Fairies ARE Real

Anyone who has spent more than two minutes with my darling eight year-old, Maia, quickly learns two things about her. First, she can't be still for a second. Second, she loves fairies. I mean, she really loves fairies. Those geniuses at Disney started a whole new fairy line of merchandise, so when your little girl does finally outgrow princesses, she's got another new fascinating genre just waiting for her. Maia owns, has read, and rereads all eight of the chapter books about these Disney fairies. She builds "fairy houses" in the yard out of sticks and leaves. She dreams of "owning a pet fairy." She's quite obsessed.

This tends to bother her father a little bit because she really thinks that fairies are real. No amount of logical discussion can persuade her that this is not the case. I only get frustrated with it when she relentlessly begs to have a fairy and I have to tell her that is simply not possible. She doesn't believe me. Michael thinks she should grow up and face facts, but she is only eight.

Anyway, on Friday a package was waiting in our mailbox. I grabbed it and took it in the car with me to go pick up kids from school. It was addressed to Maia and the return address clearly said, "Tink. XXXXXXXXXXXXX Arlington, VA 22206" She couldn't believe that she had gotten a package from Tinkerbell herself. She ripped open the padded envelope and pulled out a card. "Maia, may your day be sprinkled with pixie dust. Love, Tink," it read. She was ecstatic. The envelope also contained a t-shirt. She opened it and gasped, "It's Fawn, Mom! Tinkerbell's friend, Fawn!" Fawn is not a fairy with whom I am familiar. None of Maia's books is about her, but apparently she is a resident of Pixie Hollow and therefore a friend of Maia's. The fairy pictured on this shirt, Fawn, is wearing a skirt that is sewn onto the shirt in a 3-D way. "Oh, this skirt is made from spider silk!" Maia exclaimed. I was thinking what in the heck is spider silk? As if to answer my silent question, Maia went on to explain, "Fairies weave their clothes from spider silk so this must be spider silk on this shirt!" She was in heaven. I mean, I just cannot write enough about how my sweet daughter is into fairies.

Don't think she and Mason didn't have a very lengthy discussion about how Tinkerbell could know where she lives (from her visits to disney.com where she goes to create her own fairies, or course). For every question they had, they quickly came up with a "reasonable" explanation (she's never actually entered her address into disney.com, but they didn't consider that).

As she was getting out of the car, she stuffed the shirt into her bag and mumbled to herself, "I can't wait to show Dad!" Then her voice lowered two octaves and she said in a slightly-mocking tone,"You know, Maia, fairies aren't real!" I had to bite the insides of my cheeks to keep from laughing. She didn't want to show her dad her shirt because she was excited about the shirt; she wanted to show her dad the entire package to prove to him that Tinkerbell and all the fairies in Pixie Hollow are real.

This morning, while she was supposed to be getting ready for school, I caught her writing a thank you note to Tinkerbell. At first, she told me, she was going to email Tink via the Disney website, but then she remembered the envelope with the return address. She is really excited to have Tink's address. "I guess there must be an Arlington in Pixie Hollow," she reasoned.

While I was doing her hair this morning, I noticed her patting a piece of paper sticking out of her pants pocket. "What's that?" I asked. "It's Tink's address. Arlington, VA 22206." She MEMORIZED it. "I'm going to show Eli and Rebecca Tinkerbell's address so they can write her letters, too!" I hope my sister is prepared for all the fan mail she's about to receive.