Please call me Belle, Mom...

This is what I hear just about daily from Madalyn lately. My daughter thinks she is the princess known as Belle. She has not seen Beauty and the Beast nor has she been formally introduced to the Disney Princesses. But, her name is Belle and that's that.

A couple of weeks ago a friend sent me an email that there was going to be a princess social at a local church in town. Girls ages 2-6 were to come dressed as princesses and they would get to spend the evening eating pink cupcakes, making crafts, and meeting a princess and her prince. I knew Madalyn would have a ball (as she loves to dress us) and so we planned on going. I got a babysitter for the babes, Mark went to softball, and we went for some mother-daughter time at the "Princess Party" as Mady called it.

I was right - she had a ball. We met up with about 8 little other princesses that go to the same church as us. The girls colored, did a craft of decorating their very own crown, got their picture taken with a princess and her prince, ate pink cupcakes, got Princess tattoos, and watched a brief Princess movie. It was the perfect activity for my little girl... she was having the time of her life.

One of her friends from church, whom she loves to play with, came dressed as Belle - complete with the yellow dress and all. Mady had heard her say that she was dressed as Belle, I'm sure - as I never told her. The next day I asked Mady if she could do something for me. Surprisingly I heard her say "Mom, I'm not Mady... I'm Belle." I politely said "okay, Belle. Could you go do so-and-so" - the whole time I was laughing inside. To this day (3 weeks or so after the princess party) she's still telling us to call her Belle. Sometimes she even says, "You're not mom, you're Cinderella. And Daddy is the Prince." It's super cute. She's into everything Princess right now as well. I love that she gets to excited. Just tonight she said, "these shoes are not Mady's they are Belle's."

So, if you see us out somewhere, make sure to tell "Belle" hi!

Here's my little Princess... Belle.
P.S. A random story from the Princess Party. They had a room set up where they were taking pictures of each girl with the Princess and the Prince, two young college kids dressed up accordingly. Mady was all excited until it was her turn and she wigged out. She held onto my leg and wanted nothing to do with getting her pictures taken. So, we went and did something else and came back later. We had talked it over and she said she was going to do it this time. A couple of the little girls in front of us asked if they could get their picture taken with just the Princess - no Prince. They did that and I explained to Madalyn that she could just sit with the Princess if that would make her comfortable. She said "no mommy, I just want the Prince not the Princess." Oh boy... So, mom had to explain to the photographer that we wanted just the Prince. And then, of course, she gets scared again. She's holding onto my leg not wanting to move. I hear them say "mom, you can go up with her." So, I headed up hoping that it would make her feel more comfortable. Next thing I know they took 2 pictures. Whew... glad that was over. I didn't think too much about it until we got the pictures in the mail a little while ago. I had to laugh as I showed it to Mark... a picture of Mady, A young Prince, and Me. Had I not told the Mark the story and he opened that picture I'm sure it would have been really funny. It's definitely not a picture that's on display but it is one that will go in Mady's scrapbook for many laughs down the road....