Dreams of an 18 Month Old

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I figured babies must dream at night, but I always wondered what their dreams are like, having such limited experiences to draw upon. Now that Mara is more and more verbal, we finally get to know.

Bad Dream

Tonight, Mara woke up at 3am crying. She had had a nightmare. She sat up in the dark, crying. We talked to her and she calmed down, then she told us about it.

Here's a nightmare, described by an 18 month old:

[Aaaaaaaargh!]
Hurt.
Mara extends right arm forward:
Hand.
Cut.
She sighs and lies back down. There's a slight pause. Then:
Knife.
Mara turns butt up and gets ready to try to sleep again, and so do the parents.

Love dream

Two hours later, another wake up.
This time it's a nice quiet one. Mara just sits up saying:

Fall down.
Fall down.
I knew she was on a large mat on the floor so I told her it was a dream.
Fall down.
Head.
Bump.
I ask: Did someone fall down and bump their head?
She nods quietly.
Raccoon.
Me: Oh, the raccoon fell?
Another nod.
Bah-pak. Bah-pak.
This took me a few seconds to figure out.
Me: Was he wearing a backpack?
Ya.

There you have, full story:
Mara was dreaming of a raccoon wearing or carrying a backpack, and he fell down and bumped his head.

Back story

It's not surprising that Mara's dreams are raccoon-filled. This has been an ongoing crush for the past month and a half. We had visited grandparents in Florida and saw a raccoon outside stealing the kitty food. Grandpa said "Go away, raccoon!" and Mara adopted that as her first sentence. Ever since, she's been mentioning all of: Grandma, Grandpa and Raccoon with equal frequency.

We even made her first Valentine about her first love:

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