Making dreams come true

When: Early Saturday evening. Our living room.
The scene: Going to the ball. Sophia is all dressed up like a princess getting ready to go to the ball, just like Cinderella. But wait!

ACTION!

Sophia: Mommy, where my slipper? Can't find it!
(Mommy looks down and sees Sophia is only wearing one shoe)

Mommy: Oh no! Let's look for it.
(Mommy and Sophia search the living room until lost shoe is found)

Mommy: Look, I found it. Let's see if it fits.

Sophia: Ryan, try on slipper.

Mommy: Does it fit?

Sophia: Noooo.

Mommy: Do you want to try it on? Does it fit you?
(Mommy puts slipper on Sophia and it fits perfectly)

Sophia: It fits! Let's go to the ball!
(Mommy and Sophia walk through the house, looking for a handsome prince. Mommy spies teenage boy sitting on the floor)

Mommy: Sophia, ask Jonathan if he will dance with you.

Sophia: Jonathan, will you dance with me?

Jonathan: No, not right now.

Cut! Cut! No, that is not how the scene goes.

Sophia starts crying. Tears are flowing.

Mommy: Jonathan, you cannot reject a 2-year-old! Dance with your sister.

Jonathan: I don't want to.

Mommy: I don't care. Dance with her. Look, she's crying.

Jonathan: Fine.
(Huge smile comes across little princess' face. Sophia and Jonathan dance around the living room for no more than 30 seconds. Jonathan sits back in front of the TV)

Sophia (while curtseying): Thank you for dancing with me, Jonathan.

Mommy: See, that wasn't so bad, was it? You made her day and it only took a second.

Jonathan: Yeah.

Sometimes all it takes a few seconds of your time to make some else's day special.

The princess and her room

This morning started like any other morning, babies desperate for breakfast and juice, the night having drained every ounce of nutrition from their tiny little bodies. Screaming, crying babies flailing on the floor until they are given their precious apple juice is the norm. After breakfast everyone heads upstairs to get dressed for the day. Today being picture day at daycare, we were careful to dress everyone extra nice. Sophia was extra adorable today, which meant she became extra cute.

After I got her dressed, I went to my room to dress myself. She followed me into the room and stood in front of the mirror and danced to the music I just turned on.

"I a princess, Mommy," she said while smiling at me.

"Yes, you are," I said and she took my hand.

"See my princess room, Mommy," she says while dragging me to her room.

"Look, my princess room. See princess pillow case. Pretty. Babies sleeping. Wanna try," she says while climbing into her bed and picking up one on of the many dolls in her bed.

"Here Mommy. 'Mon (Come on), sit on my pillow case. Nice. See Sleeping Beauty, Cinnerella (I love the way she says Cinderella), Beauty and Beast."

"Sophia, your princess room is so nice. I love your big girl bed, it's so comfortable," I said.
"OK. Babies go sleep now. 'Mon, Mom."

I'm pushed out of the room and she proceeds to put all her baby dolls to sleep. She shuts her bedroom door and comes into the bathroom to tell me everyone is sleeping.

Future tour guide? Realtor? Maybe. Whatever it is, she's definitely adorable.

The princess and the, um, well, everything

It’s been well documented that Sophia is, shall we say, sometimes a little challenging. Challenging in that she has very strong opinions on what she wants to eat (or eat at all), wear, play and anything else that requires some kind of decision-making skill. Well, Mommy has found her weakness: Princesses.

That’s right, this little girl is obsessed with princesses. Apparently, there’s been a love of princesses brewing deep inside her and it’s finally come out.

It started after Ryan was born and our neighbor bought her the book Disney’s Princess Magic. It’s a seek-and-find book especially for toddlers and it quickly became her favorite book. Within a couple of days after getting the book, Sophia was able to find all the pictures on every page.

After a few months Mommy and Daddy grew tired of Princess Magic and carefully found a less obvious home for it. That is until recently when Sophia found her beloved Princess Magic book. She is still wildly crazy for this book except that this time she is a little bit older and has figured out what a princess is, and I’ve recently learned how to take advantage of the love of this book.

It all started Saturday when I got Sophia dressed. I put her in a dress and when she looked at herself in the mirror, she said, “Princess,” and pointed to herself. Great, I thought, how can I make this work in my favor? The answer: Make everything in our lives about princesses. It turns out that Sophia will eat breakfast if we serve Princess Waffles, rather than plain, old, every day waffles. She’ll wear what we put on her if we tell her she’s wearing princess clothes.

Basically, if we use the word princess before anything she will do it.

OK, so I know there are many, many anti-princess moms out there, but honestly, this works and if that means I have to make her into a princess every day so that she eats her dinner, by god, I’ll do it.

By the way, we took the kid to the zoo on Monday. It was Sophia and Ryan's first trip. If you scroll to the very bottom of the this page, you can see a slideshow of our trip.