Bedtime

10 PM, laying in bed with HL, who is having trouble sleeping.... M: "HL, where is your favorite place to be?" H: "At work." Almost a year ago, when HL was big into construction, he "built" a workplace for himself: a fire station. Now, when I say "built", I mean that one week he would talk about digging the foundation, then he poured the cement, another week he would be putting up walls, yet another he painted the building, etc. Since his building has been done, he talks about what books he has at work, the movies he watches there (and gives us full descriptions, by the way), the foods he eats there, the things he does at work, and so on. Now, I know how common it is for children his age to have imaginary friends (his are Horsie and Tanner), but no one has ever mentioned that my son may have an imaginary separate life. But anyway... "What's yours, mommy?" "The mountains." "Why?" "I love hearing the wind whistle through the trees and the water fall down the stream..." "And you can see the forest fires, up there" Hayden interrupts. "Why do you like being at work?" "Me and my team do lots of things together." "Such as?" "Fight forest fires." "Hmmm... So your favorite place keeps my favorite place safe." "Yep." He then lays his head on my chest and sleep eventually over takes him. Meanwhile, I lay there in joy that I was given this incredible gift. Actually physically feeling the love course through my body, sending it to my son where our skin touches. I was wrong. This is my favorite place to be.