The Princess and the Baseball
September 22, 2010
JOHN E. writes:
I’m looking forward to showing my daughter The Princess and the Pea as you have shown here. My wife or I at one time conveyed to our two-year-old daughter that there is such a story called The Princess and the Pea. A few months ago she wanted to hear this story every night before going to bed. Since I didn’t have the story available in print, I tried to indulge her by telling it from memory. I am a terrible story-teller, but apparently I got the basic idea across. A couple of nights ago, after I bid her hop into her bed for the night, she grabbed a baseball lying on the floor, lifted her little toddler mattress, and stuffed the ball underneath, exclaiming “It’s a pea!” Considering the relative size of the baseball, and the thickness of her single mattress, I guess she was leaving no room for doubt as to her princess-ly sensitivies!
Laura writes:
That is a riot. Hilarious!
By the way, I am not surprised your daughter loves this story, which indulges contradictory impulses in a little girl. On the one hand, it condemns her for being too fussy (this seems right considering what a little girl knows about herself) and, on the other hand, it acknowledges something very important and undeniably true. Princesses exist. They are real. : – )
