Non-Stop Princess

I don’t know how many of you I’ve mentioned this to, but Elaina didn’t stop being interested in princesses and Sleeping Beauty just because we came home from Disney World.  Every night, and I do mean every night, I come home from work to Elaina in her Sleeping Beauty outfit.  She insists that I call her “Sleeping Beauty” and insists on calling me “Prince Philip”.

When we watch Sleeping Beauty, it’s not just passive entertainment.  She acts out parts of the movie, dancing when Merryweather dances, walking around one of the recliners in the living room when Aurora goes up a winding set of stairs, pricking her finger on an imaginary spindle, and of course, sleeping when Aurora is under Maleficent’s spell.  In these pictures, Elaina’s under Maleficent’s spell, waiting for me to kiss her to wake her up.  The longer I wait, the harder she closes her eyes and scrunches up her face.

After she wakes, she has to get off the couch, take my hand, and go curtsey before her royal parents as the same thing happens in the movie.  Thereafter, we descend the staircase, arm-in-arm for our dance that ends the movie. 

As endearing as this all is, there are times when I’m not as enthusiastic about the level of interaction she wants to wring out of this movie.  Sometimes, after a long day at work, hacking my way through a hedge of imaginary thorns is just more than I’m up for.  Even so, I never miss the waking kiss, nor the final dance.  Some things a prince simply can’t let pass him by.