My stupid Irish mistake

In 2007, I did something really, really stupid.

I decided to have a leprechaun visit our house on St. Patrick's Day.

Elisabeth was 4 and excited about St. Patrick's Day. Her day care teacher was having a leprechaun visit their classroom and I thought that having one visit our house would be fun too.

Please please please, learn from my mistakes. DO NOT BRING A LEPRECHAUN VISIT YOUR HOUSE.

Okay, here's what I did. I told Elisabeth that a leprechaun had visited our house and we had to find him. I had it so the leprechaun had moved some things around to trick us (pictures in the wrong places on walls, the globe in the kitchen instead of the living room, nothing stolen, nothing broken, mind you). She immediately went into full fledge leprechaun hunt mode.

I knew she would. Eventually, she found a pile of gold he'd left and was extremely excited. She talked about making a trap for him next year and yadda yadda yadda.
We ate some deliciously dyed green foods and called it a day.



I didn't think a thing about it. She'd had fun and I patted myself for being a good, creative parent. We went about our business.

Then 2008 rolled around. Right after the new year, Elisabeth started worrying. She kept talking about St. Patrick's Day and the leprechaun that visited. At first, I thought she was excited about building the trap for him. But, I soon realized that the trap was to protect her. She was scared of the leprechaun.

Turns out, as she dwelled on the mischief the leprechaun had caused last year, instead of seeing it as funny and playful, she thought of it as scary. So, now, not only was she expecting a leprechaun to show up, she was freaking the eff out about it.

Evan and I tried to tell her that a leprechaun doesn't come to your house every year and that not all of them play tricks.

"He's coming. I know it. I have to be ready."

Awesome.

So, that year, I planned on having a nice leprechaun visit who, instead of moving things and being ornery, would take her on a treasure hunt.
He left green clues all over telling us things to do like: make green pancakes, which led to us finding note on the flour saying, play a game which led to a note on the game board saying to brush our hair, etc. etc.

She was leary at first and kept checking her toys to make sure they were all accounted for, but eventually got into it.

She ended up finding a small stuffed dog where the last clue told us to go. She loved it and was most excited.


I felt better thinking she felt better. We went about our business.

And then, in 2009, after the new year, she started worrying again. She needed to make a trap because we were living in Pekin with Evan's parents now and you never knew what the leprechauns in Pekin were like. Jana and Keith both tried to tell her that only nice leprechauns visited their house, but she was having none of it.

So, she built this.

She was convinced it would catch him and that the only way he'd get out was if he had a drill. She put a piece of chocolate in there to lure him in. I took a picture of it and sent it to Evan in Alabama where he was training and he laughed and laughed.
Needless to say, the leprechaun magically worked his way out, leaving lots of "gold" in the trap for her. No mean tricks were done and she was satisfied with his letter and loot he'd left.

She seemed reassured that St. Patrick's Day was not scary. I felt better. She felt better. We went about our business.

This year, right after the new year, Elisabeth started making serious leprechaun catching plans. You see, we live in a new state now. You don't know how the leprechauns here work. She feels like she should use a tin can this year. She's feeling good.

Evan blames me entirely.

Oh my lord. If I could turn back time, I would have never ever ever even thought about introducing a damn leprechaun to Elisabeth...