Parenting sometimes seems like sorcery. We got Ms. 4 a new winter coat, she picked it out herself, a nice pink one.

She’s refused to put it on for the past week.

This morning, after I made her put it on because it was cold, I said that she looked like a “big pink cutie”, and that incantation was enough to transmute it into a beloved object. She’ll wear it every day now.