Nightmares and Happy Things

Last night at around 3 am my 4 year old JJ was standing in the hallway crying. I woke up and went out there to see what was going on. As he cried he told me that he was afraid of the "bad guys that were burning the babies". I wasn't sure that I heard him correctly with all of the crying so I made him repeat it. There were bad guys and they were burning babies is what he told me (broke me heart), he was obviously dreaming but he still doesn't get the concept that it is a dream and not reality. We talked about it for a little bit and I explained that it was not real and that we are here to protect him and all that jazz... Well he was still so spooked he cried about going back to his own room. I felt so sorry for him so I let him come in our bed for the rest of the night. He was satisfied with that and climbed in. Again he told me what happened and whenever he has a nightmare I tell him to think about happy things. I told him to think about Dora (the explorer), turtles (they are the animal of the hour around here), and my husband threw in bunnies (for Easter time?). JJ interrupted our list of happy things with this- JJ: Mom. Me: Yes honey JJ: Mom Me : (Again) Yes honey JJ: I am going to think about Mom because that is a happy thing. Thinking about you Mom makes me happy. OH HELP ME I started tearing up and my heart exploded right then and there at 3:15 am as we were all huddled under the covers, drifting off to sleep, thinking about our happy things. I love being a Mom :)