The inspiration for Cupcake Crossbones came from watching my daughter grow up and insist on being independent while she learned and played. Most of the time if anyone, adult or not, approached her while she was on the ground surrounded by toys they might have thought to sit down next to her to join in. She immediately pointed across the room to other toys or just to the other side of the room. It wasn’t that you couldn’t use her toys, it was that you would surely disrupt her imaginary scenario that she had going at that moment. Her imaginary [whatever] wasn’t up for negotiation.

One time in particular that I thought was especially odd was on her 6th birthday when I took her to Chucky Cheese to play some games and win some prizes. She had some new shoes that had laces. Toward the end of our gaming her shoe came untied and instead of having me tie them, as I did before we left the house, she spent about 30 minutes sitting in one of the booths until she got them tied again. I was surprised that she would interrupt game-time at noisy Chucky Cheese and sit for so long until she figured it out. Even though things have changed I still admire that little girl who wanted to do things for herself and on her own. She wanted to explore different art and activities like play drums, ride horses, gymnastics and many more simple things that didn’t require scheduling.