Be vewy vewy quiet

It has finally happened. I feel about as bad as I did some years ago when I went to a funeral and ate some bad chicken salad; grief and food poisoning at the same time- what a memorable day. At least the next two days were quiet. Total silence; punctuated only by frequent whooshing noises. But at least there was quiet. Right now there is not as much. There is a lot of Dakota asking "How come you're sick" or "Can I eat your throat lozenges" or "Want me to keep you company and teach you how to make art out of apple cores"?
When I was a kid I didn't like quiet; in fact I didn't really start to enjoy or look forward to silence until I was in my 30's. Dakota does not like the quiet either. The other day he was sent to his room for some reason. He couldn't listen to music or movies. He had to stay up there and play with toys or do whatever else until bedtime. After about an hour he came downstairs crying. He said "Can I come down? I don't like it up there; I don't understand the quiet." It seemed to me a very interesting way to put it. I wonder if it scares him; or if he doesn't know what to do with it; or if it makes him lonely; or if he just doesn't know how else to describe it. Or if perhaps that is exactly what he means. Dakota generally has a great imagination for pretend but that usually involves others or an audience of people. The quiet time that we often spend just thinking or letting our mind wander may be more than he can process. Maybe his mind doesn't wander - it's just blank and that scares him. I have no way of knowing because he can't explain it to me.
I try to think back to when I was young and didn't like the quiet and why. For me it seemed scary- like the nothing. Perhaps because I had been raised with so many brothers and sisters there was always noise and that seemed normal to me; or maybe I was just afraid to be alone. It could be it reminds Dakota of being an infant when no one was there and it scares him; or maybe its just too big and unstructured for him and that confuses him. I hope we can teach him how to enjoy the quiet because I think it will help him develop thinking skills. And I hold out hope he will enjoy it so much that he'll give me some!