customizing metaclass constructed classes

[Robin Becker]

I have a set of classes for database access which are constructed using a
special metaclass and base class.

so in the base module

#base.py
class M(type):
def __init__(cls, name, bases, dict):
super(M, cls).__init__(name, bases, dict)
for f in dict['_fieldDefs']:
#create special property based on the field def
....

class A(object):
__metaclass__ = M
_fieldDefs = []

#base methods
......

in the database module we use the above
eg

#database.py
class C(A):
_fieldDefs =[
IntColumn('id',primaryKey=1,allowNull=0),
TextColumn('name',allowNull=0,size=50),
TextColumn('description',allowNull=1,size=50),
]

Now to my question: can I change the definition of the client class C at run
time? I want to do something like add another element to C's _fieldDefs and then
get it to go through the construction phase provided by M. It's clearly
pointless for me to try something like

from database import C
C._fieldDefs.append(....)

as C is constructed by the import.
I either have to delay C's construction or reconstruct it.

Would something like this do?

def reconstruct():
import database
class C(database.C):
_fieldDefs = database.C._fieldDefs+[......]
database.C = C

Is there a better way to do this which preserves more of C's original identity?
I suppose I want to call the metaclass initialization again, but can't see a way
to do that.
--
Robin Becker