Bed time 1, 2, 3's

My six year old has trouble going to sleep. It is difficult for her to slow her mind down. She’ll start thinking about something and will stay up as late as she can to think about it. I’ve suggested vodka shots but (so far) my wife has interfered. A little while ago, I suggested that she try to count as high as she can. The monotony of counting, I reasoned, would lull her to sleep. It worked a few times but a couple of nights ago, I went in to check on her after suggesting the counting trick. She was bouncing in bed full of excitement. She had counted to 462!!!! I’m not sure how she was able to count past 461 but not make it to 463 but that is where she stopped. She was so excited about being able to count so high she didn’t go to sleep for another 20 minutes.

I checked on her last night and she was having trouble sleeping. I started to suggest counting again but she told me, “That doesn’t work because I get so excited because I can count so high.” After indulging in a moment of parental pride, I had a flash of brilliance. “Honey,” I suggested, “how about counting down from 100.” I figured the numbers ran out and she wouldn’t have the issue of counting has high as she could. She would count down to zero and drift to sleep. I gave her a hug, indulged in some self-pride and went to bed. I checked on her a little while later. She was bouncing in bed. “Daddy, I’m down to negative 10 and I’m going to see how high in the negative numbers I can count!!!!” I just went back to bed.