Princess Lolly

I have a favorite princess. It is not Belle, or Aurora, or Cinderella, or even Rapunzel. It is Princess Lolly. From Candy Land.

Over the years, Princess Lolly has appeared on the Candy Land board in a variety of iterations, from preteen to thirty-something, innocent to frankly a little slutty.* But in our household, there is only one word necessary to describe her: Messy.

A few months back, our dear then-two-year-old, Coriel, was going through a phase. The “tell me a story please, and if you pause in your story to draw breath I’m just going to ask you again” phase. I don’t remember exactly when during this phase the stories of Princess Lolly first took shape. Perhaps it was simply that after telling Sleeping Beauty ad nauseum, I was ready for something different. Perhaps it was the inevitable lure of places like Molasses Swamp, Ice Cream Sea, and Gumdrop Pass. However it began, Princess Lolly has become part of the Stay family canon.

Princess Lolly has been on many adventures. She has visited all of her friends through Candy Land innumerable times. She has tried, unsuccessfully, to make peanut butter and gumdrops. She has learned the secret of Plumpy’s special plum pudding (and fallen into a batch of it). She has painted scenery for the school play using ice cream. She has gotten so sticky that she is unrecognizable even to her mother, a very loving and patient Queen Frostine.

One of my favorite adventures was when she met Princess Coriel.** She showed Princess Coriel all around Candy Land, and by the end of the day Princess Coriel was every bit as sticky and messy as Princess Lolly. And she went home happy.

Sometimes Princess Lolly crosses over into other storylines. There was the time that she stubbed her toe on a Lifesaver, for example. Covered in candy goo, hopping around, and groaning in pain, she was mistaken for a monster. The men in black (who just happened to be walking past at the time) took her to the secret government facility for monsters, where she met Susan, Dr. Cockroach, and even Escargantuan.***

After the harrowing experience of taking three baths (in water! with soap!), she was finally able to convince them that she was not a monster after all, but just a little girl. So they sent her home very clean and with a band-aid on her toe. So dismayed at her appearance, and unrecognizable to her mother (who apparently has difficulty recognizing Lolly when she is either too clean or too messy; she has no problem with just fairly messy), she promptly dove into the Molasses Swamp and soon felt much better.

I love the stories of Princess Lolly. She can always be counted on for a little bit of stickiness. But you want to know one of my favorite Princess Lolly moments?

“Mommy, tell me a story,” said Coriel.

So for the second time ever, I told her the story of when Princess Lolly met Susan. We had just gotten to the part where they gave her the baths and sent her home.

“With a bbmphd, Mommy.”

“What?”

“With a bbmphd, Mommy.”

I still didn’t get it.

“They gave her a bbmphd. For the ouchy. On her toe.” She looked up at me, expecting me to get it.

“Oh! You’re right. I forgot, they gave her a band-aid for her ouchy. Thanks for remembering.”

My darling Coriel, who had only heard the story once before, already knew exactly how it was supposed to go, and she wanted to make sure I got it right. What joy to have such an amazing person to take care of, to tell stories to.

Coriel still requests stories, though not with the same urgency she used to show, and we still tell them to her, though sometimes I think our creativity is dwindling. She is getting older, and I am saddened to think of the day when she may not want to snuggle on the couch and get a story. Fortunately that day is still far away.

And who knows? Maybe someday her children will want to hear about Princess Lolly too.

*Wanna see pictures of all the versions of Candy Land? Here you go: http://www.hasbro.com/games/en_US/discover/candyland_history.cfm
**Incidentally, I suppose that Princess Lolly is really only my third favorite princess. My first two are Princess Coriel and Princess Addra.
***From the movie Monsters vs. Aliens