So I mentioned a while back that Mercy adores Cinderella. We did a pretty good job containing it for a while (the only Cinderella item in our house was the original Disney book that our landlord passed along to us from when his daughters were little), but we lost some serious ground in December. It is of course every grandparent’s prerogative to give Cinderella sippy cups, Cinderella plates and bowls, Cinderella underwear, Cinderella jammies, and the Cinderella movie to their beloved granddaughter for Christmas. I suppose things could be worse: at least there are no purple dinosaurs in our house!
Well, this morning I set up Mercy’s “farm” at the dining room table so she could play. She has chickens, ducks, farm tools, tractors, trees and a little “Farmer Jones”. She LOVES playing farm. Only this morning, for some reason, she got it into her head that one of the little plastic trees was Cinderella. So I went along with it, and took some of the other trees and made a prince-tree, annoying sisters-trees, etc. But, Mercy’s favorite part of the Cinderella story is Cinderella’s pink dress (the first dress that the birds and mice help make that gets ripped up by the annoying sisters), and she kept asking for her Cinderella tree to have a pink dress.
On a shelf above the table, I spotted a gift basket of art supplies she had been given that had some pink tissue paper sticking out of it as well as a nice package of pipe cleaners. In a matter of minutes, Cinderella-tree was ball-ready. I am pretty sure this is taking things to a whole new level.
This is how Lydia prays before dinner: “Thank You Jesus God for all the food, and family and Cinderella dancing with the prince … Amen.”
SO funny!! I actually love that she chose a tree to be the princess! Does she know about the Lorax yet?
We celebrated Aaron’s first birthday on Saturday, and our gift to him was the Little People Noah’s Ark. He would rather run around the apartment kicking a balloon and shouting “ball!”, but Mercy LOVES the ark. We have a “Little People” Cinderella that a neighbor gave to us, and it was only a matter of time before Mercy informed us that Noah and Cinderella were friends, and she came on board. All that to say, I think we are not far off from Cinderella liturgy ourselves…
She does NOT know about the Lorax yet–and yes, I too like that she chose a tree! She’s a good Northwest girl after all!
erika, seriously, there will never be any doubt that mercy is your daughter. now you need to teach her how to make little dough tree ornaments…
i love the imagination your child has.
Some things are destined to be. My daughter Rebecca insisted that all rocks, twigs, toys, etc. should be seperated into threes to create a daddy and mommy and baby ‘family.’ What do you do with that kind of imaginative and visionary committment?
Tom,
It sounds like Rebecca and Mercy would have been fast friends! Mercy is fascinated by construction equipment (or Snorts as we call them), and whenever we spot a bulldozer or construction vehicle, she will announce whether it is a Mommy Nort, a Daddy Nort, or a Baby Nort. And if we see a Baby Nort, then the next stretch of highway is all about finding the Baby Nort’s Mommy. It is hilarious. Do boys do this or is it a girl thing???
I met Rebecca a few times at PCC–what a remarkable young woman!
[…] However cheesy Valentine’s Day can feel, we are still compelled to make nice breakfasts and plan surprise outings and give a few more kisses on this day. And when Doug was asked to lead worship at a special Fuller event planned for this evening, he gently declined (though he would have loved to do it) for my sake. Even Mercy has been struck by the romance of the day. This morning she insisted that Cinderella Tree wear a wedding dress. […]
[…] I have spoken before of my daughter’s Cinderella fascination. I have made the observation that Cinderella has grown more blonde over the years (she has wonderful strawberry blonde hair in the movie and original Disney books, but in all the annoying “princess” paraphernalia that is now being sold, she is totally blonde). But what is interesting to me is that the two figures Mercy has selected to be “Cinderella” in our house have black hair (I won’t even speculate here about Cinderella-Tree). One of them is a cloth doll from Mexico that I bought years ago when I studied there. The doll has on a partially pink dress which, for Mercy, apparently was enough to doom her to Cinderellahood. The other is a Little People figurine that looks Asian. […]