Night Terrors and a parade
Trivia is going well. kittenspeaks randomly appeared at Fox & Hounds last night with a group of people, some of whom I vaguely might have recognized.
I learned something at trivia at Twain's on Monday night. It was a Halloween themed evening of questions, one of which was about night terrors. Turns out there is a difference between "night terrors" and "nightmares." The self-announced neurologist who explained it to me didn't mind that I accepted both answers since he figured not many people know the difference.
Nightmares, he explained, are just bad dreams you get during R.E.M. sleep. Kids wake up screaming and crying, and parents can make the remembered monsters go away like my dad got rid of the scarecrow that crept in through the window every night even though we lived halfway up a highrise apartment building.
Night terrors, on the other hand, are bad dreams that you can't remember when you wake up. They occur during non-R.E.M. sleep and are especially frightening to children who wake up screaming bloody murder and can't understand or describe why. Drives parents nuts, I'll bet.
***
Also, on Saturday, N&P(&J&B) came to my place - or, rather, to my parking place - for the Grant Park kids Halloween parade. I had no idea it was happening. Turns out the thing started literally right around the corner from my apartment, and I never would have known if they hadn't called and come over. Go figure.
Pictures forthcoming (I keep getting interrupted) of all the unbelievable cuteness. I just wish I had a decent shot of Spiderman playing the trombone. Jonah was Bob the Builder. Ben was a sleeping 5 week old, appropriately enough. We all tramped along Grant, down half of Sydney (I waved to karmalingoist3, but she wasn't home), and many of us cut across to the playground. We ran into amy37b, her mom, and her dogs, so she got to see little Ben before she left for L.A. and Jonah got to meet Maggie and Bella.
The playground was a joyous madhouse of Spidermen, princesses, Poohs and Tiggers, chickens, and a menagerie of childhood energy the likes of which I haven't seen in ages. I almost bought myself a juice box just to feel a part of it. I settled for a hot dog and lots of out of focus pictures; kids just don't sit still for very long.
I learned something at trivia at Twain's on Monday night. It was a Halloween themed evening of questions, one of which was about night terrors. Turns out there is a difference between "night terrors" and "nightmares." The self-announced neurologist who explained it to me didn't mind that I accepted both answers since he figured not many people know the difference.
Nightmares, he explained, are just bad dreams you get during R.E.M. sleep. Kids wake up screaming and crying, and parents can make the remembered monsters go away like my dad got rid of the scarecrow that crept in through the window every night even though we lived halfway up a highrise apartment building.
Night terrors, on the other hand, are bad dreams that you can't remember when you wake up. They occur during non-R.E.M. sleep and are especially frightening to children who wake up screaming bloody murder and can't understand or describe why. Drives parents nuts, I'll bet.
***
Also, on Saturday, N&P(&J&B) came to my place - or, rather, to my parking place - for the Grant Park kids Halloween parade. I had no idea it was happening. Turns out the thing started literally right around the corner from my apartment, and I never would have known if they hadn't called and come over. Go figure.
Pictures forthcoming (I keep getting interrupted) of all the unbelievable cuteness. I just wish I had a decent shot of Spiderman playing the trombone. Jonah was Bob the Builder. Ben was a sleeping 5 week old, appropriately enough. We all tramped along Grant, down half of Sydney (I waved to karmalingoist3, but she wasn't home), and many of us cut across to the playground. We ran into amy37b, her mom, and her dogs, so she got to see little Ben before she left for L.A. and Jonah got to meet Maggie and Bella.
The playground was a joyous madhouse of Spidermen, princesses, Poohs and Tiggers, chickens, and a menagerie of childhood energy the likes of which I haven't seen in ages. I almost bought myself a juice box just to feel a part of it. I settled for a hot dog and lots of out of focus pictures; kids just don't sit still for very long.