The bad dream

2:45 am, sounds of whimpering coming from the little guy standing next to Mitch's side of the bed.

Mitch:"Buddy, what's wrong?"
Grant: "I had a bbbad dddream."
Mitch: "Come here. {Mitch pulls Grant into bed.} Do you want to tell me about it?"
Grant: {crying, wobbly-voiced and shaky} "Cole fell into the Lightning McQueen box and there was an alligator in there. I tried to save him with a rope, but I couldn't save him. I couldn't save Cole!"

Let me just take a moment to explain and comment a little.
(Explanation part)
The Lightning McQueen box is the box Grant's new sleeping bag, tent and flashlight set came in. It is not THAT big! It's not even as big as Cole. Of course, in a dream, it is capable of holding an alligator and a little brother.

Grant LOVES his brother SO much. Mitch told him how happy it makes us to know that he loves his brother "more than anyone." He said, "We think Cole is pretty special too, so it makes us so happy to hear how much you love him. Do you want to go check on him so you can see that he is okay?" Grant did. He went back to bed.

(Comment part)
Grant has had about 3 nightmares in his life. Apparently, nightmares (or night terrors, or bad dreams, or whatever) are pretty common in young kids. I used to think that if parents didn't expose their children to such violent stuff (on TV/movies, fights between parents, etc.), then they wouldn't have bad dreams. I have thrown out that theory.

You see, much to my chagrin, my children watch "scary movies". This is pretty hard for me to admit to such a wide audience because I know that some of you have strong opinions. Just know that I am embarrassed. You don't need to leave a comment to tell me how wrong we are!

I think it all began with Finding Nemo. Grant was a little frightened of the sharks, so Mitch started saying, "Name's BRUCE!" just like Bruce, in an effort to desensitize our young child.

Next came Shrek. "No, not my gumdrop buttons!" It is a little loud and scary and has a fire-breathing dragon. It was, however, the only other animated movie we owned at the time.

Soon, he was watching scary movies such as Tarzan (which has a gun!) and The Incredibles (which is loud and has a freaky bad guy).

Jump a year or so ahead. Grant loves sharks. His 3rd birthday was a Shark birthday. When he was two, he knew the names of most major sharks and could tell you some really interesting shark facts. We have checked out ALL of the shark books and movies from the adolescent section of the library at least twice. If we are flipping channels and Grant sees a shark on TV, we have to stop and watch. We found a few $1 shark movies at Walmart and now Grant's heroes are "Mark and Rob" the divers who swim with dangerous sharks. Grant told me the other day that he is the only one who likes to watch shark movies and he doesn't know why. So, okay, he likes shark movies, including one called, "Great White Death" (which is quite the bloody documentary).

One evening, while Grant was about 2 weeks into his latest obsession (which we'll just add to the list of obsessions since he never really lets go of the last one), I walked into the house to find my husband and son watching Jurassic Park. Uh. That was WAY too much for me to handle. I "asked" Mitch about it and he said that he was only going to show Grant a couple of parts so he could see the dinosaurs. I said something about Mitch being the one who would be getting up at night when Grant has a bad dream about dinosaurs. Never happened. Grant now watches Jurassic Park. All the way through. Argh.

Later, I walked in to find my husband and son watching Star Wars I - the one with the young Anikan Skywalker. Grr. Grant thought it was the best movie ever. He has now seen 5 of the 6 Star Wars movies. Over and over and over. We still won't let him watch the 3rd one where Anikan turns into Darth Vader. The sad thing is that Cole LOVES the Star Wars movies, too! He's 18 months old. Argh. So embarrassing! You should watch them play light sabers, though. It is SO cute! Cole makes light saber sounds and sings the Darth Maul song just like big brother.

Okay, so this is the part where I exonerate myself of all wrong-doing. One time when Grant was about 3, he had a bad dream but couldn't remember what it was about (or maybe he just wanted to warm up in my bed). A few months ago, he had a dream about me leaving him at a store. Last night, he dreamed that he couldn't save his brother from the alligator. Not the shark or the dinosaur or Darth Maul, the alligator.

Let me make it clear that never, under any circumstances, would I make the decision for another parent to expose their child to Star Wars or Jurassic Park or any other questionable movie. Katie has never been allowed to watch any of those movies in my house (no matter how much they beg), and she never wants to watch shark movies. In fact, we now own Ratatouille, which, according to my sister-in-law and oldest nephew, scared her boys and they walked out of the theatre. So, I will not show my nephews Ratatouille. (If someone could point out where the scary part was, I would be grateful, because apparently I am so desensitized that I can't find it anywhere.)

So, I don't know what causes bad dreams, but it has to be more than just exposure to scary stuff. I think 3 bad dreams in 4 1/2 years is pretty good. It is probably pretty normal for us to be scared of losing a loved one. In our family, when we have bad dreams, we pray that God will take those scary thoughts away and fill our minds with happy thoughts instead. We may have to pray over and over and over to get the image of the alligator eating baby brother out of our heads, but it always works!