The Iron Fairies

Speaking of Pippi and Princesses... P doesn't really fit neatly into our culture's lame "boy" category either. As much as I joke about the innate differences I notice at playgroup between the boys and girls, boxes really are only for consumerist swag :) Unlike me, P adores pink and princesses and often points out dresses he'd enjoy. At the same time, his greatest love is anything with wheels, add a scoop or claw and he's in construction nirvana. Urgh. That sounds like such a cliche'. He likes trucks and pink :)

I've gotta admit, blogging about him often feels like box building. Wordy walls that fabricate the internet idea of Phoenix. But its an impossible and inaccurate task because its just little snippets from the week that describe an ever changing kid. Like the subject of sleep. Had I allowed myself to wallow (online, that is, I wallowed everywhere else:) last year, describing the hopeless idea of sleeping longer than 45 minutes at a time, it would now seem inconceivable to read about P sleeping for 10 hours straight. But I guess that's the beauty of a journal. Tracking the one constant: change.

So, my olive eating, monster hugging, violin obsessed child (expanding the box here) also digs fairies... and soap. Heavily. The fairies, I thought, mostly for the dust supposedly following them. The soap for the smell (of course:) and the germ fighting capabilities :) So when a friend proposed a field trip to a fairy filled soap shop it was a no brainer for us. P and I have (loosely, very loosely, we're commitment-phobes here) chosen Wednesdays for field trips each week. So off to the East Village we trekked last Wednesday to join other homeschoolers at the Iron Fairies.

(P's photo of Twinkle, homeschooling mom extraordinaire, who organized the outing:)



The Aussie who owns the shop has written three books describing fairies forged in iron by grumpy underground miners. Melissa read the first book to the kids and then described their soap making process.



Phoenix's fabulous schnoz excitedly smelled the herbs and spices available for soap scenting. (His choices: Cinnamon, (aka cimmanumum) and lemongrass.) He carefully held his heavy mixing cup and used the tiny iron shovels to count out smelly scoops. Then he quickly chose his oil (ylang ylang) and his base (aloe vera). He Loved dripping the juicy drops out of tiny vials and counting to thirty (per Melissa's instructions:) He then picked purply-pink (of course:) glycerin for his soap base and watched while the the iron forged burner cooked his glop.

While the soap hardened and the other kids took their turns cooking, P decided he Must have an Iron fairy. He picked Tia, the fairy of wisdom because "she's standing and has long wings". Afterwards, as we sat together in Wash Square playing with Baby Brother, he introduced BB to Tia, the fairy of wisdom.

BB: What's wisdom?
P: I think its where you go potty..
Me: (Intense laughter for a brief moment) Because I sometimes say "I have to take a whiz"?
P: Yah.

I love seeing his deductive reasoning at work :) Her beautiful box contained instructions on welcoming her to her new home. That she'd been underground her whole life so we were to sprinkle her with the enclosed fairy dust (much excitement at actually possessing Real Fairy Dust), make a wish and leave her where she'd see the first light of day. As soon as I finished reading the directions P said " I wish to stay with Mama forever. That's my wish." Awww. So sweet, right?

Well, after walking past the Halloween inspired neighborhood pharmacy window on the way home that night, P sprinkled the glitter over his new metal doll and carefully made his wish.

"Fairy of Whiz-dom, I wish for a spider web."

Its moments like this that make schlepping the kid all over the city for life expanding field trips really worth it :)


Tia's bed, carefully cloth covered by P, who also fluffed her pillow: