2.05.2010

The Snuggle to Bad Dream Ratio

After Calvin and Henry had been in bed for almost an hour and Henry had made a final toilet escape, he came squintily into the front room. Before I could tell him with some exaspiration to get. back. in. bed. he said: "Mom, can I talk to you about something?"

Me: (gulping back the exaspiration in the interest of letting my kids know they can always talk to me about anything) Of course you can.

Henry: Do you know that when you don't snuggle with me before I go to sleep, I have bad dreams?

Me: (looking at him with the tiniest twitch of a smile) Really?

Henry: Yeah. And did you know that the more you don't snuggle with me, the worse the dreams are?

Me: I didn't know that. Have you been having bad dreams lately?

Henry: Yes.

Me: What are they about?

Henry: (His eyes grow wide at the same time that they get a little shifty at this point.) They are so bad I just can't even tell you about them.

Me: Oh. I am really sorry.

Henry: Yeah. So, I really need you to snuggle me.

Me: Huh.

I'm sorry to say that this conversation did not result in snuggling tonight because there is a six-month-old in the house, but I did try an extra good huggy tucking in that should ward off those bad dreams.

I just have to wonder where Henry learned his approach and the "Did you know...?" infomercial-like tactics. Together with his sweaty little curls and just the right amount of earnest behind the sly twinkle in his eyes, he's pretty convincing.

I do need to snuggle him more.

4 comments:

Christine said...

My second son really loves snuggles too. Much more than the rest of them. Probably because he doesn't get them as much as he should. What a clever little boy you have. I hope he'll muddle through and I hope the bad dreams aren't as bad as they sound.

Sir Nottaguy-Imadad said...

Who doesn't like to be snuggled? I thought about trying this conversation on my wife, but she read your post before I did. Nuts!

Code Yellow Mom said...

I misspelled exasperation. I need to stop posting at middle of the night o'clock. And do something about waking up from a dead sleep witht he thought that I misspelled something on my blog. Yikes. I'm almost as scarey as Henry's bad dreams. :)

Nobody said...

Oh he's BRILLIANT. The description of wide eyes being a little shifty, oh boy do I know that look!

I am constantly having a battle between much needed down-time and sweet little babies who won't want/need snuggling much longer.

In fact, just two nights ago I promised Ben I'd snuggle him the next night. He asked, "And what if you don't?" so many times that I finally said, "THEN I'LL GIVE YOU A MILLION DOLLARS!?" Guess who took too long on her errand and now owes her six year old a million dollars. He is being a good sport and settling on a ticket to the circus and $10 for cotton candy. :)