Imagine

Last night, Lilah was Rapunzel, she informed me. She is usually pretending to be someone else, but this time her make-believe world expanded to include us as well.

"We're all Rapunzels -- I'm the mommy Rapunzel, and Claire is the baby Rapunzel, and this right here (gesturing to the empty air beside her) is the little sister Rapunzel. You are the big sister Rapunzel, and Mommy is the auntie Rapunzel.

"We don't have long golden hair; we're just family Rapunzels."

However, by the time we were washing her hands together in the bathroom, she said cheerfully, "I am Snow White who is dead. Mommy is the prince who kisses me." 

(Sung in a forlorn voice as she walks down the sidewalk to the car after church, her steps slow and her eyes focused on some far-off unseen world): "I am a poor lost princess, oh, I am a poor lost princess. I have no money in my purse, oh, I am a poor lost princess."