Countdown to Frankie's Fourth Birthday: 4 days

(photography by Frankie Pau)

A few things that I love about Frances Paulina:

1) She brushes her sister's teeth and then rewards her with toothpaste because "You listened to me so so good, Molly."

2) She's known how to chew gum without ever swallowing it since she was seventeen months old.

3) When my mom offered her twenty puppies and a thousand Rolos to reveal what she was getting for her 61st birthday, she refused to cave.

4) Before she can fall asleep at night she needs to brush, floss, read a book, read a Bible story, get a thermos of ice water, sing a hymn, be blessed, hear a minute by minute breakdown of how we're going to spend the rest of the evening without her and be promised that if she happens to wake up in the middle of the night she and her father will go downstairs and eat ice cream and watch 'Diners, Dives and Drive-Ins.'

5) She lets me blow-dry her hair and has never once expressed an opinion about anything I pick out for her to wear.

6) She says "Pardon?" instead of "Huh?".

7) She is so miniature and her feet have never been fat and chubby, but always like tiny little adult replicas that never seem to grow.