Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Nail Fairy

When my oldest was 3 he started getting into the Power Rangers. His buddies at preschool taught him all about them at recess, so without ever seeing a movie my son was an expert. This was around Halloween time and Zach really wanted to be a Power Ranger. I mentioned this to a friend and she said she could loan me a blue Power Ranger costume. Everyone was happy.
Then we went to my mother-in-law's for a wedding. She had purchased Zach his first Power Ranger movie. I watched the beginning of the movie and it seemed pretty harmless so I let him watch it. Also during this visit Zach smashed his finger in an accordion phone booth door (long story). It was pretty gruesome and it looked like he was going to lose his finger. This freaked Zach out so we made up a story about the Fingernail Fairy and how she brings you something if you're really brave when your nail falls out. This made him feel a bit better. So we are heading back home to Spokane and Zach starts saying that he doesn't want to be a blue Power Ranger anymore, he wants to be the red one. I said no, we already have the blue costume - I'm not buying a new costume. Zach bursts into tears and says, "But the blue ranger is a girl!". Poor kid - in his new movie Zach discovers that the blue ranger is a girl. It turns out there are various teams (now I'm an expert!) and some teams the blue ranger is a girl and on others the blue ranger is a boy. So I explain all this to Zach and by the time we get back to Spokane I have talked him down and he is fine with wearing the blue costume.
The day before Halloween I'm picking up a prescription at Rite-Aid and out of the corner of my eye I spy a red Power Ranger costume. I think to myself that if it is under $10 and the right size I'm going to buy it. Well it is $6 and the right size. Now I don't want to look like I've given in and bought him the costume so I remember the nail fairy story. When Zach got home from preschool that day I had the costume hanging in the entryway. I acted as shocked as he was when we walked in the door. The note on the costume said that even though he had not lost his nail yet, he had been so brave he deserved a reward. So for Halloween Zach was a red ranger and there was no question that the child underneath the costume was a boy. All was right in the universe.

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