Pez

Katie attended three third birthday parties this weekend -- an outdoor Veggie Tales splash party, a princess party at the Little Gym and an outdoor beach-themed splash party.

One of the party favors at the princess party was a deluxe set of Disney Princess Pez dispensers and plenty of Pez candies. Katie has been admiring the box all day. I read aloud the box's description of each of the eight princesses. (Disney is somewhat loose in their princess genre -- Pocahontas and Mulan certainly aren't princessy, and I mean that in an admiring way.) We talked about each one. And we agreed that we'd open the box tomorrow. I also let her take the box to bed, in lieu of a book, so she could stare at them some more before she fell asleep.

Around 9:45 tonight, about two and a half hours after putting Katie down to bed, Steve went to the kids' bathroom. He noticed Katie's light was on. He opened the door, expecting to see Katie fast asleep. Instead, he found her sitting up in bed, stuffing Pez candy in her mouth.

She had ripped through the box, leaving shreds of cardboard and thin plastic on her floor. She took all eight Disney girls out. And she unwrapped the Pez sleeves from their plastic covering and then opened the paper wrapper around the Pez. I think she devoured three sleeves of Pez before she was discovered.

When I asked her how many she ate, she said: "Seven. That was too many. The last one was really big. Do you think I'm going to vomit again like when we went to Disneyland?"

The princesses and their Pez are now safely removed from Katie's room. I have learned my lesson and will never send a child to bed with a box full of candy again. (You would think I'm brand new at this parenting thing!)