3-year-old fairy lawyers

The 'list' has once again become the deciding word in Katie's bedtime routine.

A couple of months ago, while getting a certain girl ready for bed, I asked Katie to take her crown off so she could go to sleep. 'But Mom, according to the the princess list girls need to sleep with the crown ON!'

I had no idea what mysterious list she was talking about, and was simply curious how she would think of using an outside authority to back up her point of view. The next time we went to the Depot, she showed me what I had failed to understand.

In the paint department is one of our regular stops. The Disney section, to be specific. There are mouse ears in a variety of colors - we get to pick out two each - and little pamphlets with ideas on how to turn your child's room into a shrine to their favorite movie. Katie grabbed the princess one and immediately turned to the picture of a girl sleeping on her pink satin pillow with her crown on her head. 'SEE MOM! The list says that girls sleep with their crowns on.'

Well, now we've shifted to Tinker Bell, and the list is back in play. According to Katie: 'Tinker Bell girls need to sleep with their wings on.' Rog and I thought we were on strong footing on this one, because there is NO WHERE in the pamphlet where a girl is lying on a bed with fairy wings on. Feeling very sure of victory, we said that if Katie could prove it with the list, she could sleep with her wings on. She immediately ran to wherever she had stashed her current copy of this important document and said: 'See! Right here! Put my wings on, please!' After 10 minutes of discussion with Rog, in which he remained unconvinced, it was my turn. We spent a lot of time going back-and-forth like the following:

Me: Where are the wings?
Katie: Here on the carpet.
Me: See, they are there on the floor, so they don't go on girls for bedtime.
Katie: They DO go on girls. See?!
Me: No, they're just on the floor.
Katie: No, they are on the floor AND on the girl. So they go on girls.

What Katie saw in the picture was a throw rug of Tinker Bell, clearly showing her wings. The parents of course just saw the wings on the floor. Since Katie proved what she said she could, the wings went on. And she slept with her face smashed in her pillow to keep from squashing them.

And in case you're worried about Miss Girly-girl being unable to function in a non-pink world of bugs and dirt, know that she is a very well-rounded princess. The park we hit this morning lies between an irrigation ditch and a lake. One of the kids found a frog hopping across the sand. Alex was the first kid to successful catch him, but Katie was a close second. He was pretty jumpy, but the kids managed to hold him for seconds at a time before he'd escape again.

I wish I'd recorded Alex' giggle as he tried to hold the frog, because MAN was it infectious! That handsome boy could not stop laughing and smiling - and even stopped trying to stomp on the frog and just catch him after a while.

While we were chasing after the frog, mobile Max decided that the sandwich his siblings were too good for looked great to him and totally went for it. I brought a big enough blanket to keep him out of the dirt, but neglected to put all foodstuffs outside the 10-foot perimeter necessary to keep Max and his Inspector Gadget arms out of them. Luckily he gummed the bread bites to death, and I guess we'll just have to wait and see if a peanut allergy develops!

Max (8 months) and Seven in the front yard. The tulips are almost all gone but MAN did they have a great year!