Nightmares

I was woken up from an absolutely horrible dream (which I will not terrify you with because I don't want to remember it anyway) this morning at 5am by M standing next to my bed just staring at me. I asked him what was wrong, and he told me, "I had a really scary, bad, dream." I told him I did too and that he could crawl in bed with me if he wanted (that is one bonus of Chris being gone - I can snuggle with scared children without caustic remarks from the other side of the bed). He climbed right up into my bed, claimed my pillow for himself, snuggled right up next to me, and put his ice cold feet on my nice warm legs. About two minutes later E arrived, and when I asked him what his trouble was he told me, "Mafu scared me. He was screaming." Yikes, I think that would have scared me too. So, I invited E into bed with us, and he snuggled up on my other side - I was now sandwiched very tightly between two scared little boys with ice cubes for feet and sniffly noses. I was debating whether to just get up and take the boys back down to their beds when I realized my shirt was very wet. Apparently the T alarm had gone off - it was time to feed the baby - or at least that's what my boobs thought. By the time I fed and changed T, changed my shirt and the sheets on my bed it was 6:30am, and I decided that was close enough - we could get up. The boys were super excited to get an early start on Saturday and the good cartoons. I never let them get up (especially to watch tv) any earlier than 7am. When I called Chris later to find out how his night had gone he reported that he had slept in until 9am. Funny how that worked out. He has to go to work to get to sleep. I need a job.

Despite the early awakening, we had a pretty fun day. My parents came to keep me company, we took the boys sledding on all the nearby (within walking distance) hills, we drove out to visit Chris, and we took a hike at a park near the hospital. When we pulled up to the park M asked us what we were doing there, and we told him we were going to take a walk. He informed us, "I hate hikes! I don't want to walk. Why can't we just go to Daddy's apartment?" I told him that I knew just how he felt. When I was his age (and older), I always wanted to know why my parents had to take us hiking and camping when other "normal" parents took their kids to cool places like "the mall and stuff." I also told him that I ended up liking hiking a lot and that he probably would too. He just looked at me and repeated, "I hate hiking." Huh. Get out of the car. It was beautiful out today - about 20 degrees and bright sunshine - no wind. Perfect for an afternoon hike in the woods.

And in other news:

Look who discovered the joys of the sippee cup! He loves it - and he is very good with it! This baby did not have one single bottle - not that I was trying to set a record or prove a point with him - it's just an observation.