"And also with you," was the reply our youth pastor got during church today when he opened his talk about youth ministries at our church.
Anyway... it's punny-haha and because of that cute saying, in the internet world, May 4th has become "Star Wars Day."
Lately, I've had vivid memories of pretending to be Princess Leia when I was about 3 or 4 years old. The reason is Audrey is so much like me in her 2 1/2+ self! She wants to dress up like princesses all the time and even uses princess names to tell me what kind of hair style she would like.
"Elsa braid" = one low braid or if she's not wiggly I'll do my best interpretation of a French braid
"Anna braid" = braided pig tails
"Tiny Anna hair" = pig tails looped
"Rapunzel hair" = just down, no brushing (although I brush it anyway!)
"My Little Pony hair" = pony tail
I remember doing this to my mom with Princess Leia hair. I wanted my mom to make my hair look like Princess Leia and I remembered feeling just a tad heartbroken when I looked in the mirror to find two of the tiniest braided buns I had ever seen. Princess Leia I was not... but that didn't stop me from pretending. In fact, my idea of dressing up like a princess (*ahem* Princess Leia to be exact!) was to put on my mom's red Christmas apron that went all the way down to my feet and then on those feet wear my black, shiny Sunday School shoes. Audrey does the exact same thing except she has actual princess dresses handed down from her friend Emilie. The icing on the cake for her are also her "princess shoes" (as she calls them) - her black, shiny Sunday School shoes. They're scuffed now from her running around the front yard singing "Let It Go!" at the top of her lungs. Me? I would climb on my swing set and pretend Storm Troopers were after me. Audrey will run around the front yard or she'll dance in the living room. She requests "Sophia music," which is just classical music. Sophia is a princess from a Disney channel show called "Sophia the First." Audrey only knows about her from a few episodes we've caught while on vacation, books, and one DVD I bought her. I like the show - it's cute and pretty clever. This girl Sophia's mom marries a king and moves her and Sophia from their peasant home to the palace where Sophia has to learn to be a princess. She gets help from a magical amulet that can summon other princesses (i.e. Cinderella, Ariel, etc.). Also, the three fairies from "The Sleeping Beauty" are her teachers at "princess school." It's cute.
All in all, I LOVE watching Audrey pretend. She pretends in all sorts of ways! She even has pretend conversations with her fingers and her feet. One day, on the way home from preschool, she told me "my feet are fighting!" and when I asked "why?" she said something about how one didn't want the other to be next to it or something. I told her to tell her feet to play nice and she did - she said, "You guys have to be nice!" I love listening to her imagination unfold.
I asked Jeff if he thought Audrey could handle watching Star Wars. He said, "If she can't even handle watching 'The Little Mermaid,' then she won't be able to handle Star Wars." He's probably right but then I wondered, how did I know about Star Wars at around Audrey's age? Did my parents let me watch Star Wars? It was probably soaked in to our culture - Star Wars toys and clothes and lunchboxes and bed sheets, etc. But I wouldn't be surprised if they had let me watch the movie too. After all, my parents let me watch "Gremlins" when I was way to young to tell they were fake. I hated that movie!
All this to say, it doesn't really matter where the imagination comes from, just that it comes.
Most kick-ass princess. Ever.