Her Prerogative

The other day I was doing my zombie walk through Costco - wandering aimlessly with my mouth hanging a little agape vaguely looking for something for Maggie's birthday along with a giant box of pumpkin and flaxseed granola and enough cinnamon to last until the end of days. I settled on the new 50th anniversary edition of Sleeping Beauty, complete with a little pink pillow door hanger that says "The Princess is In" and "The Princess is Out" on opposing sides. Our kid video collection needs a transfusion, and Maggie seems fond of Briar Rose/Aurora/Sleeping Beauty/Whatever her name is. I bought it and left it in the back of my car to wait for her birthday.

That very night, I was putting Maggie to bed. We had gone through the nightly book selection process which begins with "pick one from up high" on the bookshelf and then includes me reading off a long list of titles, pausing long enough for Maggie to say, "no, not that one" in between. We finally agreed on a paperback Ariel/Aurora fall-themed double-feature that has the little mermaid taking part in an underwater fall fishy festival and Aurora getting lost in the woods and singing songs with a little bluebird. On the back book cover, there is an advertisement (which I have never noticed) for the Sleeping Beauty movie. With no prompting at all, Maggie looked at that back cover and the small picture of the video on it and said, "I NEVER want to see that movie."

"You never want to see that movie, Mags?"

"No, never. Look - it has a bad dragon in it. And it looks like there's a mean witch, too. See?"

"Well, yeah, but I see a prince, too!"

"Yes, but he probably has to fight the mean dragon."

"So, you really don't want to ever see it?"

"Nope, I don't think I do."