Princess Amber

My daughter turned 3 last month, and she is now officially in the throes of a full-out princess obsession. In fact, she seems to have princess radar.

We can be walking down the street and suddenly Amber will shout "Princess Sleeping Beauty!" or "Look Mommy, I see Princess Cinderella!" I look around, expecting there to be a little girl playing dress-up or a t-shirt with the character on it. Or maybe even a poster. Nothing. What the heck is she referring to?

Then I look again and see a half-ripped sticker on the back of a book some child is holding, barely visible. In fact, maybe only the dress can be seen, but Amber spots it.

I tried my best not to indoctrinate her in the world of All Things Princess, but failed. After all, she takes ballet class, and to a 3-year-old, princesses are synonymous with ballerinas and fairies. And mermaids. Sometimes the 4 words can be combined -- ballerina fairy princess mermaids. That would be a little girl's dream.

Her ballet class has a core emphasis of classical ballet technique, but because the students are so young, their curiculum uses choreographed stories and fairy tales -- along with custom-made costumes and props -- as a teaching vehicle. Each week, the lesson plan is reinforced and brought to life as the students dance the adventures of  "Snow White" or "Sleeping Beauty" or "Cinderella."

I thought for sure Amber would love the new Disney Junior show, Sofia the First. It's really cute -- the first Disney Princess who is a little girl (all the others are adults). A little girl princess? What's not to love, right?

Here's a primer for those of you without toddlers (and thus no reason to watch the new "little girl princess" show):
Sofia lived together in a small little cottage with her mommy, who made shoes. One day, the King was getting a new pair of shoes when he fell in love with Sofia's mommy (Miranda). They got married, so now Queen Miranda and Princess Sofia left their cottage to move into the castle. While there, Sofia meets her new step-siblings Princess Amber and Prince James.

Cool! A princess named Amber. My daughter's going to LOVE that.

Wrong.

Turns out that Princess Amber is mean. Well, she was for most of the first episode at least. My mom watched the entire thing and tells me that at the end Princess Sofia and Princess Amber become friends, and that Princess Amber is a really nice older sister. But I'll have to take Grammie's word for it, because my Amber wasn't having any of it.

No, as soon as she saw that Princess Amber was mean, she started screaming and insisted that we turn off the show. She hated to hear the words "mean" and "bad girl" in connection with her own name.

So no Princess Amber for us. Instead my daughter will just have to continue with her obsessions with Princess Ariel ... and Princess Cinderella ... and Princess Belle ... and Princess Snow White ... and Princess Jasmine ... and Princess Tangled (as she calls Rapunzel) ... and Princess Tiana ...

And the Sugar Plum Fairy. We can't forget her.