But they leave us faced with a very real problem.
She has, over time, and of her own volition, developed a keen interest in outer space. With the help of her children's encyclopedia, she's made herself an expert on the planets, stars, lunar cycles, and space travel.
When she announced that she would like to travel to the moon, we encouraged her. But she'd need a rocket, we told her, and those weren't easy to come by.
She'd build one, she informed us. Daddy would help her, since he's good at building things.
He casually mentioned the fact that the space shuttle program had been shut down, which may cause a hiccup in her plans. No problem, she decided. She'd just write a letter to the president and ask him to start things back up again.
We finally consented to her plan to go to the moon, but with one stipulation. You must be eight years old to go to the moon, we told her. She agreed. This, we thought, would buy us a few years while she figured out on her own just how complicated space travel really is and how slim her chances of getting there any time soon really are.
But she didn't back down. So her dad agreed to buy a model rocket kit. We'll start small, he told her. Let's launch some bugs and stuff into space first, and practice with some small rockets for a while before we move on to bigger and better things.
She locked into that idea with every fiber of her being. And she has spent countless hours drawing, tweaking and reworking her rocketship designs.
She's finally settled on a simple blue and purple color block pattern. Now she's just waiting on that kit to arrive so she can see how it flies.
It could be a long two and a half years until she turns eight.
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