Dreams

They say you have much more vivid and crazier dreams when you are pregnant. I would have to vouch for this, although I have basically been pregnant for two years in a row, so maybe I forget what it's like to dream as a non-pregnant person. But they say that sometimes the expectant father will also have crazier dreams while his wife is pregnant, and this I can attest to.

Chris' first soon-to-be-a-daddy dream with Lily was pretty funny. We hadn't found out that she was going to be a she yet, so this dream made him think that we were having a boy. And as a disclaimer, for the most part Chris does not remember his dreams in much detail. Thursday to Sunday nights, if he has a dream, it's usually about arresting, or fighting someone, cause those are the nights that he works. So this one night he has a dream that we have the baby, and it's a lizard. Not a baby that looks lizard-like, but an actual lizard. So he and lizard-baby spent a bunch of time together, it would sit on his shoulder when he went to work, and he also fed it a bug or something out of the palm of his hand. The highlight of his dream was that our lizard child was up on a high ledge and jumped down, and Chris caught it in his hand. Apparently there was a great deal of bonding though all these different scenarios and Chris woke up so excited to be a dad. To a lizard... Anyway, all these activities that occured in his dream made him think that he was going to have a son with whom he could bond with, so he was a little bit perturbed when he found out we were having a girl. (I think he was more perturbed that he was not prophetic more than the fact that we were having a girl.)

My older brother suggested we name our daughter Lizzie in honour of the dream, which he found hilarious. We had already decided on Lily, after my mom, but Chris was all about the Lizzie idea. Lily Lizzie Watson? No thanks. It took a very long time, but Chris eventually dropped the issue. We now have a family rule that if we are having a girl- I get to name her, and if we have a boy- Chris can name him. Discussion can, and is often had, but the final say belongs to the parent that has the same genitalia as the child. This rule has basically saved our marriage.

Anyway, it took Chris a long time to finally have a daddy-to-be dream with this second pregnancy, but he finally had one. Apparently he went golfing with our little one, but by the time he got to the first hole, our son was fast asleep in the cart. Chris started to get upset, but then realized that his golfing partner was still just an infant. How cute is that? A short and simple dream, but I think it is so sweet that my strong and macho husband goes from Super Cop mode, to cute and cuddly daddy mode at the drop of a dime. I am one lucky lady.

And while we are on the subject of dreams, my girlfriend was just telling me that her two year old came into her room the other day after her nap, sucking her thumb, blankie slung over her shoulder and she said 'Mom, I just had a dream about baby chicks.' And this is why we need to do everything in our power to make sure our kids have safe and happy childhoods- so that they can have sweet and innocent dreams about baby chicks and not have a worry in the world.