1. Grandma’s catalogue of princess paraphernalia. Rose made me turn quickly to the “girl” pages. Everything there was “so cute.”

2. Watching t.v. Yeah, well, I love watching t.v. too.

3. Storytime, particularly Spanish language story time at the library. There’s something extra special about going to an event after dinner.

4. Booty and tofu spread. You don’t often hear Rose say, “This is so delicious.” In fact, last night she put her brownie to one side and said, “I’m done with this.” Huh? Done with chocolate before one has licked the crumbs off the floor? So, it’s immensely gratifying to make her a snack she likes. Booty is organic cheetoes.

5. Putting on ballerina shows. When she isn’t dressing up as a fairy princess ballerina, we are telling stories about them and their shows.

6. Balloons. I needed to get the kids out of the house last night, so we bought balloons in honor of John’s birthday. Rose enjoyed the whole process—picking the colors, watching each one get blown up and warning the clerk not to lose them, worrying about them on the way home, distributing them, and admiring their glow.

7. Kindergarten. On Saturday Rose said, “I wish I could go to my school every day.”

8. Sunday school. Since she can’t go to school every day, she gets the pleasure of Sunday school. We’ve been hearing the same three Shabbat songs non-stop for the last twenty-four hours.

9. Theater. Rose has told me several times that she plans to be an actor when she grows up.

10. Using a grown-up knife.