Lately I have had a recurring theme to my increasingly occuring nightmares. The basic plotline (do dreams really have plots?) involves me frantically trying to be constantly aware of where all the children are and what they are doing. I count to five over and over again as I try to watch five rapidly moving blurs. Inevitably, I misplace one child and wake up with my heart pounding out of my chest. It would be easy to say that these dreams are positively correlated to the large number of children in our family, but I had similar dreams when there was only Tommy and Sarah. Back then it was always Tommy in danger and Sarah in an infant carseat. I had to choose between putting the baby seat down unwatched and unprotected (usually in the street) and rescuing Tommy. Before Sarah was born I dreamed about forgetting Tommy somewhere. I’m not completely neurotic, though. I do have nice dreams, too. I frequently have vivid Harlequin romance, soft prOn dreams. I tell Doug if I can identify anyone in those dreams, so that doesn’t count as cheating, right?