Subtitled: I probably just set a really bad precedent, but she's far too cute for me to care.
Uno brought me this drawing last Thursday, explaining that it was a picture of Mickey's House of Villains. Inside the house (the box) are, from left to right: Goofy (the tall green one); Donald Duck (love the big duck nose!); Minnie Mouse (in pink with a hair bow); Mickey Mouse (note the red button pants); and Daisy. Outside the house are the villains (she said with a spooky laugh -- Bwaa-ah-ah-ah!!!): Green goo guys; yellow octopus guys; blood guys; an orange juice guy; a water guy; and a bat guy. Apparently the villains are trying to take over Mickey Mouse's house, so he and all of his friends must save the day!
Now usually when Uno or Dos bring me pictures we simply hang them up in one of our three galleries: The family art museum in the hallway, the refrigerator, or in their bedroom. But Uno insisted this one had to go to the mailman so he could bring her back the movie. (We belong to the
Disney Movie Club, so we do occasionally get movies in the mail.) I had never heard of this particular movie before -- and I felt fairly certain that if it did exist, it didn't actually have orange juice bad guys, lol -- but I am often guilty of letting the girls watch the Disney Channel unattended while I do "mommy things" so it's possible she had seen something like this advertised. I tried to distract her from the whole mailing thing (I wanted to save the picture at least long enough for DH to see!), but she would not let the matter drop. So we scanned the picture for ourselves and stuck the original in an envelope with a short explanatory note to my parents, and Uno placed it in the mailbox.
She checked back every few minutes to see if the mailman had taken her letter yet. She was thrilled when he finally did, but disappointed not to find the movie already waiting for her with the day's other mail. I tried to explain that the process is not instantaneous. She shrugged and said okay, as if she understood, but continued to check back every few hours on Thursday to see if the mailman had come back yet with her show.
Normally I would just have let the matter drop, let the House of Villains fade into misty distant memory (uh, except that with Uno that never happens). But I couldn't bear the thought of her checking the mail for her movie every single day for weeks, months, even
years, and never finding it. She was so proud of her drawing, so excited to lick the envelope closed and have it disappear from the mailbox, so anxious to see the return on her hard work and creative energy. No, she doesn't entirely understand how or why new DVDs occasionally show up at our house -- she doesn't understand that we pay for them with slightly more currency than copy paper and crayons -- but I didn't want to disabuse her of her confuselled notions just yet. She's just too innocent and adorable.
So while the girls napped I looked up
Mickey's House of Villains online, found that it is, in fact, a real movie, and ordered it for her.
It occurs to me that I may have set a bad precedent in doing this. Instead of explaining about budgets, or encouraging her to defer her wants to a wish list instead of demanding instant gratification, I've subtly taught her that you can get stuff by drawing pictures and putting them in the mail. Oops.
On the other hand, you're only four once. She still has magic in her life; the world is one big wonderful mystery, unfettered by fiduciary concerns. (And in my defense, I don't get her everything she asks for -- far from it -- and we
do talk about budgets and sticking to a shopping list and banal, responsible things like that.)
Maybe it's the [extremely] pregnant hormones making me emotional and fuzzy-headed, but her drawing charmed me more than I can say; I couldn't resist secretly indulging her just this once, and letting her think she did it all herself.
~RCH~
