What Do Babies Have Nightmares About?

I have often asked myself this question. Actually, I usually just wonder at what point babies start dreaming and what those dreams are about. Well, last night, I think I got part of the answer.

I stayed up late last night, I just had to watch the very last Conan O'brien appearance on Late Night. Somewhere around 12am, I heard Millie start to cry in her crib. As I opened the door to her room, I could hear her saying, "Mine, mine, mine" as she cried. I turned the dimmer switch on just enough to see her, and she is sitting up in her crib, pointing in the dark at the floor and says, "My book, mine, my book."

Now, you have to know something about Millie; she loves her books. She will wake up in the morning and if we put a book in her crib the night before, she will sit and "read" that book for 30-45 minutes before she starts to get antsy. One of her favorite books right now is "If you Give a Pig a Party." She calls it her Piggy Book.
So, as I ask her what book she is crying about, she says, "Piggy Book, Maxy, Mine." I look on the floor where she is pointing and do not see the Piggy Book. I look on the shelf, and don't see the book there either.

At this point, it crosses my mind that maybe she was having a bad dream. I pick her up and carry her into the living room as she calms down. She begins to relax and says, "Daddy, Piggy Book, mine." I tell her that I couldn't find the piggy book, and she says, "Daddy, Maxy take Piggy Book." She is of course talking about Max who has been downstairs sleeping for the last 3 hours. I tell her that Maxy doesn't have her book, but she insists that "Maxy take Piggy Book." I go back into her room and look under some of the books on the floor and notice the Piggy Book is there. It seemed to confuse her as she insisted that Max had taken her book and yet it was there on the floor.

I can only conclude that she knew the Piggy Book was on the floor when she went to bed and she had a dream that Max had come and taken her precious book. She started crying trying to tell Max the book was hers but nobody was listening. So, it seems the worst nightmare for my 21-month old baby is to have someone steal her books.

Of course, in the morning, she had forgotten all about the Piggy Book and was back to her crazy funny self.

Can You Roll Your Tongue?

So, the other night, I asked the question to the kids, Can you roll your tongue. I grabbed the camera to watch the fun.