A few years ago, an old friend gave me a bag of clothes that her daughter had just outgrown. In the bag was a pair of purple courderoy pants with rhinestones on the back pockets. At the time, the pants were impossibly large. At her current pace, it seemed , Alden wouldn’t fit them until middle school at the earliest.

And yet, just yesterday, Robbi pulled out the bag, pulled out the pants, and discovered, to our surprise (and Alden’s delight) that Alden had finally graduated to sufficient length and bulk to wear the magnificent pants.

Luckily, in those years since we got the pants and today, my little girl has also cultivated the attitude to justify the bling. She’s been wearing them for three days straight, refusing to relinquish her newfound sparkle.

I happen to know that her sparkle is far more than pants-deep.