You Must Bow When You Speak to Me!

For the past five weeks I have been entering a weekly writing contest put on by http://www.lessonplanet.com/ . All the weekly prompts are based off of the Common Core Standards. I was pretty excited when I received an email that said the person who won week one did not claim their prize and since I was the runner-up, I had a chance to claim it, which I did! The topic for the first week was to write a 400 word max. narrative beginning with the sentence: I sit here writing this in the kitchen sink. And ending with: Are there any questions? I knew exactly what I was going to write after reading the first sentence. Here it is:

               I write this sitting in the kitchen sink. Overnight my three year old has turned from a sweet girl to a demanding princess. It all started after school on Friday. As I walked through the back door, I was greeted by my daughter Sophie. "Hi Sophie," I said as I did each and every day after school, "did you have a fun day?" But something was different today. She was dressed in head to toe princess garb complete with high heels and a tiara, and she had a look in her eyes that I had never seen before.

                "I am not Sophie," she spoke back to me. "I am Princess Sophia, and you must bow when you speak to me!"

                 I was a bit startled by this because it was unexpected. Sophie is the youngest in the family and always following her older sister, Kate,  around. They are 18 months apart and the best of friends. This is something I would expect from Kate but not Sophie. Kate is a creative girl who can make everything out of nothing. Maybe Sophie was picking up on Kate's creativity.  I decided to play along.

                "I am sorry Princess Sophia," I said as I bowed to her. "May I come in and put my things away?

                "Yes," she replied with the wave of her wand. She followed with, "When you done, I am hungry." I knew better than to correct a princess's grammar. I was afraid of getting yelled at!

                "What would you like to eat Princess Sophia?" I said as I bowed to her.

                 She sauntered over to the white fridge in her sister's yellow Belle plastic high heels, which made her look much older than three. She opened it with a small grunt and stood there looking over the contents for something to eat for dinner. I watched her for a moment wondering when she became old. Where was my baby that snuggled with me constantly? The one that didn't walk or talk until 15 months when she had tubes put in. "Hey Sophie, you are wasting energy. Decide what you want and close the fridge." Right away I knew my mistake.

                She glared at me and said, "I am not Sophie. I am Princess Sophia and you must bow when you speak to me. You are bad. Now go sit in the sink.  Are there any questions?"

 

 

Princess Sophia