The Princess and the Pea

My husband is always a well of surprises. He knows the song “Sing Sweet Nightingale” from Disney’s Cinderella better than I do (and I had the record and listened to it ad nauseum the entirety of ages 4-6, but Nathan has a little sister 7 years his junior). However, Nate had never heard of the Princess & the Pea. EVER! In fact, he didn’t believe it was a real fairy tale. Of course, it could have been my story telling technique:

Ok, so this Queen & Prince are hanging out in their castle and it’s a really rainy, nasty night. There’s a knock at the gate, and when they go answer it, there’s a Princess standing there looking all bedraggled like a drowned kitten. She says, “Hi, I’m a Princess from a neighboring kingdom. I was out riding and got lost and my horse ran away.” The Queen was like, yeah right, but she let the Princess in. The Queen said, “you wait right here while we go fix your room.” Then the Queen went and put a tiny little pea on the bottom of the bed. Then she put FIVE HUNDRED mattresses (it was a high-ceilinged room) on top. The Princess climbed into bed and went to sleep. The next day, the Queen & the Prince were sitting around the castle and the Princess walked in looking all battered and bruised. They asked her how she slept and she said “oh just terrible! There was a huge pokey lump in the bed.” The Queen knew she was a real Princess and the Prince & Princess got married. The End.