Don't Mess with Daddy

For those of you who know me well you will know that I am a dreamer - both literally and figuratively. From the literal sense, I am a very vivid dreamer at night and my dreams, more often than not, are an accurate reflection of things that are happening in my life at the present time. As I have gotten older, I have become more interested in dream interpretation and often take a mental note of my dreams to validate how I am feeling. Over the last month, I have been quite stressed with work and a few important decisions and it has been very evident in my dreams of the magnitude of this stress.

Matt, on the other hand, has been one that often never remembers his dreams when he awakes. So, it was a surprise the other morning when he told me that he had had a very bad dream. Upon inquisition, he said that in his dream he had been standing at the kitchen window when he saw a strange couple enter our front gate and grab Harper from the yard and rush away. He said that he had dashed out of the kitchen quickly and chased after them. I asked him how it ended and he said that he had awoken at that point but after replaying the dream in his mind over and over he had created his own ending and it ended with him chasing the car, beating the crap out of the guy, slamming his head against the steering wheel, whisking Harper out of the car and then punching the lady in the nose just to prove a point. I couldn't help to laugh at the thought of the amount of effort he had put into completing the story, but I also understood at that moment the power of a father's love....even in his dreams.

Little White Lie

Today, as Matt was trying to put pants on Harper before we ventured out in public, he noticed that Harper's underwear were just a wee bit wet. Before Matt could even ask him why he had dribbled in his draws and not gone to the little boy's room, Harper's quick wit went to work. The conversation went something like this:

Matt: Harper, your underwear feel a little bit wet. Why didn't you use the potty instead of your underwear?

Harper: Oh Daddy that's not pee - it's water from last night.

Heather (from another room and laughing out loud) - Water from last night? I don't think so.

Once again, Harper's quick witted mind goes to work. From another room, I see him walk to the kitchen and fill up a cup with water from the refrigerator. As I am walking into the room I can't believe my eyes. Harper is dumping the water down the front of his underwear. He obviously didn't see me behind him and he says:

"See mom, it wasn't pee - it really was water from last night."

I know that as a parent I am probably suppose to use this as an opportunity to teach him a very good life lesson about the importance of always telling the truth but I guess I will need to relinquish my mother of the year award because I lost it and started dying laughing. I think he gets a prize for creativity and another one for going a step further and putting himself and his privates through a rush of cold water with the intention of convincing us that his wet underwear were the result of water from over 24 hours ago. The three year old mind obviously hasn't perfected the concept of relational time. He has aced a lot of areas though - including the art of negotiation, manipulation and creative story telling.

I guess this is only preparation for the teenage years that seem so far away.