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Dream Making

For entirely selfish reasons, I allow J to skip her afternoon nap on Sunday. She goes down earlier in the evening and Monday is not nearly as manic. Everyone wins.

Typically, J looks forward to an afternoon of fun and games which involves pulling every last toy she owns into the living room and mixing that up with empty boxes of cereal, cans of yoghurt, discarded costume jewelry, clothes (mostly hers some mine), crayons, paper - in all a mind boggling mix of things.

The games are mostly pretend. An empty can of yoghurt surrounded by white lei is a bird sitting in its nest. I am supposed to watch my step around the bird because she'll be scared.

Four pairs of socks stuffed into a plastic container with three chopsticks stuck in them is a birthday cake with three candles. I enjoy learning what things stand for in her imaginary world and have enough time to get work done as well.

Today, J tells me that she is tired and wants to nap instead of play. I am surprised and ask her why she is tired.

"I did not have a good dream last night. I need to dream a good dream now" she tells me. I can believe about the bad dream because she was crying in her sleep for a few minutes last night.

"How do you make up a good dream ?" I ask her all curious.

"You build a pretend castle with pretend blocks and knock it over. Then you have a good dream" she explains.

"Only a castle, nothing else ?" I ask hoping she will tell me more. This is getting to be interesting.

"If you build pretend tall buildings then you have bad dreams. You need to knock it over and build a castle" she clarifies. J gives "building castles in air" new meaning.

"So what do you see in a good dream ?" I ask.

"Manhattan, sleeping beauty, music, grandma and grandpa watching a movie, mommy driving a pretend car" she enumerates in what is clearly an incomplete and inadequate list. I had no idea that Manhattan had made such a profound impression on her.

"You know J, I did not know how to make good dreams. I'm going to try to make them too like you." I tell her

"You have to start with the pretend blocks and build a pretend castle first" she reminds me sagely.

My little dream maker, may you always remember to make beauty out of chaos and teach me how when I forget.

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Comments

Anonymous said…
Thanks for the tip J! I seem to have a good control over the initial part of my dreams. If I have nightmares, now I know a way out!

Mantra: Knock it off and build a caste! ;)
7:20 PM
Heartcrossings said…
Bleu - I must pay closer attention to random things that J says. There may be pearls of wisdom I am missing :)
8:37 PM
bilbo said…
HC,
you must also blog abt those pearls of wisdom. Must dig out my pretend blogs to avoid those nasty nightmares now.
:)
11:45 PM
Heartcrossings said…
Hey Bilbo - Nice to see you here ! I love your blog specially the pictures of the great food you cook. Will be sure to blog the wisdom of J :)
7:41 AM
Priyamvada_K said…
HC, The last lines touched my heart. God bless J.

Priya.
4:13 PM
Heartcrossings said…
Hi Priya

Thanks for stopping by. Long time no see.
10:35 PM
Reshmi said…
that was an absolutely lovely post hc!! :)

lil J gets an extra warm hug for including Manhattan in the happy picture :D
its gr8 to know how kids find their own way of dealing with such stuff.
2:45 PM
Heartcrossings said…
Reshmi - Thanks :) With J I constantly discover ways to make complex things simple - its such a lovely gift children have.
9:03 PM
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