Something about the moon, Part 2

Clearly, TheBoy found his penguin friend again. A few hours after Judybat's conversation with the kid about his missing friend, I woke up to TheBoy whining in his bed. When I went in, he popped up and began whimpering at me.

"Where did the little penguin go? He was in the tree."

Having not been briefed on the whole full moon/freaky tree/3-year-old boy learning to articulate what's in his head thing, I was confused. First I asked if there was a penguin in the tree outside. He looked at me like I was insane. Reasonable, right? After a few more similarly doltish questions, I figured out what was going on. But then I had another problem: How do you explain dreams to a small child? Or rather, how can you explain dreams to a small child that doesn't make you sound like you have a drug problem?

My version went like this: Dreams are stories you tell yourself in your sleep. Why? Because you get bored. Why? Because you don't get to play in your sleep. Why? Because you're asleep. Why? Because you're tired. Why? Because you had a long day. Why?

In a completely unrelated event, soon after this conversation, I developed a particularly nasty case of insomnia.