Sweet Dreams

When my son was 3, he's now graduating college, I would tuck him and say Sweet Dreams.

He took that to mean how you say good bye to someone who is special. So when, at age three, someone -- a stranger -- was nice to him he would say "Sweet Dreams" instead of saying "Good-bye" -- at 10a.m. in the drug store to a clerk who paid him special attention.

It became something very special between us. As he got to be 6 or 7, it was more important even than "I love you." When he would throw a tantrum, and everyone in the family would be mad and loud, and he would be sent to his room. A little voice would say "Sweet Dreams."

When he got to be 8, for a few years, it was "SD Mom, SD Dad." But it meant the same.

To this day we still say it to each other every day, and on the telephone.

It brings a tear as I write this because it's so close and so dear.

Sweet Dreams is how you say "I love you" to someone very very special, any time of day even when you're angry or when you need to say it in code.

Sweet Dreams is the most perfect thing to say.

It was made up by a 3 year old.

-me strauss Letting me be