Dreams

Everyone has a bad dream every once in a while. Sometimes Matthew wakes up in the middle of the night because he is out of sorts. Sometimes it is because he seems to have had a bad dream. A couple of weeks ago he woke up and was crying. I went in to be with him. While he was still out of sorts and crying he said, "No, I want to do it myself!" I couldn't help but laugh afterwards. Unless I am mistaken, Matthew was having his greatest fear realized in his nightmare. He was not being allowed to do something himself. Someone else was doing it for him. Like many kids his age, Matt is obsessed with doing things himself, and he can get pretty cranky (even devastated) if someone does for him what he wants to do for himself.
This got Karina and I talking (and joking a little) about what might be some equivalent nightmares. What would we wake up screaming? As far as our son Jack goes, I think he would wake up crying if he had a dream that he had just finished potty training. Now, understand, I am not saying that the potty training process would be a nightmare to him. I am saying that being done with diapers would be a nightmare to him. The reason is that his favorite activity seems to be having his diaper changed by his mom or dad. If he is in a bad mood, we change his diaper, and this always seems to cheer him up. It does not cheer him up just because he is uncomfortable and wants a new diaper. It cheers him up because he seems to love the process. We put him down on that changing table and he is just glowing with joy.
Let me tell you, There are a lot worse things in life than a kid who loves having his diaper changed.
That only leaves Karina and me. Karina said that she could see herself waking up screaming, "No, take away the raw chicken!" My wife is notoriously thorough when it comes to cleaning up after raw meat. Again, I can think of a lot of things that would be worse to obsess about. I could also see Karina waking up and screaming, "Enough with the mattress commercials!" She hates the cheesy local ads.
As for me, I am not sure. I mean, let's face it, I have survived a lot. I am still functioning even though 24 has not been on the air for 9 months (and it looks like it may not return until next January).
I survived Shaw leaving the Lakers, winning a title with the Heat, and now returning to the Western Conference to play with the Lakers' division rival, the Suns. What else can they do to me?
Seriously, though, I think I might wake up in terror if I dreamed that I was on an international flight and they were playing a Mr. Bean marathon on the movie screens.
Now that is a nightmare.