She sat at the table, eating her bowl of cereal. "Sweetheart," her mother said, "Don't dawdle. We need to get you dressed so that we can leave. We don't want to be late."

"Why?" she asked. "Where are we going?"

"Remember, today we're going to your brothers' graduation ceremony. It's a very important, very special day for them."

She nodded. She remembered her parents talking about graduation. They were going to get dressed up and Charlie was going to give a speech. Then they were going out to lunch.

She shoveled her cereal in her mouth. She liked getting dressed up and she liked when they went out to eat. She wasn't so sure that she wanted to listen to Charlie talk, though. A lot of the time she didn't understand what came out of his mouth.

She finished eating and slid down off of her chair. She started to head for the stairs to go up to her room when her mother's voice stopped her. "Julie, put your bowl in the kitchen, please," she said.

She turned around. One of her responsibilities now that she was three was to put her dishes in the kitchen after she was done eating. She still had a hard time remembering to do it and her parents constantly had to remind her. She went back to the table, took her cereal bowl and cup and took them to the kitchen. She put them on the counter by the sink, standing on her tiptoes. She pushed back through the door. "I did it," she told her mother proudly. She felt like such a big girl.

"Good job, Julie. Thank you," her mother said.

She headed back for the stairs. Her other morning chore was to help make her bed. Well, not so much making the bed as taking her stuffed animals off the bed and floor and putting them on her window seat so that her mother could make the bed.

"I'll be up in a minute to help you get ready."

"K, Mommy." She hiked up the steps to her room. When she got there, she started carefully moving her animals to the window seat, making sure to line them up exactly the way that she wanted them. She then put her favorite ragdoll, Molly, on her rocking chair, her usual location. She was just finishing her task when she heard her mother's voice behind her. "You take very good care of your animals."

She looked at her mother. "They are my babies."

Her mother smiled. "You are a very good mommy. You're animals are very lucky."

She picked up her ragdoll from the rocker. "Molly is my baby, too."

"She is, is she? Is she a little girl or a big girl?"

She hugged her doll. "She is little."

"Do you like being a mommy to a little girl?"

She nodded.

Her mother knelt so that she was at her eye level. "I like being mommy to a little girl, too. It makes me very happy." She brushed back a strand of her hair, tucking it behind her ear and then gave her a kiss on the cheek.

She kissed her back. "My mommy."

"Always and forever, my sweet girl." She stood up.

"Ladies, you don't have much time," she heard her father call from somewhere else in the house.

"We know," her mother called back. "Now, we need to get you ready," she said, going to her wardrobe and pulling out a little plaid dress.

Her mother helped her get dressed and then started to do her hair. "Mommy, I want piggy tails," she said.

"We're not doing pig tails today. You're wearing a dress-up dress."

"But I like piggy tails," she whined.

"Sweetheart, not today." She brushed out her hair. "You know, I think I have a compromise that might work."

"What is compromise?"

"It means we both get some of what we want." She made a small pig tail on each side, leaving the rest of her hair loose, falling over her shoulders. "I think that will work. Now look in the mirror."

She went to her mirror, tilting her head back and forth. "I think it is good," she said.

"Okay, then. I need to go get ready. Can you finish putting away your animals and toys, please?"

"Uh huh." She went to her animals and fussed with them some more and then moved to her few toys that were on her floor.

She'd finished her task and was sitting at her little table coloring when her mother popped her head in the door. "Let's go, Julie."

She put down her crayons and then looked up at her mother. She smiled. "Mommy, you look pretty." She was wearing a blue shift dress and one of her favorite necklaces, a locket given to her by Alan on their first anniversary.

"Thank you," her mother said, reaching for her hand.

She got up, took her hand and headed down the hall. She noticed the click of her mother's heels on the wood floor. "Mommy, you have noisy shoes."

"They're my heels. Shoes I wear when I get dressed up," she explained. "I like wearing them. And your father likes when I wear them, too," she added.

"Huh?" She didn't understand why her father would be interested in her mother's shoes.

She laughed. "That will make more sense to you when you're older, Sweetheart. Much older." They continued down the hall. "Just notice the look on Daddy's face when we get downstairs."

They headed down the steps. "Well, it's about time, ladies. We don't want to be late," her father said from the bottom of the staircase.

She noticed that he looked up and then the expression on his face changed. He got a strange, almost silly smile on his face. She'd seen that look on Don's face a few times when he was talking on the phone. She giggled.

Her mother gave her hand a little squeeze. She leaned over and whispered, "See?"

She giggled again.

"What?" her father asked. "What's so funny?"

Her mother gave her hand another little squeeze. "Just girl talk."

"Okay…" He shook his head. "It's starting already," he mumbled to himself. "Let's go, my lovely ladies." He reached over to pick her up and once he had her safely settled, he took her mother's hand and they headed out the door.