I'm not Frankie, I'm Cinderella

I don't think I've mentioned yet how princess obsessed our little Frankie has become. We have not encouraged the Princess thing, but it has hit our house hard, and appears to be here to stay for a while. Ever since Halloween, after she wakes up, she decides to put on one of her collection of Princess Dresses. We have 3 - two from the infamous garage sale, and one from Halloween this past year. Her decided favorite is the blue one, because Cinderella wears blue. She knows this because we have a Commemorative Slurpee Cup from 7-Eleven with various Disney princesses on it, and it has become the authority on the various outfits of the princesses, and which color each princess likes best.

She also has 2 wands (we had to buy a second one because she lost the first somewhere in the house, and it caused such heart ache we broke down and got a back up. And then found the first). And a pair of "glass slippers", which are just little silver fabric shoe covers that she's almost worn thin in the last month. And a Tiara (headband).

After she gets dressed, she often refuses to respond to Frankie. She'll tell you "I'm not Frankie, I'm Cinderella". But it's not always Cinderella, sometime she's Jasmine, Ariel, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, or Belle, and is liable to change her persona throughout the day. Cinderella can be coerced to come to the dinner table by the royal proclamation that "Belle is throwing a dinner party and has requested your presence, my lady". She will then go to the dinner table and greet all the other princesses. I've caught her talking to a row of chairs who are apparently full of princesses throwing a tea party.

It's so stinking cute. I'm really enjoying this stage of imagination and creative play. The sense of wonder is so profound, and is quite contagious. She loves to hear stories, especially ones that start with "Once upon a time...", and as a house hold we have enjoyed making up stories about recurring characters (I tell stories about Hannah and Swiper - more on that later, Chris tells stories about Prim Pony and Francerella, and Rachel tells stories about all the princesses).

Each night she puts her princess items in a special basket in the playroom, and I like that we have to be consistent about this. If we forget, and she can't find her glass slippers in the morning, we get to talk about how we need to take care of our things and how she must have forgotten to put them away the night before.

Here she in in her Halloween costume from this year (not on Halloween)


And here's a series of pictures I put on Facebook but forgot to post on the blog, that Rachel took at the Frog Pond park. It's officially winter now, but we had a nice fall!







Click through for a video on leaf-throwing fun!