The Milk Crate Fairies

Sometimes if I wake up in the middle of night and if I listen closely I can hear The Beast in her sleep laughing or sometimes singing….often there is light-hearted chatter. The Beast’s innately cheerful character bleeds through to her sleeping soul and thus her vivid dreams are often filled with happy magical creatures and wondrous places.

The other night when I came home I walked into the tail end of the Beast’s re-telling a dream to The Husband…I wanted her to tell me too, but she said it was too long, but it was about Milk Crate Fairies. Then she turned and went to her room to write fan-fiction. I have been dying to know what the Milk Crate Fairies look like and what the dream was about, but the child does not do repeat performances.

Typical artist.

Find More Fairies

I started a book of New Year’s Resolutions quite a few years ago because I thought it would be funny to look back at The Beast’s resolutions. Of course, the child did not disappoint. My favorite from her first year was “find more fairies.” Not just “find fairies” but “find MORE fairies” which made me question her, in-depth, about her previous fairy finds.

The child has always been creative and, at that time, I was constantly finding little homes she had made for very small people tucked behind curtains on windowsills, nestled in bookshelves or in drawers cozily outfitted with little tiny home goods. I never thought that the child might be making these homes for little tiny people that she actually saw....

When she was even younger, she did have her make-believe friend, Sellabee--the amazing, invisible, dancing ant. I didn’t think it was too odd since I had a make-believe friend when I was little also..all be it, not unique like my daughter’s invisible, dancing ant.

Over the years The Beast’s resolutions have ranged from “Make a New Revolution” to “Daydream More” to “Grow Hair Longer” reflecting a rather non-American, non-driven outlook on life that my husband and I aspire to.

As it turns out, The Beast’s resolutions were not the funniest ones...in retrospect. Mine were...my constant quest to get back in shape started with Year One: “Exercise Every Day “ (Pleasssse, like that was going to happen)
Year Two: “ Get back to a size 4”(had failure written all over it)
Year Three: a more vague “Get in Shape”
Year Four: “exercise more with family” (it’s not my fault they are lazy—those people never exercise)
Year Five: A more accepting resolution--”Feel better about body” (regardless of size and shape)
Funny...but in a sad way....

My husband resolutions matched his daughter’s in creativity and mine in the “doomed to failure” category, but we will not go into details.

However, hope springs eternal...I just got out the resolutions book... I am thinkin’ up some good ones for this year....I will never to give up!