Princess Lilly

You know that episode of The Twilight Zone where the Earth is hurdling toward the Sun and everyone is moving North to try to cool off before they inevitably die? You know, there's that girl who decides to stay in her apartment along with her crazy old lady neighbor and then at the end you find out it was all a dream and she just had a really bad fever. Yeah, well, that's kinda like what life is like right now. I seriously think it is at least a million degrees outside. It is sooooo hot. The only plausible explanation is that we are in The Twilight Zone.

(How's that for an introduction? Yikes.)

Anyway, the girls and I have stayed home all week in order to avoid melting outside. I could tell that Lilly was starting to get a little stir crazy, so I told Aaron that we needed to come up with a game plan to get us out of the house and out of the heat.

Lilly has been asking to see Brave for a while now and we have done a pretty great job of distracting her from that request. (We're pros. That movie was released, what, a month and a half ago?) Well, since movie theaters offer free air-conditioning, we decided the time had finally come. We raced out of the house this morning and caught a matinee showing.

Addie slept for most of it and woke up clapping just as the credits rolled. She was a doll, as usual. I'm not sure Lilly followed the plot too well (It usually takes multiple viewings for her to get the gist of most movies) but she laughed out loud at all the right moments and asked to watch certain parts again.

Have you seen it? It's so good! I actually had no clue what it was about, since the previews really give nothing away. It has a great mother/daughter storyline and it had me in tears. I hugged my little girls so many times as we were leaving the theater.

I also really, really liked how Merida wasn't your average princess. She was rambunctious and messy and she wasn't looking for Prince Charming. She reminded me a lot of my Lilly.

It's no secret that Lilly is a princess. She loves princess stuff. Fancy dresses, tiaras, Disney movies, princess this, princess that. She loves it all. And before you put on your judge's robe and grab your gavel, let me just say that this is perfectly fine with us. I know that a lot of parents cringe at the thought of their daughter "falling into" the whole princess culture, but we don't. We didn't push any of this princess stuff on her, she just sort of gravitated to it.

Honestly, she gravitates toward everything.

She loves dressing up like a princess, but she also loves dressing up like a pirate. She loves to wear tiaras, while she plays with her dinosaurs and building blocks. She loves Hot Wheels and purses. Her favorite Disney movies are Snow White, Tangled, Robin Hood and The Sword in the Stone.  She's equal parts princess and adventurer. She has a wild imagination and we embrace it, whether she's playing princess or pretending she's a train conductor.

Isn't she charming?

So, in the mean time, we let her wear all of the princess gear. And if, in the future, she decides to hang up her gown and glass slippers in exchange for soccer cleats or a karate gi, well, she'll have our support. I'm positive that she's still going to grow up to be a strong, smart and independent young lady... and she'll always be our princess.