1. Crossing the street without holding hands.--It was such a fight to get her to hold hands crossing the street. That was one of the biggest fights of her 2-3 stage, and one I felt totally righteous about. You will hold my hand; you will not be run over by a truck. We nailed that rule down so hard, it's difficult to let it go, but Nolan's mommy was letting him cross without hands. There's no question I can trust Rose to stick by me as we cross the street. She's usually right at my elbow. Now I just have to keep explaining to David why he hasn't earned this priviledge yet.

2. Brushing her own teeth. --Rose is more careful and methodical than I am. Every time I time I brushed her teeth, she was reminding me to be more thorough around the back of the molars. The dentist who made up the "parents must brush their kids' teeth" rule did not know the personalities in our household. I gratefully handed over this task.

3. Half the bedtime routine/Reading in bed.—This rule went into effect tonight. All the books said how important it was to have a bedtime ritual. They probably also said it was important not to let it last all night. John and I kind of missed that part. We have managed to reduce bedtime routine from around an hour to half an hour, but it still involved both of us rotating through twice. And we'd get the whole thing done, and she'd say, "I'm not sleepy. Can I read my books with the light on?" Now, only one of us will do their half, but she can stay up and read books by herself for half an hour.

4. An allowance—When school starts, we are going to give Rose an allowance. Up to this point, she's had a tzdakah box that she made in Sunday School, i.e., a box for charity. She's only thought of money in terms of tzdakah. Now, she'll have three boxes: tzdakah, save, and spend. Every week, she'll get a quarter for each. She is really intrigued by the whole process. She told us not to use our spare change for tzdakah any more; it has to come out of her box. And, she's trying to figure out what she might buy with the spend/save money. Since she's constantly asking for things whenever she sees a catalogue or walks through a toy store, I thought we'd start there. Most of it, of course, will be way out of her price range, but I know Scholastic has some books in the 1.25 range. I refuse to buy from them. This is her big chance.