I am participating in the March Slice of Life Challenge: A slice a day for all of March. You should do it too! Thank you, Two Writing Teachers! Readers, check out their site, and start slicing!
I’ve said goodnight and “I’ll check on you.” to L, and I snuggle in with E. He’s 5 and so tired. I know he’ll fall asleep soon. He talks himself to sleep these days. These late night dark chats are some of my favorites. He talks about the state facts he’s learned from his state book. He talks about his dreams, remembers fun and scary things from the past and tries to think through complex thoughts. Luckily, I have been able to record a few of his deep thoughts as he gets tangled up in circles:
I hope you have sweet dreams. No I hope you have sweet nightmares. I’m not saying that to you, I’m just saying what if like… wait. When you say… wait…Pretend that bad words don’t exist, and pretend this is a bad word… um… that nightmare is a bad word… um… and then think that… Mom? Then think that it’s an expression. You don’t say it, well don’t think it, you just don’t say ‘It’s like another words I want to say.’ Like when I said to you right now that you want to have happy nightmares.. you don’t have to say it’s another word… Why am I talking to you so much? You know why? It’s because I’m so awake! Mommy! I don’t need any blanket. I just need to love you. A few breaths later he is out like a light.
Meanwhile Mr. Thought is in a deep conversation with H.
“What’s your favorite part of your brain?” He asks our 8 year old.
H isn’t sure. “I don’t know.”
So Mr. Thought probes a bit more. “Is it how you can just learn something so fast like that magic trick you learned tonight?”
“Yea. I guess that’s my favorite.”
Feeling profound, Mr. Thought asks, “What’s your least favorite part of your brain?”
H thinks for a moment and then answers, “Oh. . . It’s how when I’m writing in cursive. You know how you are supposed to slant the page away to help you slant your writing when you write in cursive? Well, my brain always makes me write it straight. I can’t make the letters slanted, even though I’m trying to force my brain to make the letters follow the slant of the page.”
The specifics of an 8 year old. . . deep thoughts of my preschooler, what a night.
I check on my daughter one more time, and head downstairs.
On a Thought 
Such a sweet blog!
Thank you! 🙂
The things kids say! I love that you wrote down your 5 year old’s words as he drifted to sleep. I bought a journal called Q & A- A day for kids (3 year journal). I have to try it again! There is a question prompt each day that you are supposed to ask your child and then you record exactly what he/she says. The cool thing is you ask him/her that same question on that same day, a year later. You do that for 3 years. I guess it shows how they change as they get older. My son is 4 and I started it with him in January but I think we stopped it in January too! Time to pull it out. These days are precious and the unique words and thoughts of our little ones are important to record! Thanks for the post and reminding me of that journal.
What a great journal idea! I need to look into that. I have a journal to record things my kids say… but I usually end up just jotting it down on my phone. Thanks for the suggestion, the comment, and for stopping by! 🙂
nice — I’d almost forgotten when mine were like that… thanks for the reminder
🙂 Thanks for stopping by and commenting. I know this time will go fast and I’ll forget the little stories… hopefully slicing helps!
This is going to be one of those blog posts your children will TREASURE when they’re grownups. What beautiful things you captured here, Ona.
Thanks, Stacey! Such a good point… I am collecting stories to tell to embarrass them… I should also collect these stories that they will treasure. 🙂