Sooo, to say I was excited to start the Elf on the Shelf tradition was an understatement. I just knew she would love it. I had Toby get one when he was out on black Friday and was super excited to give it to her Saturday morning. We read the book, and I could tell by her facial expressions that she was a little weary of this elf, and then he magically showed up in our office. That's when it happened. Leighton decided she was TERRIFIED of the Elf on the Shelf.
TERRIFIED I tell you. I was trying to coax her to come see what he was doing in the office (coloring at her desk) but she was not having it. She would have NO part of the fun. Refused to name him anything other than "Little Elf" and would not even step foot into the same room as him. Here, let's just watch the footage of her reaction...
That went on until I finally just stopped asking her to look at him. I was definitely perplexed by her reaction. She loves everything about Christmas...so why didn't she love Little Elf?!! When she politely asked Toby to put him in the mailbox and have Santa come get him I agreed this wasn't going to be a fun tradition for our family. Back to the store he would go. No elf for us this year.
Then, someone on Facebook mentioned maybe we could get a skirt for him and make him a girl. Because, you know, elves in skirts are WAY less terrifying for three year olds ;) We mentioned the idea to Lei and she started smiling. She was on board for dressing up Little Elf and agreed it could come back the next morning. I was excited for my second chance at the tradition! So excited, I had Little Elf write Leighton a letter for us to read the next morning.
The next morning Toby and I were woken up out of a deep slumber to our sweet Leighton FREAKING out. She was in Toby's arms, crying, shaking and just SO torn up. Assuming she was physically hurt in some way, we kept asking her what hurt. Then she finally spit it out. DA LITTLE ELF. He's BAAAAAAACK! Apparently, she had gone downstairs to retrieve Bitty's old brother, Ben (all of her dolls have names), and saw Little Elf on the coffee table and rushed back upstairs. Her heart was beating out of her chest. TERRIFIED again. Elf fail numero dos. And yet, even though she was truly terrified, she didn't want him to leave because we needed to go shopping for da skirt! Have I mentioned Leighton can be a tad confusing? So yeah, after church I promised her we would go on an elf skirt hunt.
And that's exactly what it was...a hunt. I had to go to five different stores, FIVE, before I found an elf skirt. Leighton was not going to let us go home without a dang skirt so we kept searching until we found one (FYI-for my Louisville friends, Rabbit in the Moon has elf skirts). She was excited to get home and put it on him. Yes, even though Little Elf would now be wearing a skirt, Leighton insisted it was still a boy. Ok Lei, you're the boss!
The next morning, our skirted elf was perched on the refrigerator with a medicine cup getting a drink of water. Leighton, still weary of this elf, stood on her chair in the breakfast nook and peered in to the kitchen at Little Elf...and slowly began to smile
and then laugh. Then, it became hilarious. Little Elf was drinking water! Hahahaha. She laughed for a minute and then requested we put him back up by our stockings. She didn't want him just out and about. But still, this was progress & she agreed it could stay another night, and another and another.
He's been here every night since. Climbing our Christmas tree with the Elmo ornament, watching Christmas DVDs on the mini player, eating cookies at her chair for breakfast, and one night just sitting on his ledge because he forgot to move...oops! It's been fun and I'm glad she agreed to stick with it. I'm proud of her for turning something she was scared of into something she has enjoyed. She loves to talk with her friends at school about Little Elf and *gasp* her BFF at school has an ELF too! So I guess our Little Elf isn't a huge fail after all :) Here's to hoping the boss says he can stay through Christmas :)
I rewatch that video when me and B need a laugh. Sick???? Love you!!!
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