Another memorable dream last night. I dreamt that I confronted my older brother, Anthony, and his wife, Kathy, because they had suddenly embraced the Ezzo philosophy of scheduling feedings with their 3 year son, Elijah. In the dream, though, Elijah wasn't 3, but he wasn't a newborn baby either. The scheduling they had picked was to just feed Elijah at 9 a.m. and 9 p.m. with only an occasional drink of water in between. When I asked why they decided to do this, Anthony said they had to teach Elijah to eat correctly. When I asked if they went so long without eating or drinking, they had no reply.

I know exactly why I had this dream and why it was Anthony and Kathy. Both Kathy and my other sil on that side of the family have often expressed concerns about their boys eating too much of something or just wanting to eat a lot - at least from what I've witnessed at my parents' house. I've mentioned in the past here that I believe that Accalia is in complete control of when, what and how much she eats. My job is to be sure I'm providing her with a variety of mostly healthy foods. So, I think that's why Anthony and Kathy were in the dream.

Dreaming about the scheduling, though, has to be about the changes we've recently made with our nearly 5-year-old dog, Lucy. We saw a dog trainer finally, and she gave us some suggestions to (as she put it) "make Lucy see herself as your dog and not you as her people." One of those suggestions was to give Lucy her food at a certain time and make sure she sees who gives it to her, and then taking it away after a certain time whethe she's eaten or not. Before we had just been filling her bowl and leaving food in it throughout the day. Well, obviously this change goes against all of my parenting philosophies, so I have to keep reminding myself that Lucy is a dog and not a child, and dogs require a different approach in some matters. And really, it's not a big deal to Lucy because she only eats once a day anyway, and we give her the food around the time that she usually eats.

Apparently, though, I'm dealing with some big guilt issues. LOL!