Holiday Conversation #2

And the second in my series of Blog Holiday Conversations has a wee back story.

The morning after Christmas my five year old niece climbed into my bed about a good hour before any of the rest of the house had any intention of stirring and, without too much conversation from Miss Yippety-Yap here (and much to my joy), she managed to fall back to sleep.

About twenty minutes later I woke up and she was having a bad dream - eyes closed and she was making whimpering noises. I gently rubbed her forehead, her whimpering stopped and we managed to put about another twenty minutes sleep in the bank.

Later that evening, we were all over at another house and the nieces were put to bed, while everyone who wasn't seven or under continued doing what we do best at Christmas.

About nine o'clock Five Year Old Niece reappeared,claiming it was too light in her bedroom for her to sleep. I took her back to bed and said, 'What you've got to do is stick your head under the pillows and then it will be dark.'

Enthusiastically she dived under her pillows.

'Night, beautiful Five Year Old!'

'Kate?'

'Yes?'

Head pops out from under pillow darkness and sits up.

'Do you remember that time I got into your bed in the morning and I went to sleep and I started having a mean dream? I was dreaming my friends were leaving me behind. And you rubbed my forehead? '

'Yes, I do.'

'Okay!' Head dives back under pillow.

Is it just me, or is 'mean dream' the best term for a nightmare, ever? And don't you just love something that happened this morning being referred to as 'that time'?