Castles and Characters

Bobby has taken the kids three evenings in the last week. Good man. I love that baby Robert is old enough to leave home between feedings (i.e. much lower maintenance than he used to be, so it's not bad taking both on at once). Bobby has done a great job getting Alice excited about this Daddy-Daughter time. He called each of the evenings a "party" and they did something special. Most recently, they made a castle (and a camera, of sorts) out of recyclables. This girl loves crafts with the glue and the beads and the cutting stuff out. She also likes to draw. Here are the characters Alice created to accompany their new castle:

Top row: "Princess with Really Long Hair", "Prince with Freckles", "A Really Tiny Lady"
Bottom row: "A Monster"

I checked out "Rapunzel" at the library today. With Alice's fascination with long hair and a moderate interest in the princess world, I thought it was a good pick. She was disturbed by several of the events (a father trading his unborn child to a witch for rapunzel plants, witch collecting the child the day she's born, witch cutting the girl's hair, witch banishing pregnant Rapunzel to the wilderness, witch blinding the prince, prince and Rapunzel reuniting at the end and living joyfully with their twins..."what happened to the mean witch?"). She asked me to read it twice in a row, then again later.

I don't think she's scared of the witch. If she were truly scared, she wouldn't ask to revisit the story. I think she's trying to figure something out. I can't blame her, there. It's a strange and twisted tale.