The Joys that come with little girls

I remember proudly posting a few months ago that I was the lucky mother of a two year old who had no idea what a princess was. Then I made the mistake of dressing her like a princess for Halloween and chaos ensued. Yes Princesses are nice and lovely, but I want my kid to play in the dirt with trucks and wear mismatched clothes while she can pull it off. I want her to do gymnastics, dress up like superman and climb trees. I know these things arn't exclusive, you can play princess dress up AND climb trees but Alex is only 2 and I feel like she spends WAY to much time prancing around calling herself a princess with a blanket wrapped around her. When we tell Alex she looks pretty she says "Like a princess?" Any picture of a pretty lady is a princess, and on and on. This excerpt from"Cinderella ate my daughter" describes it so much better than I am. Like she says "what I want for my daughter seems so simple: for her to grow up healthy, happy, and confident, with a clear sense of her own potential and the opportunity to fulfill it. Yet she lives in a world that tells her, whether she is three or thirty-three, that the surest way to get there is to look, well, like Cinderella."

I am not a princess hater, I love seeing her twirl in her dresses and talk about Snow White like they are friends. I love that it inspires her to let me do her hair, and just the simple joy that shines from her eyes when she gets a Belle sticker or watches the little mermaid. I just think the Disney has done a far too fantastic job of marketing princesses these days, I can't walk down the cereal isle without Alex begging for more princess paraphernalia in the form of cereal, clothes, shoes, dolls, movies etc, etc. She loves it and it makes her happy, it's not like she has that much, a barbie, a couple movies, and a book or two. But I digress.

When shopping for treasures to put in Alex's potty chart redemption box (once she fills a page up with stickers for using the potty, she gets to take the chart to Grandma's house and pick a prize out of the box) I was trying to broaden her horizons a bit and search for non-princess themed things. Cue My Little Pony.

I never really had any My Little Pony figures as a kid, but as an adult, I want them badly. The cute colorful little pony's with the long hair, who wouldn't want one?! So I found one at the store and thought it would make a great prize for Alex. A few weeks later Alex earned her prize, picked the pony and brought it home to play with. Out of the box and into her arms, true love. When the excitement had worn off I was able to snag the little thing for a closer look and I was actually a bit appalled.

Have you seen the new My Little Pony's? No longer are they the chubby cute little pink horses with tufts of hair to brush. Now they have an unsettling "come-hither" type makeover. They somehow made a horse look skinny with a gigantic head and excessive waves of styled hair, oh and a mini skirt to boot. It's weird. A bit too much. It's sort of a horse version of a BRATS doll. Which reminds me of a funny story I heard.......

A lady was with her young daughter on a bus in Amsterdam. The bus went through the red light district where a "call girl" got on the bus. The mother was a bit uncomfortable and looked down at her daughter who was staring at the "call girl" with stars in her eyes. "Mom" she said "Isn't she beautiful? She looks just like one of my BRATS dolls."

So I took my quest for non-princess, age appropriate potty training rewards online. It was futile, the only reasonably priced non super sexy pony I could find has a mermaid tale. This was more confusing to me than pony eye liner and liposuction, which the mermaid pony also has had done. I know kids like horses, and I know kids like mermaids, I just can't fathom putting the two together. Horse and fish are an odd combination.

Perhaps I am crazy though, and in another 6 months the normalcy of it all will hit and I will once again be choking on my words. I don't know which is worse, happy, sweet, sensitive, nice, always optimistic princess Cinderella, or borderline too sexy pony?

Be warned mothers of infant girls, and start searching DI and garage sales for some old fashioned G rated little girl toys now. Alex is going to be 3 in a month and I won't be able to buy her coloring books and blocks forever. I'm starting to think we aren't going to even make it to the teenage years before makeup, modesty and morality issues come pounding on our front door. Thank you world for trying to help my baby grow up so fast, but I want to keep her young and innocent while I can.

Before (doing the best with what nature gave you)

After (Welcome to the age of the plastic surgeon)