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Family Dreams

Rachel sleeping in box of popcorn (by tlbignerd) One of the best things about being a parent is to see someone else notice what you’re doing, and get passionate about it.

When I started the dream journal, it was just for me to see what I’ve been thinking about. It’s helped me remember a lot of details in dreams, and move past them, never having them again. It’s been great. Alas, it’s another thing I stopped doing recently since waking up in the middle of the night and writing for 15 to 30 minutes made me too tired in the morning. But, I also saw how much my dreams drove my daily thinking, like I’d dream and forget about some song, wake up and have all kinds of memories related to that song.

Rachel soon noticed what I was doing with the pad of paper in the morning, and asked about it. From then on she would wake up each morning and proudly tell me what her dreams were that night, and then tell me to go write them down.

These aren’t incredibly deep or long ones. One on August 15th was

Tico (the squirrel from Dora) pretended that he had Swipers nose on his regular nose.

But I love hearing what is going through her head. Recently I woke her up in the middle of the night to go potty and she mumbled this

Daddy, I dreamed that we had [something something, it was mumbled] and Madeline was here and Winnie and Rika and Slate. But Slate wasn’t sick anymore.

Slate is our friend Melissa and Madeline’s dog that they had to put down last year. I don’t know why, but Rachel thinks about her often, even before she was sick. We’ll say we’re going to see Melissa, John and Madeline and she adds “and Slate.”

I got just a tiny bit emotional, I don’t really cry much, but I love how Rachel understands life, the good and bad, and is also always imagining a better place.

Peace,
+Tom

P.S. In case you didn’t know, the picture above is Rachel pretending to sleep in the box of popcorn. She got at least an hour of enjoyment from that box. I got an hour of exercise constantly picking up and returning the popcorn that fell out. It was a really great time.

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Comments

Missa said…
Ok, I was a teeny bit emotional too reading that, how sweet!!!!

madeline brings up Slate often too, saying she misses her and that she must be feeling better now that she is in heaven. Somebody recently told me that Slate's precence was still in the house, in the hallway infact wathcing over the bedrooms. Often I'm woken by a sudden noise that I kow only existed in my dream, but it would suddenly wake me out of a dream state, I think that is slate bangin on the wall as she lys back down to change her position :)
October 5, 2008 at 10:08:00 PM EDT
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