I turned to him and asked, "Where is Tralee?"  The worst part of the dream was I just kept shopping after I was told Tralee was left in the car alone.  I think Real-Leslie began to think for Dream-Leslie because the longer the dream lasted the more panicked Dream-Leslie became that Tralee was all alone.  I awoke from my dream whilst Dream-Leslie was running in the parking lot to get back to her daughter.  When my eyes opened at sometime-in-the-middle-of-the-night-o-clock, I began analyzing my dream.  My conclusion was I dreamt about forgetting Tralee, because I haven't been spending as much quality time with her as I should.  She's growing up and maturing so fast, and sometimes I get so busy trying to make it through the everyday, that I forget to share a special moment or two with my Stinks.  Guilt stricken, I jumped out of bed and rushed to my sleeping beauty's side.

I actually ended up crawling under Tralee's polka-dot covers with her.  I nuzzled up so close I could hear her breathe, and fell asleep with my arm cloaking her slumbering body.  My conscience must have been at ease after this, because my next dream was very Downton Abbey-ish.  It was quite fun actually.  I was trying to get a chubby aristocrat to fall in love with me.  There were fancy dresses, large houses, boating adventures, and delish food involved in that dream, but it was cut short when a little non-fictional finger woke me up with a poke on my cheek.  I opened my eyes and saw Tralee staring into my own.

"Why are you here?" Tralee asked me.

"Because I missed you at night, and wanted to spend some time with you."

"But don't you miss Hunty?"

Many mornings Tralee wanders into our bedroom and finds Hunter under the covers snuggling me.  We like to put our children in their respective beds at night, but many an early morning, Hunter crawls into ours for his final few hours of slumber.  Tralee used to do it too, but has sense grown out of it.  Hunter usually wanders in around 5am-ish.  Tralee wakes up and walks in around 6 or 7, and always finds Hunter snuggling me.  She usually just goes around to Jim's side of the bed, or if he's out of town, she crawls in on whatever side Hunter's not for a few minutes before we all get up to start our day.  When she asked me, "Don't you miss Hunty?"  It occurred to me that she probably thinks I rely on Hunter for my morning snuggles, and not her.

My answer to her was, "No.  I missed you."  A big smile stretched across Tralee's face, and her little body wiggled closer to me, grabbed my arm, and wrapped it back around her.  Her next question was, "Mom, is Pooh Bear allergic to anything?"

"I don't think so.  Why?"

"Because in my dream he was allergic to butterflies.  I ran around and tried to catch the butterflies so I could make Pooh Bear sneeze."

I smiled.  Oh the dreams of a five-year-old!  So sweet!  So innocent!  It re-affirmed my middle-of-the-night-post-dream-musings.  I need to spend as much quality time with Tralee as possible, because my time with her is fleeting, and I don't want to forget the sweet innocent girl I've been blessed to nurture.  She -- as well as Jim and Hunter -- are my real life dreams-come-true!