Three dreams

You may remember that Isaac recently claimed he doesn't dream.

This morning right before he woke up (in my bed) he began talking in his sleep, and it sure sounded to me like he was dreaming we were at the grocery store. He said, "No, no! Not the regular cart, Mama! I want to ride in the car cart!"

Imagine Elmer Fudd saying this, though, since Isaac still doesn't pronounce his Rs very well. So he was talking about what sounded like the "cow cowt." Luckily it's a pronunciation I'm used to hearing.

The strange thing is that Isaac almost never goes to the grocery store with me anyway. He and Craig have been doing the weekly grocery shopping together for Isaac's entire life. They mostly go to Whole Foods, which I don't think even has car carts. But when I do go to Safeway with Isaac, it's true that I refuse to push him in the car cart. I think I did it once, and it was just too heavy. So now I tell him that Mama isn't strong enough. He'll grow up thinking I'm a weakling, but at least I won't have to push him in one of those cumbersome germ-filled carts.

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A few nights ago Isaac said (also while sleeping in the big bed), "I wasn't done with that." After a moment or two, he said, "I want that snapping thing back."

Neither Craig nor I could think of a "snapping thing" that we own, so I figured Isaac was talking about something at school, perhaps something that another child had taken from him. I was proud of him for standing up for himself in his dream.

When Isaac woke up, he was still asking about the snapping thing. He wasn't sure what it was, or where he had seen it, but he knew he wanted it back. He also knew what color it was: purple.

We never did figure out what it was.

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And unfortunately Isaac still has those nightmares where he thinks animals are trying to get into the house. (Craig points out that he probably does hear animals scrabbling around outside, as the raccoons and woodrats walk across the roof in search of our fig and apple trees.) Frequently after Isaac has woken in a fright, he'll ask, "Are the foxes all outside?"

Sometimes I tell Isaac that considering that we sleep with a dog in our bed, I hope for the foxes' sake that they are all outside! But not only are dreams not logical, Isaac isn't even certain of the difference between dreaming and reality.