Laylee let me know verbally what she wanted for Christmas a couple of months ago. So, being on the ball as I am, I did my shopping early. Then last week when we wrote our letters to Santa, she asked for totally different things. Guess who’s gonna learn the hard lesson that Santa’s elves are always watching and will make the Barbie and the Magical Pegasus DVD when they hear you ask your mom for it and there are no returns in Elf-land?
Then after her letter to Santa, she said she still had more things she wanted, well one more thing, and she wanted me to write it on a wish list for her. I asked her to tell it to me and I’d write it down later. She asked me to sit down and brought a pen and paper. She said, “I know I probably won’t get this but I just thought I’d ask so please write it down just the way I say.” So I did. Here goes:
Laylee’s Wishlist
Item #1 — “A square without a bottom of wood and I want to put it over my bed and I want there to be a door or stairs and I want a light in it so I can wake up by myself and I want it painted brown and if you want you can put a triangle on the top for a roof. I want the roof, if you do a roof, to be painted blonde. And I want there to be a TV and I just want movies on it and no antennas. And I want it to have windows and I want it to be soundproof from Magoo waking me up. And I want it to have a heater in there that’s as easy as it can possibly be for me to turn it on and off. And I want there to be a hole for the cord to go through and that’s the whole message. And I want it to be lockable so Magoo can’t come in and make noise in my ears. And I said I want art stuff in there, right? Because I want it to have art stuff.”
So yeah. I’ll talk to Dan about that one, or Santa, or Glenda the Good Witch or somebody because I’ve personally decided not to build my 5-year-old her own functional soundproof, fully-loaded, bed-topper mini-mansion bunker for Christmas. (Dan calls it a “life pod”.) Maybe one of those other people will have more mercy. I’m doubting that person will be Dan.
However, I will cherish that wish list for as long as we both shall live.
Yay for you for encouraging her creativity. She could not think of things like this without an environment where creativity can thrive. I sure hope I’m doing as well for my little ones.
I love the way a child’s mind works!
Love it. When my nephew was four he wanted a “hole with a lid so I can hide in it.” That was a tricky one. However, a very creative grandpa suggested a huge garbage can with the bottom cut off so he could crawl in and out and then pop out of the lid. My nephew thought it was perfect.
Imagination makes magic of life. Hooray for Laylee knowing exactly what she wants. I wonder how long it took her to come up with that one?
She put a lot of thought into that. How awesome!
What a great wish. I particularly like the “blonde” roof. I know my daughter would love to come play in the life pod with Laylee, especially since she remembered the art supplies.
I wonder if she thought of a water fountain with her favorite drink as an essential part of her life pod.
I’m always so excited to see your blog show up in my blog reader…You make me laugh!
She is a little woman who knows what she wants. That’s great. I think my little Natalie is on the opposite end of the spectrum. We went and saw Santa Claus and when he asked her what she wanted she said “hot chocolate.” Hallelujah. Done.
My four year old wants a Princess Helicopter. When I told her there was no such thing she told me that it was okay because Santa would make one for her. I’m fighting the temptation to find a helicopter and make it as princessy as possible…..just to keep Santa alive for her….maybe I’ll make her a life pod instead! ;o)
I’ve followed your blog for a couple months now; and I must say, your children are amazingly SMART! I don’t have kids of my own.. so I’m not sure how unusual yours are; but if they are any indication of what fun kids can be, I’m not so sure I want to be childless forever, like I used to think!
Laylee cracks me up. Seriously CRACKS ME UP.
I love the creativity of her request. Most kids want advertised toys; Laylee wants real estate.
I know it’s off-the-wall, but a treehouse would be just like that except for the over-the-bed aspect…
OH man I am so greatful we are in Princess and Pony land over here still.
add a minifridge and a tv, and she’s got herself a Dorm Room!
I still have that problem with the Santa list. You think I would learn, but I try to buy things before their sold out, ya know?
I’ll take a sound proof room! 🙂
Merry Christmas!
I want one of those, too!
I can’t explain how funny that is! Such a creative mind….she may be on to something.
It sounds like we have a Greta Garbo in the making–“I vant to be alone.”
Yeah, you would think that I would have learned that lesson as well, but by the time Christmas rolls around the following year, I seem to have some sort of memory loss or brain cloud or something.
I did learn early to say that they don’t get everything on their list and sometimes Santa brings things that he knows that they would like/need, even if it wasn’t on the list. Cuz he’s smart like that.
Man, who doesn’t want one of those!
I absolutely love her ideas, and the name you gave it.
Followup: two weeks after Christmas, she was still thinking about her “lifepod” (as I call it) wishlist item. She was wistfully coming to terms with the fact that she was probably never going to get it.
I had a good conversation with her about why she would probably never get it–because there were better or more practical ways to achieve all her goals–like instead of having a soundproof booth in her room so she couldn’t hear Oscar, she would one day have her own room. Plus soundproofing is hard, even when you have separate rooms. Plus one day she would have her own room, which she would like, but she would probably also miss sharing a room sometimes too.
I think she feels a bit better about not getting her lifepod now.