Kylie Empties Her Brain

I work four nights a week, Mon-Thurs. On these nights, Steve puts Kylie to bed, as I don't get home until around 11:30pm. He has gotten into the habit of taking her upstairs, getting pajamas on and putting her in our bed while he lies down with her. After she falls asleep, he carries her into her own bed, where she stays for the remainder of the night. It seems to work out well for us. On the nights I'm home (Fri, Sat, Sun) we do the same thing.

Kylie has to empty her brain before she goes to sleep. This means that we lie down, turn off the lights, put the TV on something boring to her (like WPT poker) and she will go to sleep. But first, she talks. She talks a lot, and about the weirdest things sometimes. Last night when we laid down, I had my laptop on, and when she started talking, on a whim, I opened up Wordpad real quick and starting typing what she was saying. It went a lot like this:

Kylie - "Mom, are my dreams inside my brain?" (We've had lots of talks about how dreams aren't real, they're kind of like little movies inside your head when you're asleep.)

Me - "Yes, they are."

Kylie - "Are they in a line?"

Me (confused) - "Are they in a line?"

Kylie - "Yeah..." She makes a little circle on the left side of her forehead with her forefinger and thumb of her left hand, and holds her right forefinger up straight in front of the right side of her forehead. It looks like she's making the number 10 on her forehead with her fingers.

"These are the bad line on the right, these are good...can you feel your brain? If someone looks inside your head can they see your brain? Daddy, try and feel your brain like this." She puts both her hands against her temples.

"Guys, you have to smile when you're asleep. Mommy please smile when you're asleep, because that will make you have good dreams. I like you to smile when you have good dreams. Ok."

Then she turns over on her other side, clasps both of her hands together and says "One, two, three four, I declare a fum war" She's having a thumb war with herself. Then she counts to ten in Spanish several times.

Steve - "Ky, is your brain empty yet?"

Kylie - "No, my dreams are in there!"

She's quiet for a few minutes. Then she says, "Mommy, why is it a long time to get your dreams out, to sleep?"

Me - "What do you mean?"

Kylie - "Well, it takes long for little kids to make their dreams come in really fast. Mommy, smile when you're asleep so you can see me in my dream."

Now she's making a little growling noise. I say "What's that?"

She says, "That's my growl because my toe itches. Can someone scratch my toe?"

I think Steve attempts to scratch her toe. "Daddy, that's not scratching, that's tickling!"

Steve - "Kylie, it's time to be quiet and go to sleep now.

And within about 3 minutes, she's fast asleep. According to Steve, this goes on every night. And she comes up with the weirdest stuff sometimes. A bizarre journey inside the mind of a 5 year-old.