A Baby Sweetly Dreaming

I wrote this when Willow was six months old but wanted to re-post it because it just makes me smile.

As I put Willow to bed tonight, I watched her little chest rise and fall.  Rise and fall.

Her wee little fist shot open wide and then curled up and then her little fingers twitched… almost as though she was playing an invisible piano.

Her mouth made little ‘o’ shapes and her tongue made clacking noises inside of her mouth.

And in that moment I wondered about what baby’s dreams are made of.

For us adult variety, we dream of things left over in our subconscious as well as a bit of imagination thrown in for good measure.  For babies, I can’t imagine it is much different.

Which got me thinking… if your baby is dreaming little bits of what happened during her day, what would she see?

For Willow, she might be thinking of the colorful blocks and triangles we played with earlier.  Or maybe she’s dreaming about daddy blowing raspberries into her armpit until she belly laughed.

Or perhaps she’s remembering grandma and grandpa giving her her bedtime bath – splashing them as she joyously flails her arms and legs around in the tub.

I am also quite certain that blowing bubbles in her carrots, sending them straight up her nose, is also in her dream.

When I recollected on all of the things that could be in her little dream, it hit me.  And it hit me hard.

We all have the opportunity to make each day extraordinary.  We all have the opportunity to make our children’s days extraordinary.  Sure we might deal with poop explosions, lack of sleep, inability to do the things that you’d like to do, fussing babies and a list of other things but when your wee baby lays her head down to sleep at night and starts to dream, does any of that matter?

If I can create an amazing day for Willow, one that she’ll lay her head down and dream and remember about, I will do just that.

It’s also an excellent reminder to me that each day is short but you can always make it extraordinary.

xo