Fairy tales

Last night I didn't have a nightmare (that I can remember), but I did wake myself up laughing some time in the early morning. I can't remember what I was dreaming, but I do recall hearing laughing in my dream, then becoming aware of someone laughing in the room. It was kind of a "mutly" laugh. And then I woke up and realized that the laugh was coming from me. Which made me laugh some more. Brian never woke up.

In sleep related news (kind of), Brian and I picked up some cool books for Trent at Half Price Books. What a great place that is. We spent $10 and came home with 6 books. Unfortunately, two of the books stunk of cigarettes. That made us pity the poor kid who had to grow up in the house where those books came from. I'll try to Febreeze them to get the stench out, and maybe put them outside for a while. Anyway, the point is, that we picked up this really cool book of "bedtime" stories for Trent. All the old fairy tales were in it, like Cindarella, Goldilocks, Little Red Riding Hood, the Frog Prince, etc. We've (me) been reading them to Trent in the evenings. We had to laugh at Little Red Riding Hood, when the wolf ate her grandmother, then the woodmen came in and killed the wolf, then cut him open and the grandmother came out and was totally fine. I hadn't realized how gory these stories we grew up with are. Lots of death and tragedy. I'm not sure how I feel about this. I mean, these are the stories we grew up with, and we turned out ok. Are these fairy tales teaching our kids about death at an early age so they can handle it/expect it/process it? or is it just too soon to introduce that concept? I dunno.

I've purposefully been skipping the Hansel and Gretel story because if I recall the story correctly, their parents abandon them in the forest. What kind of message is that??? "gee Trent, you're eating a lot these days and we simply can't afford to feed you AND ourselves, so we're going to take you to the forest and leave you to fend for yourself. Maybe a pack of wolves will adopt and raise you" (which is what I suspect happened to my sisters based on how they behave ;-)).

And what about Puss in Boots? what a con man he is! He tricks a giant into changing into a mouse, eats him, then steals his castle! you can't trust cats. No matter how cute they are. Just yesterday Onyx tried to steal my sandwich while I wasn't looking.

Last night we read the Three Billy Goats Gruff. What a bunch of bad siblings those are. The small and medium size billy goats each sell their brother down the river to the troll, so they obviously can't be trusted, then the big goat drowns the troll who was simply trying to play the cards he was dealt by charging a toll to use his troll bridge. What else is a troll to do? it's not like he can just go and get a job. Besides, he lives under a bridge. You can't get a job unless you have a legitimate address. At least he wasn't just standing on the side of the highway with a sign "will scare small children for food".

One thing you can learn from fairy tales, though, that is a good life lesson... you have to kiss a lot of frogs to find your prince. Of course, you shouldn't take that too literally. What the fairy tales don't tell you, though, is that the frog theory works in reverse, too! What a shocker that is when it happens. You get this great guy, he's all perfect, then one day WHAM! frog.