The Princess and the Pony

I have given the Princess, and ONLY the Princess, permission to play with MY beloved My Little Pony collection. She's allowed to play with them whenever she wants, but they have to stay in my walk-in closet to prevent them being destroyed by her brothers or scattered to the ends of the Earth. I refuse to let them go down the way so many Transformers and baby dolls have. Anyways, while LLL, aka The Animal (more on thAt later), was down for a nap so the Princess and I went to play ponies. She got a head start, while I finished laundry. I went back there to find her deeply entrenched in the land if make believe, and I watched her for awhile before I spoke to her and broke the spell. I watched her playing with them just like I used to do.... Lining them up in rows, pairing off mommy ponies with babies, using my shoes as cars for the ponies... It gave me so much joy to see her enjoying herself with the ponies the way I did for so many years, and it never ceases to amaze me that one of the hugest gifts of having a child is getting to be a child again yourself.