Yesterday evening, the telephone rang. I answered it, and was politely greeted by one of my seven-year-old's friends. She asked if she could speak with my daughter, and I handed over the phone.

I was distracted by dinner preparations, and the dull roar from the other two kids was quickly rising to hurricane-level, so I didn't really pay much attention to the phone call. That is, until I heard my daughter say:

"Oh, I'm wearing an icon around my neck that says Princess." This piqued my curiousity, and I stuck my head around the corner to see this:

Oh! Okay.

I went back in the kitchen as she continued her explanation to her friend. "Yeah, it's like a necklace. Right. I'm going to wear it to Thanksgiving, because my uncle is bringing his girlfriend and her mother and I want to make sure everyone knows who I am."

This echoed an earlier conversation I had in the shower with my three-year-old. I was lathering her hair with shampoo, and insisting that Princesses have clean hair. She countered - "But I like pink. What else do you need?"

Clearly the royalty around here have varying levels of confidence - one is sure that the color she wears makes it obvious (duh!) and the other has learned that it is best to just go on and wear a sign. Er, icon.