Dream World

David came into our room at about 6:20 this morning and lay down in our bed. As I lay there with him, I decided to take the opportunity to have a conversation with him: nothing urgent, just keeping the lines of communication open. I asked him what he did yesterday, and after several false starts (including Wednesday’s preschool activity and last Friday’s family picnic in the park), he finally started down a very… um… interesting story.

“I saw a very friendly monster!”

“Really! What did he look like?”

“He was an orange drop!”

“Oh! Like a gumdrop?”

“Yeah!”

“And where was this monster?”

“He was walking across the cornfield.”

“Really?”

“Yeah.”

"Was this a dream you had?”

“Yeah.”

“Okay. What was the monster’s name?”

“His… his name was David, too.”

“Really! He was David 2?”

“Yeah.”

“So you’re David 1 and he’s David 2?”

“Yeah.”

“Cool.”

“And there was another monster!”

“Really?”

“Yeah. And his name was David, too. And he was a blue drop.”

“Really? He was a blue gumdrop?”

“No, he was a blue rain drop.”

“Really! Could you see through him?”

“No.”

“Oh, okay.”

This conversation continued for quite a while, with David telling me about a few other gumdrop monsters in his dream: a green one named George; a purple one named Olivia; another purple one named Leah; and Leah’s twin sister, a red one named Carly. I asked, “And they were all coming across the cornfield together?”

“Yeah.”

“Wow.”

“And then there was a big farm monster that came and put his foot on all of them!”

“He stepped on them?”

“Yeah!”

“Wow!”

By this time, Anna was back: “What did the farm monster look like?”

David’s reply: “A FARM!!!”

Ask a silly question….

The Power of Prayer

In the last couple of months, David has really come into his own when it comes to prayer. He’s stopped screaming and refusing to do it, and he’s even beginning to use some of his own words instead of just spouting off “vain repetitions”! In other words, I’m really proud of him.

Of course, the fact that David has reached this point does not mean he has magically overcome his little-Daddy temper. And thus begins today’s episode.

Today at lunch, I requested that David ask a blessing on the food. This request, regardless of which child fulfills it, is always met with a prayer that includes many wonderful things—gratitude for Grandma and Pop, prayers that the new meetinghouse and temple each be completed quickly, prayers that our baby will finally get here, etc.. However, while going down their lists, the children quite often neglect one rather important thing: namely, the food.

As David continued to pray, it became apparent to me that our lunch was not going to be one of the many things he would be thankful for. So, as I often do, I interrupted his “In the name…” with a simple reminder, “food.”

David freaked… out. I have never seen him get so mad about this particular reminder. He started off with a typical “NOOO!!!”, which was quickly followed by a “BY MYSELF!!!”

“Okay, David,” I replied. “You can…”

“—BY MYSEEEELLLLF!!!”

“Fine, David. You can do it by yourself.”

David re-bowed his head, was silent for a moment, then looked back up at me and asked, “What was it again?”

“Food.”

“By myself.”

“Sure.”

“And thank thee for the food….”

I love it when he doesn’t need any help. ;-)