A time to compromise

Thank you so much for your support and understanding on my last post. I am so very grateful for all of you and your unending kindness.  As promised, here is part two of K's story...

K woke up the next day and pushed her pillow aside to find her gifts from the tooth fairy. Now, I am a firm believer in simplicity and "less is more," but after seeing K go through the ordeal of getting her teeth pulled I decided to let that slide a bit. I think the tooth fairy could make special exceptions for children having to go through getting teeth pulled, don't you? So, she found some golden dollar coins, a little pouch filled with rainbow crystals and gems, a rainbow pen, and rainbow butterfly tattoos. Lots of rainbow treasures, huh? Perhaps I should explain the reason for that.

A couple of months ago K came home from school telling me all about how she played "tooth fairies" with her friends that day. She informed me that everyone has their own tooth fairy. Her tooth fairy was named Avelyn and she was a rainbow fairy. K loved the idea of her and spoke of her pretty much every day since then. She drew many pictures of Avelyn and left presents and notes for her in her tooth fairy home at school. When she found out that her teeth were finally getting pulled she excitedly said, "That means Avelyn will bring me gifts! I bet they will all be rainbow things since she is the rainbow fairy." I decided to go with that and got her the coins and then the pouch with the rainbow crystals and gems (the other items ended up getting added to that when we stopped at a store on the way home from the dentist).

When we picked K up from school that day, C quite excitedly told K that we went grocery shopping and the "hard head dolls" (translation: your typical plastic baby doll) they had been wanting were on sale. K asked how much they were and C told her (I forget exactly how much now, but they were around a couple of dollars). I saw K's thinking cap go on. She pulled me aside and asked if we could stop on the way home because she really wanted to use her tooth fairy money to buy C one of those dolls for her birthday. As you might remember, I prefer to keep plastic out of our home. I am not saying that is something everyone should do, but it's just something I feel the need to do in my own home. The girls have been asking for "hard head dolls" since we moved here (some of their friends have them and my girls love to play with them when over at their homes). I had been able to redirect them on the topic up until this point. I had to stop and really think it over. K was showing how big her heart is and wanting to do something incredibly sweet for her little sister - how could I deny her?! Her willingness to put someone else first is something to embrace and cultivate, I couldn't put our ideals in front of love. I could see this was a time to compromise and let K show her love for C the way she wanted to (but that doesn't mean that any other plastic things will be coming into our home *ahem*!).

We stopped at the store and K led C down the doll aisle. She asked C which one was her favorite and when C picked it out, K asked to hold it. K was getting ready to leave when I whispered in her ear that she could pick one out for herself too, and that I would pay the difference. K smiled, grabbed one, and went to the register and paid for them. She then handed C hers and said, "Happy birthday C! This is an early birthday present from me. I couldn't wait until your birthday to give it to you." Then she gave C a hug and C hugged her back so tight I thought she was going to knock her over. I wish I could have captured the look on C's face. It looked a bit similar to the first photo in this post, but even happier. I hope that my girls always stay so close and consider each other "best friends."

Boy, what a remarkably full couple of days those were for all of us! Lessons learned, lots of growth
(both inside and outside) and deeper love cultivated. Phew! I hope that all made sense. I really need to stop trying to post so late at night!

A time to compromise