One Sorry Princess

I’m surprise they lasted this long. Truly, I think of all the decorations I’ve made, they lasted the longest. The ceramic Thanksgiving figurines, I painted nearly 13 years ago, bit the dust. More like, shattered into so many pieces, that I’m unwilling to make an effort to resuscitate them with super glue (again). I also lost 3 pumpkin/gourds. The feast was spared, but seeing it without guests might make Princess start to cry and say she is sorry all over again.
I know she didn’t mean too, I’ve reminded her and Hope not to play with them like little dolls. I even told them they were special because Mommy painted them a long, long time ago. Two days ago I moved them to the untouchable top shelf. At least I thought it was untouchable. Still all the little colorful pieces of food on the table were too tempting. I would catch Princess climbing the bookshelf to pull them down again. She and 2-year old sister Hope would pretend Thanksgiving. Princess loved the blue pilgrims and Hope always got the Indians. They always got along and it was soooooo cute to see Hope ask for the ‘pum-in (pumpkin)’. Maybe I should have just let them play. But I was partial to these decorations. Not only had I painted them but I had purchased them after two months of coveting them at the craft store. Guess you really shouldn’t covet. At the time I had just finished taking a tole-painting class and they were calling to me. Plus, if you’ve ever been in the stores this time of year, Thanksgiving decorations are few and far between. The poor Holiday gets skipped right over in the retailers’ effort to start picking up your Christmas moola. Since I happen to love Thanksgiving, I couldn’t resist another reason to bring them home.
Yesterday evening, I heard the dreaded crash. I knew exactly what had happened. Princess was climbing the shelves again. She only had to step on the bottom one to reach the top, but it was enough to start to tip the bookshelf. I was panicking as I rounded the corner expecting to see the whole piece of furniture on top of her or Hope. I had been thinking of bolting it to the wall in the past because I’ve seen them start to tip it before. What a relief, it was still upright, and there stood Princess, wringing her little hands with a terrified look on her face, standing amid the shattered remains of her envy. I must have heard, “I’m sorry and I didn’t mean to,’ through her tears and whimpers hundreds of times over the next 30 minutes. I had her help me clean up the broken pieces. It was a bit tough to do since Hope kept picking up little Pilgrim parts and in her high squeaky voice, she would have them talk to each other. Both girls tried unsuccessfully to see if any of them would fit back together. Notice the Indian head on the pilgrim’s body?
We bid them farewell and sent them off to the garbage together with a few more tears.
Now the great thing is that I didn’t even get upset at her (and that is not normal, but something I’m working on). I guess I saw it coming and I knew she was sorry and felt horrible, and I’ve learned that if you rub it in they won’t always get that lesson. However I did think, darn where is the camera when you need it. My husband took some pictures with my flash-less camera so you can tell they are a bit dark. What I’ve learned over the past couple of years is that stuff is stuff, it comes and goes, but my little munchkins are mine forever and I’ll love them no matter what. Along the way, they are just happening to teach me patience, a little bit about simplicity, oh, and how to play nice.