The Limitations of Magic

Sophie received a new magic fairy wand for Easter.

I picked her up at daycare the other day and her "teacher" reminded Sophie on our way out the door that she brought the wand with her.

"I turned people into things today!", Sophie exclaimed.

"What did you turn them into?", I asked.

(I almost corrected my grammar in the recap, but I'm just trying to keep it real here)

"Oh, I turned Trevor into a moose!"

Her teacher then said, "Yes, and I asked if you could turn him into a QUIET moose, right?"

Sophie: "Yeah...but there just isn't enough magic."

Accomplishment!

Now that it's warming up outside and Sophie's room is less frigid, we've made the move toward transitioning her to her own bed.

I came up with the idea of having her earn a "fancy" marble for each night she stays in her own bed. When she earned 5 marbles, we'd give her the pink picnic basket she'd seen at Target. The girl likes motivation. We made a marble holder by cutting up an egg carton so that she'd have 5 places to put her marbles.

And she did it! 5 nights in a row! The first few nights were hard for all of us - she was scared and missing us. We missed her a lot, too. So we talked about it during the day - "what can you bring to bed with you to help you feel less scared?" She ended the week with a little flashlight, a glowing moon on the wall, the Abominable Snowman and another monster doll guarding her doll. Oh, and a CD player playing "girl music" softly (actually my new Adele CD - it's fantastic).

She brought the picnic basket to her daycare today.

Her version of how she earned it? She did "lots and lots of chores like scrubbing the floor and cleaning the chimney until I was all filthy and dirty". Nice.

The next goal is 6 marbles. She really wants a castle "because I'm the only princess in the whole world". I told her I'd look into it but castles are expensive and maybe we should save that one for Santa.

Anyone know of a source for a cardboard castle she can get into? I've seen those ones you can decorate yourself but now I'm having a hard time finding one.