Xir's dream.

Xir, normally a sound sleeper, woke in sobs last night. I was startled awake (being less than 5 feet from him), instantly worried that divorce fallout had finally caught up with my thus-far-unruffled little boy.

Through his tears he related his "horrible" dream to me:

"I was at a class where we raced dinosaurs. They had a plastic thing painted to look like a blue mountain and we would race our dinosaurs along it. I raced a stegosaurus and I won! Then I was going to race an allosaurus and YOU" (he turned on me with fury) "said it was time to go home!"

He sobbed himself out on my lap while I repeated assurances that it was all just a dream. When he fell asleep, I lay watching him for a while, thrilled that in Xir's subconscious, being hustled through dinosaur races is as bad as it gets. But also resolving that in future, I will try to conform to his schedule from time to time, instead of always expecting him to conform to mine.