When you have, perhaps accidentally but nevertheless earnestly, promised a three year old girl a fairy bed, you deliver a *&% fairy bed.
It doesn’t matter if you have no idea what a fairy bed might consist of. It doesn’t matter that you have a 2 door Celica to pick up a bed with a massive headboard. It doesn’t matter if you don’t have enough screws or a mattress. You get it done.
Seriously it all began with me trying to get Sissy on board with an adult bed. I showed her some bedding on Amazon and asked which one she liked. She like the one with the fairy toy on it. Fine. Little expensive, for me, but its Sis. Problem is, the pictured fairy toy was not included. So the obsession began with a fairy bed and when we finally upgraded from the stdio to a 2 bedroom, it was time to get her a bed. And in her mind, it was going to be a fairy bed.
A co-worker gave us her daughter’s old bed that she had outgrown. Picking it up though was a logistical nightmare. Not M’s fault. But I was at the beach with Sis and a friend with his two kids. Its pretty commando fatheirng leading three kids under 5 down a dirt path to the state beach, building a tent, and then letting them play in the surf until they are wiped out. So we left at 1, Sis was asleep in about 30 seconds – just dropped after 3 hours running on sand, building castles, surf jumping etc. So Sis is asleep and she is one of those kids who, once they are alseep for a nap, if they are awoken, they are done napping -whether its 5 minutes or 3 hours. So Sis is asleep in the car, I have a 20 minute car ride home, and I thought “Maybe M is available”. I called her, and met her at the storage unit. C was passed out in the back with a box of almonds on her lap.
So now it was time to tetris in the bed. Remember I have a car seat, 3 surfboards and a sleeping child in a 2 door car with the back seats really only token so insurance companies can cover it like a sedan. I got the (*&^ things in though, and a carpet remnant. Sis is now awake, its hot, we are driving home, and she is, understably curious about the wood. So I tell her its her bed, and the eyes light up. Now its show time. “Dad, I want to sleep in my bed tonight”. Er…ouch. No screws, no mattress and, well, its hard work putting those things together. And remember I have to get dinner into her, a bath, play etc.
But I did it. We dropped the bed off, I started assembling it, then we headed out to an area that looked like they might sell mattresses. C liked the store with the balloon. Which just happened to be a bedding store going out of business. She wanted a sparkly mattress. And after I explained to her that mattresses are not sparkly, only bedding, wouldn’t you know it, they had a sparkly mattress.
A sparkly mattress. Who knew?
We got it home, and while she was eating, I got it built and in place. I slapped in the mattress, fitted the sheets on and oh yes, I had even sourced a fairy doll some time ago that looked like the one she liked. Shazam people. That is Dad plus. Got it together, and let her into the room.
Totally worth it though. Sis walked in for her “surprise” but it took about 20 seconds for her to lock onto the bed. Which would seem improbably. Its the largest thing in the room by about ten times. But guessing what goes on in three year old minds is an invitation to insanity. Then she sees it. Then she freezes. Seconds pass. Then then intake a breath. “MY FAIRY BED!” She runs over to it, climbs on, then instructs me sternly that I cannot disrupt the blankets. She rolls with the fairy for a while, jumps on it, and just lights up the room with her unmitigated joy. It was worth every moment.
That night, she slept in her bed. On top of the covers because it was too fancy to disrupt. But what a happy girl.
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