Marriage and Divorce, Three year old style

Me: Hey, husband, could you make me an ice cream cone?
Kent rolls his eyes and heads for the refrigerator.
Tallulah: Mommy, why you call daddy 'husband'? And sometimes you call him 'daddy'?

Shit. All I wanted was an ice cream cone. Tallulah is lately trying to figure out the concept of marriage, so I explain titles and names as best as I can while Kent sniggers and makes comments about calling each other 'mommy' and 'daddy' during sexy time. Which we don't!

But Tallulah finds our family dynamic fascinating. When she was younger, probably two or so, everything was the family triad: Mommy, Daddy, Baby. All her toys needed to have the three-- if we got her a toy elephant, she better have a mommy and daddy! When we went to the toystore, she lined up animals in groups of three, identifying the who's who of the family and charming random store workers. Watching animal specials, she needed an explanation of where the daddy or mommy was if there weren't all three and Shock! and Horror! if a baby was shown without her parents or if a parent was shown being gnawed on by a lion or group of hyenas.

Now she is working on marriage with the help of Disney. She pores through our wedding photos, talking excitedly about Princess Mommy! and Prince Charming Daddy! and Look at that pretty cake! Apparently 'bride' and 'groom' are too pedestrian for her.

I'm not a big fan of the disney princess thing-- the ultra femme, waiting for a prince to come mentality permeating the movies. So I've quizzed her often on what it is thats so fascinating about the princesses. And for Tallulah, its very simple. Princesses wear dresses and sing and dance a lot. Which is basically Tallulah's life. So I guess its ok. Besides, yesterday she demonstrated a clear understanding of the concept of divorce.

Playing wth her elephants, she roped a bracelet around both ther trunks, obviously to symbolize the rings, and they played married for awhile. Pretty soon, her girl/princess/mommy elephant grew dissatisfied with married life. The elephants had this exchange:

"Pease I not be married you anymore?"
"Ok."
"Good. I find 'nother Prince Charming."
"Ok."

In control of her own destiny, that's my princess.