I can definitely say that is not an uncommon thing. You just have to be an observer. Think of it like watching clouds. You see the shapes make figures out of them, and just watch. Just by the fact that it turned into a little girl means that you were close to the dream meaning that the part of your brain dealing with emotion was opened because in dreams we have emotions. But or this you have to master the art of apathy. Once you can do that then observing will become easy enough for you to endure till it is time to enter the dream.