She's Gone

Madeline is 3 going on 16. When the hormones hit we are going to be in trouble. I blame it on the princess movies.

She tells us that Cinderella and the Prince are in love and that they are going to dance and get married. She thinks that when two people dance together that that means they are married (I guess the act of dancing unites the couple). Her "barbies" (that's what she calls her princess figurines) dance together and the prince kisses them. She even makes kissing noises.

The funniest (and most heartbreaking) thing is that she lines up her princesses on my closed laptop -which is the ballroom. The princesses are at one end lined up in two lines on opposite sides and the prince is on the other. The prince usually starts with Cinderella and Madeline makes them dance while she sings "once upon a dream." Then she returns Cinderella to her place and the prince says, "WHO'S NEXT?!" and she picks another to dance and sings again. This goes on and on until all of the princesses AND Anastasia and Drizzella have had their turn.

I mean really, balls and dancing and "LOVE" and marriage at 3? Today in the car she had Belle and the prince and she informed me that, "Belle and the prince are in love and they are going to dance and get married." I told her that they didn't have to be in love, that they could just be friends and dance together for fun...she adamantly disagreed saying that they WERE in love and they were going to get married.

I remember my first love. It was at daycare. I was 4 and his name was Bo but I called him "Bowl." I named my cat after him. Tom Bowl. I can see it all now. First princesses and princes, then playground love and kiss chase, next comes the preteen crush and posters on the wall and on and on and on it goes...

Every morning Madeline wakes up and tells me she is Cinderella and she wants to know where her handsome prince is. If it is early enough I tell her he is in the kitchen and she should run and catch him before he has to go to work. She runs as fast as she can to greet her Daddy, "HI handsome prince!" I hope he is her prince- her only prince- for a long long time.