moments to make a mom's heart skip

so, every kid in my family is a 'punkin'. you just have to accept this as your fate, especially if you are halfway cute and under the age of 5. i've been calling sylvia 'punkin' off and on for a while now. every so often she objects, but that's ok, i have other, more specific nicknames for her. however, she may have gotten me beat. yesterday she tells me that she is not a 'punkin' she is a butterfly. ok, she wins.

she has also told me that she is not going to be a princess when she grows up, but a butterfly. again, no contest. she is a princess, but the whole disney princess phenomenon has somewhat tarnished the name[1]. how could anyone argue with such a beautiful sentiment? i'm also very impressed with her for already knowing what she'd like to be when she grows up even if it is an animal or nearly mythological being (the idea of a princess, rather than the descendent of a queen). i remember in daycare, i was always somewhat confused by the idea that i would ever be something different than myself. the rest of the kids were happy to claim any type of profession/animal that sounded cool, whereas i was stopped by not understanding how i could ever be anything else than what i was then.

[1]a princess is a special,somewhat blessed being - not a pile of pink commercial crap.