Princessed-Out

Lily didn't start obsessing over objects and characters until she was about 2 years old. Before that she had no attachments, no "favorites", nothing. Around the fall of 2006 she discovered Elmo. I was ok with this. A slightly annoying character but overall a positive thing to become addicted to.

Soon after came Dora. I love Dora. I wish she spoke french but I have overlooked this and have come to accept her Latina roots. Dora is a go-getter. Dora is a leader. Dora and Boots may be best friends but Dora is in charge. AND - she's a problem solver. Her teacher is late for school? No worries, Dora will get out Map (resist the urge to sing the ever so creative song - I'm the map, I'm the map, I'm the map, I'm the map, I'm the MAP!), plot out three landmarks, and that teacher is in the classroom before the third bell. What a girl! Los hicimos! or something like that. I was a french major, not spanish.

Here's the problem with Dora - the girl yells when she talks. "BOOTS WE NEED TO GO THROUGH THE NUTTY FOREST!" "SWIPER NO SWIPING, SWIPER NO SWIPING, SWIPER NO SWIPING!!!" This has been a challenge that I am attempting to correct to this day: Lily yells when she talks. I am forever saying "Lily, try not to yell." "I'M NOT YELLING." "I know you don't think you are but strangers in Vermont just agreed to blow bubbles with you, so obviously that was a tad too loud."

There was also a minor incident in which Lily stopped pointing with her fingers. This was when she was about 2 1/2 and it reached a climax when my sister was visiting for Jamie's birth. Every time Lily talked (yelled) about something, she would motion with her whole hand. It was odd but I ignored it because I was 9 months pregnant and who cares if she stopped pointing? Then one day Kristen realized what Lily was doing. Dora does not use her fingers. Whenever she points to a path, Swiper, or a star, she motions with her entire hand (very similar to the models on the Price is Right, but not quiet so flamboyant). We couldn't believe it. Luckily, she overcame what could have been a very weird thing to do for her entire life.

And now to her current obsession. And I think "obsession" is an understatement since our world actually revolves around them now - the Disney Princesses.

Here she is in her princess nightgown that unfortunately also came with a matching headband. She will wear this periodically throughout the day. She knows it's for sleeping but it has the word "gown" in it. And if the word "gown" is in it then guess what it is? A gown. And the headband must always be worn at the same time. She has even woken up in the middle of the night crying because she can't find it amongst her pillows and 5 billion blankets. I have to strip the bed at 2:07am to find the thing and cram it back on her head.


My cousin Lynn has a daughter who has just outgrown these princess gowns so she gave them to Lily. We are grateful that we didn't have to pay for them since these babies are expensive!

We took these pictures one day during Jamison's nap. I had to think of an activity that wouldn't require her to talk (yell).

As you can see in the Belle picture below, she also is displaying her Belle sticker book. This was imperative for the photo shoot as she went scrambling to find it.

This is what she calls her princess look. I guess princesses are content, but also aloof. Possibly somewhat condescending?

I have no idea why she wanted me to take a picture of the back of the dress. And she specifically said that the weird pink heart-thing that she is holding must be visible.

So here's my deal with the princesses in random order:

1. They have no mothers. While Sleeping Beauty (a.k.a Aurora, a.k.a. Briar Rose) had parents, she was whisked off to a cottage with three fairies for 16 years.

2. They are only-children.

3. Majority of them only have woodland creatures or other animals as friends. Do they have social problems? Why can't they have human friends? (with the exception of Ariel - who could have at least had mermaid friends - we understand this. The mer-world is not to have contact with the human-world!)

4. They are not always obedient - Ariel disobeys her father, Jasmine disobeys her father, Snow White doesn't listen the to dwarfs warning about no one in the house, Belle is very argumentative with the Beast...)

5. Why in the world can they not problem solve on their own!?!? They need a prince, a fairy, a genie, dwarfs, a fairy-god mother, Ursula, etc.....I'm all for using help when you need it but if it weren't for these assistants, these princesses would all be dead or in a deep sleep forever. (This is where Dora would have come up with a different plan)

6. Why do all the princesses have long flowing hair? Why do they all appear to wear make-up? I've had loooooooooong discussions with Lily on how the princesses are not three and that's why they get to wear make-up. Most are 16 years old and she's lucky that I'll let her wear make-up long before those princesses were allowed to....but not when she's three! And about the hair. Usually Lily is good about her pigtails but if she wants to play dress up, the hair must be down. As Brian has mentioned numerous times - our house has more hair and wardrobe changes than a Broadway production.

She wanted a close up of the Ariel wedding gown so that we could see the Ariel crown and Ariel ring that has lip gloss in the middle. Thanks to my mother for making the purchase of all seven Disney princess rings with lip gloss in the middle. No outfit is complete with all the princess-related accessories. Now that the Ariel ring is broken, she will never wear the Ariel gown again.

Cinderella was a huge favorite for a long time. This picture was before (my mother, again) the purchase of the Cinderella accessories: handbag, wand (even though Cinderella never had a wand), necklace, bracelet, and gloves. Here, Cinderella is sitting on her thrown.

Cinderella is an expert in curtsey-ing. You can't really see her pinky's in this picture but they are properly pointing up.

Last, but oh-so-not-least, is Sleeping Beauty. This dress has a slight cleavage problem so I tried to get an angle that would not be so revealing.

There are two other dresses that didn't get in the pictures - Snow White and Jasmine. She bought her Snow White costume with her allowance (she gets coins if she stays in bed at night). I was so proud of her the day she bought it. The costume was $19.99 and with tax she ended up with 1 cent in change. That's my girl! Under budget yet she still got what she wanted. Obviously, the Snow White costume is not as well-made as the above costumes but she doesn't care.

She bought the Jasmine costume with her allowance too but my mother helped her...I am still not sure I agree with that. If she doesn't have enough allowance for the costume, then she should just look for something she can afford. All this taught her was what my sister learned a long time ago - just ask Grrrmam to cover the rest. (right in the back Kris - did you feel that one? love ya! :) )