Prince Needed

Yesterday I overheard Nadia playing with her princess figurines, and she had two of them marrying each other. I quickly interjected that girls don't marry girls. Yes, I know that's legal in a few states, but I don't plan to bring that topic up for several more years. I explained that a girl marries a boy. Then it hit me that I should get her a prince figurine. The five Disney princesses I got her were 60 cents each at the dollar store. First I looked on eBay, and then I looked on the Disney website. This was an instance when eBay was definitely NOT the cheaper way to go. It was much cheaper to order them from Disney. I found several figure play sets (ex. the Cinderella one includes Drizella, Anastasia, Prince Charming, Fairy Godmother, etc.). I believe her favorite toy lately has been those 5 figurines. She plays with them for hours every day. Ian likes them also. I ordered a few different play sets last night - Winnie the Pooh, Snow White, etc. I am going to give the figures out very gradually. I'll use some as rewards for small accomplishments, and I'll save some of them to give her in June for her fourth birthday. Yesterday she was combining one of her favorite books (Chrysthanamum) and the princesses. I could hear her having one princess tell the other things like "I'm named after my Grandmother; you're named after a flower." These figures plus her stuffed animals provide for a lot of imaginitive play, which I want to encourage! The first figure I'm going to give her is one of the princes so the princesses will have a man to marry.  The figure play sets were not much more expensive than the ones at the dollar store. Each set was $7.20 and included 6-8 figures. I thought that was pretty reasonable.
Her love of fairy tales has brought about the need to explain the difference between true stories and fantasy. She understands those stories didn't really happen, but now she's made statements which made me realize she has begun to think the Bible stories didn't really happen either. I'm working on making it clear the Bible is non-fiction (although I haven't used that exact term with her). She went from thinking everything was a true story to now thinking everything is a fairy tale. I'm sure it's confusing at times when you're 3 years old!

Today Nadia did a 63 piece puzzle (one she had never done before) all by herself! Way to go, Nadia! She's also doing very well with not sucking her thumb. The thumb guards have been off the past three days. I did catch her sucking her thumb a couple of times, but I reminded her the thumb guards would go back on, and that was all it took to keep her thumbs out of her mouth. I don't know if she's sucking her thumb at night, but during the day the thumbs are staying out of her mouth!

I'm praying for Paul this week because he's working on a conference proposal that is due on Thursday (he's planning to speak in Philadelphia in May right before our trip to Grand Cayman), and he's also planning on asking his advisor this week if she thinks he can graduate by August (so that he can apply for the job in the Lancaster area). I am hoping she says yes! It costs a small fortune for him to drive to school as his trip is 70 miles one-way, and gas prices are on the rise. It would be so awesome if he could complete his PhD in the next 6 months!

I'm also praying for a friend of mine who is doing ivf for #2. Her donor's egg retrieval is on Tuesday, which means my friend should have her embryo transfer on Friday. Praying this will result in a sticky bfp for her!!! Just like Nadia, her son (who will be 5 in July) is praying for a baby sister. :-)