Julian came to get me at 6:something a.m. and I went to sleep with him in his bed. While I was sleeping, I had a short bad dream.

I was 18 again, or some young age thereabouts. I was living in a small, shabby apartment with Charlie Brown, but I didn't really interact with him in my dream, it was just his place, and I was living there. Some windows were broken out, and the single room was full of unknown dream people, all chain-smoking.

What the hell? Why was I in this nasty place? Why was I with Charlie Brown, of all people? Why was everyone SMOKING, for crying out loud? Where was Dan, and Julian, and Bugs?

This is not my beautiful house! This is not my beautiful life! I was wracked with despair, and then Julian woke me up to tell me that the sun is now up, so time for milk.

It took me a moment to realize that I was in my son's room in our beloved house, with Dan and Bugs snoozing nearby, but when I did I was overjoyed. I've never been so thankful to be here in the present and not anywhere in the past, thank you very much. Even a weird not-so-accurate dream past.

I'd like to have the skin of an 18 year old, but that's about it. Everything else is so much better NOW.

I told Dan about my dream, and about the phrase that had come into my head while I was looking around in my dream and despairing. He teased me about paraphrasing from the Talking Heads song, because he knows David Byrne's voice grates on my nerves. The guy is talented and everything, but his voice is awful.

We were having a shitty time a few weeks ago, what with illness and teething and exhaustion and all. Non-stop tantrumming, rainy weather, PMS, pooping in pants. Sooooooo not fun.

But now the teething has abated, the colds are over, PMS has passed, smiles and laughs and funny moments are plentiful and abundant, leaves are budding out on the trees, and Julian pooped in his potty all by himself FOUR times today. I think he pooped twice as much as usual just to show off. And he even dumped it in the toilet by himself too. Astounding. Business is good too.

I'm just enjoying it while it lasts, because these moments of health and happiness and luck and pleasure are fleeting. They pass in the blink of an eye. Life is pain for so many. So let me write that I so dearly appreciate what I have. I love my family most of all. I love my home. I love my work. I love my friends. I love the Internet. It's great to be alive... right here, right now.

These are the good old days.