Growing Up Princesses

“Sister, you must come with me to the castle, the ball is about to start and we need to make sure all the people are dancing.”

“Oh yes, we must hurry before mommy calls us to lunch.”

“Pick up your dress and find your squirrel. I have the birds and Woody and Jessie. Lets go!”

I have four — count em, four! — daughters who are right in the thick of princessdom. Oh and did I mention that the last two are twins? Yup, twin 5-year-old princesses just to round out our kingdom over here. They live and breathe and eat like princesses. Right this very minute they’re sitting beside me dressed in full Princess Sofia gowns with all the critters and accessories – and, of course, prince Woody and princess Jessie, making pretend phone calls to the king at work.

 

 

When my littlest girls were born it was quite a traumatic event for our family. We jumped from a family of four to a family of six in an instant. Twins meant that we had a rock band’s worth of girls to raise. Sadly, due to a medical condition, the girls were born 10 weeks premature. The smaller, weaker and sicker of the pair was in bad shape, I remember the doctor saying that he wanted to do a scan to see “how much” brain damage she had as opposed to “if” she had any damage. Her future looked bleak. When we celebrated her first birthday, we found out she was hearing impaired. When she turned two, we were told she needed support to help her speak and learn to communicate due to various reasons other than her hearing impairment. By the time she was three, she finally started pairing multi-word sentences together. But it continued to be very difficult for her to find, make, and understand words despite having three sisters who talked nonstop.

And then she discovered Disney princess dresses! At the age of four, she discovered that she was a princess; any princess, all princesses. She would carefully select which one she wanted to be that day or at that time of the day – because, let’s face it, a princess has the right to change her mind. She would find the dress, the dolls, the forest critter friends, and of course the matching shoes to finish the ensemble. Hour after hour she would wear her dresses, dance in her dresses, go grocery shopping in her dresses, watch TV in her dresses.

And then the words came.

One day she set the scene, dressed in her gown. Her imagination took over and the monologue flowed. My little wee girl who couldn’t find the words to make two figurines have a conversation about the weather, was voicing an entire adventure all of her own. Stories, sentences, voices, expressions, impressions… words!

I cried.

Not only was she using her voice, she was creating a whole world around her with words. She was dressing up and expressing feeling and thought and love and humour and sadness in a way we doubted was possible. My little princess was growing up.

My babies aren’t so much babies anymore; they’ll be six in a couple of months and now they have lengthy princess conversations about the troubles of the kingdom. Just the typical issues like where to hide the treasure, which dress they should wear today, and the very important cookie shortage of 2013.

It’s hard work being a princess, but they seem to be up for the challenge.

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