dreamland

i was awoken the other night with the feeling that someone was in my room. as i opened my eyes i was startled to see gibson's face only a few inches from mine. the moment i appeared to be awake he quietly whispered, "mom, i had a bad dream." hoping to quell any fears, calm him quickly and send him back on his way to his own bed, i asked him what his dream was about. and to this question he cheerfully replied, "i don't remember, can i sleep with you?" so, just wanting to get on with my own slumber, i pulled back the covers and let him crawl into bed with me for what i thought to be the end of it.

the next morning, as we were riding in the car on the way to school, gibson suddenly announced to us all that he had remembered his dream. eager to hear about the dream that robbed me of my sleep the night before, i asked him if he could tell me about it. gibson gladly obliged and jumped right in telling us this story...

"you and me and elliott were all climbing up a big hill to where the tractors live. at the bottom of the hill were lightning mcqueen and mater. then a grass cutter came along and ate me, because that's what grass cutters do...they eat people."

stunned at the unsettling plot of his dream i told him that a grass cutter eating him didn't sound very good.

he then reassuringly told me, "mom, don't worry, it was just a dream."

wondering where this random dream came from, i racked my brain replaying the events from the day before. it wasn't until i thought about our nightly story time that i realized the trucks book was to blame. it seems like such an innocent book until a four year old envisions the tractors living on top of hill and turns the grass cutter into a human eating machine. i guess we won't be reading that one before bed ever again.