Sometimes Cassie (age 4) is rather ... determined. It makes my mother laugh. In that oh-now-you-are-going-to-pay-for-your-raising kind of way.

Yesterday, Cassie told me she didn't want to go for a hiking adventure in the woods. She usually loves to do that. But not yesterday. Nope. Yesterday she was afraid of ... alligators. I tried to reassure her.

"There are NO alligators in the woods."

"No."

"Alligators live in water, like swamps and ponds and lakes."

"No."

"Cassie! Alligators do NOT live in the woods."

"Well" ... and at that point I thought I had won ... until she crossed her arms ... and narrowed her eyes ...

"I. Am. Talking. About. Wood. Alligators."

There was no denying the triumph in her eyes.