Southern Sibling Sleep Voodoo

Let's just label this under "stories of the strange."

In the past week, all 3 kids (presuming Lou's outburst was in response to a dream) dreamed about losing their toes.

First, Lou woke up Monday morning, clutched his blanket up under his neck exposing his feet and screamed, "MY TOES! TOES!!!" Being that he has been mostly non-verbal, or at least not for communicative purposes, hearing him scream about his appendages and then exposing them seems like he's surprised they're even there anymore. He's not since spoken about his toes with the exception of me "eating" them. In which, what small child doesn't force feed their feet to their parent post bath? I hope and pray he never loses this innocence.

Second, Lillie woke up yesterday morning and while I was making their lunches exclaimed that she'd had a dream in which she was wheeled into my room on a stretcher so they could amputate her toes. She was frantic and anxious over the procedure (but wasn't surprised??) and fought while going under anesthesia. She woke up believing she hadn't gone under yet and then quickly realized it was all over. As she finished her story she told me, "It didn't even hurt! They'd taken all of my toes and I didn't even feel it!"

Lastly, Logan... This morning I was gathering his morning medications and his breakfast shake ingredients as he came down the hall bewildered and in a state of half sleep. "Mom... you remember the rock wall (retaining wall) at Grandma's house?? Well, I was running around her hard and flew up the wall and tripped in front of the trampoline and managed to rip all of my toes off. Her next door neighbor was an evil Surgeon and she came over to the house and sewed my toes back on. She didn't even give me anything for the pain."

None of these kids were in each other's presence during their retelling of their toe stories. But, They have had some pretty intense life stuff happening the past few days as well, which is crazy because of the interpretations I've found online. Now, a quick scroll over to www.dream-of.com states that "to dream of losing toes represents a loss of confidence or feelings of insecurity. Something that was reassuring you has been lost." Meanwhile, www.dreammoods.com states "To dream that you lose or gain a toe(s) suggests that you are lacking determination and energy needed to move forward in some situation. To dream that you hurt your toe or that there is a corn or abrasion on it, means that you are feeling anxious about moving forward with some plan or decision."

For Lou, he's been struggling behaviorally in class. This is his first year of mainstream Kindergarten after two years of special needs pre-k. At home he's excelling by leaps and bounds, but in class I hear often that he's not doing classwork or he's become frustrated and disruptive. He has behavior issues at home, but nothing from a mother's point of view that isn't abnormal for the baby of the family in having to deal with siblings and life frustrations. His responses are more carnal and at times funnily feral. (Funny to me because if I don't laugh, I will for sure cry.) He's started clawing the walls, biting his shirt while simultaneously pulling on it, kicking the baseboards... it's been SO! MUCH! FUN!

As for Lillie, sweet girl... bless her sweet bones... Last year, she signed herself up and ran with an idea alongside a new friend for the Student Technology Competition that won her County, Region and then Statewide recognition. Towards the end of the competition season both girls were at each other's necks and ready to draw blood. When they weren't focused on the social media platform they'd published, they were the BEST of friends. But ONLY when they weren't working. This past summer, both girls had worked on separate projects for this year's competition and upon seeing each other in school decided they were going to work together again, MUCH to their mother's disappointment because for the love please Jesus no. NO. But then they did and subsequently did not. After a long weekend together, her teammate's mother text me to inform me that the girls came up with a mutual decision to withdraw from this year's competition. Good! Great, even! I couldn't have been happier because I don't think any adult involved would have been able to survive another 6 months of manic dramatic 10 year old girl. And then, two days later, Lillie did not get off the bus with her brother. My heart leapt into my throat and I scrolled through emails, checked my family calendar, and text the other girl's mother. Did HER daughter stay late today?? What time is pick up?? She didn't stay?? I flew to the other side of town to pick her up at the scheduled practice end time and there she was, with her technology coach. Coach looked a bit shell shocked and wide eyed asking me with her hands resting on Lillie's shoulders, "did YOU know Lillie is going to fly solo?" I shook my head, "Yeah, NO. I didn't see that coming." We both looked dead at Lillie and we agreed that if she should show any sign of stress, anxiety, or changes in behavior she was out for the rest of the season. She agreed, but by the look on mine and Coach's faces we didn't totally buy it.

Then there's Logan. Poor Logan has been a ball of nerves for the past few weeks after an incident at his father's house that made him question his father's intentions. While I won't comment on that situation just yet, the kid has been trying to find creative ways to keep from having to be present or worse, alone with his father. We discussed this all in depth with the family therapist this week in a hopes to assist Lo in giving him the confidence to just SAY what he needed to his dad without fear of angry repercussion. On the way home from the therapist he got the guts to text his father questioning if he could maybe skip coming this weekend. He got a resounding no with a series of rapid fire texts leading to an angry phone call. The remaining car ride involved lots of tears and zero words. We all felt his anxiety in this and as much as I'd like to take all of his worries from him, I know them all too well unfortunately. The entire time it took me to make dinner once we were home was spent listening to Lo cry tucked inside my closet in the hopes we wouldn't hear him, and of course we all shook our heads fervently NO in response to him asking if he had been too loud. When it comes to his relationship with his father, Logan struggles to receive any sort of true recognition or praise. He's been whacked upside the head more times than he's been hugged by his father at this point. Listening to him from the other side of the therapists couch broke my heart, as it really opened my eyes as to how terrified he is of his father. In response to his dream, I'm sure he would very well rather have his toes stitched back on not medicated than spend time with his father.

Or maybe... none of this means anything and it's merely coincidence... or is it?

This post was written as a part of Mama Kat's Writer's Workshop, "Write a blog post inspired by the word: sleep."