We’ve been having a little magic mailman story here at home lately.
You see, about two weeks ago or so Scarlet got it in her head that she could leave notes in her pink Valentine mailbox about stuff she wants, and the mailman would answer the letters or fulfill her wishes. Like Santa Claus or a genie, but a mailman. And our “real” mailman is a mustached man of few words, and I can’t imagine that she thinks he’s actually magical? Maybe he is.
She does believe in magic. However, due to some foul attitudes on her part and my reluctance to reward that behavior, our forgetfulness, and just plain not knowing where to go with this story, her letters went unanswered. For weeks. Sad, right?
She had asked for a pink princess computer. She said she made it up in her head. Oddly specific, no? So the other night I decided to write back. She woke up the next morning to an answer in her mailbox from “The Mailman” that he would search for a pink princess computer for her, and would she continue to be the wonderful little girl that she is in the meantime? A quick search led me to believe that Amazon really does have the answer to nearly everything! So I placed an order for one oddly specific pink princess computer. I think impending preschool graduation calls for a gift. And I’m a sucker for this face and proud of it.
After that first letter, I was hooked. I wrote another one but I forgot to put it in her mailbox the next morning. Oops!! She ran to her mailbox first thing and seemed only mildly disappointed so I told her that “The Mailman” works on his own time and might come after breakfast. And guess what? He did. She only questioned it once. She asked, “Why didn’t we see The Mailman come into the house and then into the room?” And I answered, “It’s magic, of course!” And she totally bought that.
She said, “Doh! Right!”
I do love a world in which the most magical explanation is the most logical.
Scarlet has no idea that some people believe in God, and some don’t. She has no idea that some people believe in Santa Claus and The Tooth Fairy and some never do, while others outgrow those beliefs in time. She’s not there yet. She believes in huge chunks and bits of magic and hope, and I admit that we feed them to her, like low hanging fruit, and that they’re delectable.
And so, we kept up the letters for a week or so. I would track the package and then “The Mailman” would take this as a geography teaching opportunity and tell her where the package was and where that was in relation to Massachusetts. On Saturday, a giant package arrived on our doorstep from our mailman (still not sure if she thinks he’s magical or not?) and we dug into it to find that the computer had arrived! She was so excited and kept saying she couldn’t believe it had really happened.
Obviously.. Han Solo likes it too.
I heard her dictate a thank you letter to Cassidy to send to “The Mailman”. It said, “Dear Mailman. Thank you. Love, Scarlet.”
Or maybe a bit more than that. It was a really fun week or so – playing Magic Mailman. I’m not saying I’m going to do that all of the time, but I like making her dreams come true when I can. We had an incredible parent teacher conference about her last week and she’s really a powerful kid. She doesn’t give in to bullying or peer pressure and she knows how to stand up for herself if teased or bothered. I know she is young. I hope it lasts. I so hope it lasts. I also probably owed her that computer for being an incredible photo assistant. I can’t complain that there are no high-res photos of me out there, now that Scarlet takes photos:
She took very little, if any, direction from me there. I swear. And she had no idea how to use an iPhone camera (“my fingers are in the way!”) but she learned in about two minutes. I had a witness – Bev from Linkouture. We really wanted to take a photo with Bev’s cute baby and Hippie Chick Granola but there were no nice people walking by outside. So we asked Scarlet:
Well, who knew?
On Saturday night, Cassidy was away with Athena in Cape Cod and I was left to fend for myself and put Scarlet and Des to bed. I went through the whole triple blanket tuck-in with Scarlet, with Des somehow still awake and warbling the “Happy Birthday” song from his crib. I snuggled for a few minutes but before I left, Scarlet reached for my hand. And then she said:
“I can’t let go! I love you too much.”
You and me both, kid. It’s not always easy for us, but it’s always easy to love you with my whole heart.