Day: December 3, 2007

Princesses and Ponies and Penguins too!

Following the lead of her older friends, Leilani has gotten into “princesses” (which consists mostly of dressing up and looking at Disney’s version of the fairy tales). I let Leilani pick out her birthday party decoration yesterday. I expected her to go for the princess – she loves Fairy Tales, and can listen to them forever. I can totally diffuse most tantrums by offering to tell her stories like Cinderella (Aschenputtel) or the Frog King, or Snow White. Her favorite dress up – besides Pippi Longstocking of course – is a princess dress with an emperor crown.

Leilani surprised me by deciding within a second or so – on the Little Pony. I asked if she was sure and she really was. The princess was kind of a folksy-cutesy princess, maybe Leilani didn’t recognize her as such, and there was not that much to choose from, but her determination surprised me as much as her choice. She tried to buy every piece they had with a little pony on it and we tried pretty hard to only but the stuff we needed (we won, except for 3$).

Afterwards I let her pick out her birthday dress herself from the “princess” dresses in the toy aisle. Leilani looked at the dresses, the one she was interested in was too big (but super-cute) – the other ones did not interest her. We were right next to the Barbie toys – I didn’t worry, she is way too young to be intrigued by Barbie, but – Barbie has a horse. It caught her eye, and she pointed it’s way. “No dress, the horsie.” “But Leilani, what will you wear at your party (Nemoshorts??)?” “The dress is to beeg. I want horsie.” The price was about the same. I bought her the horse.

Andy did not agree with “turning her loose in the store” and letting her make a choice of something totally different than what I had had in mind, but its her birthday, and remembering how much I loved horses as a girl – how could I refuse. Addition written after her birthday: When we finally gave her the horse on her birthday (one of 5 horses btw.) I was amazed to see that she really enjoyed it and she did all the girly things the horse is designed for – started with brushing mane and tail, putting leis and jewelry on… nobody ever showed her, she doesn’t watch commercials on TV, and I thought she was too young to figure this out on her own.

We went to Borders, wher Andy attended a book signing and I encouraged Leilani to pick out a gift that she wanted daddy to get her for her birthday. She has a book about a Penguin named Mumble, and likes it a lot, and recently realized that there also is a “Mumble Movie” (Happy Feet), when she saw it playing in a store. He got it for her and a horse sticker book and a purple pony too (now that’s my kind of shopping: while I buy a hiking book, Leilani picks out presents for herself that I totally agree with).