After days of contemplation and discussion, I believe that Ruby has finally solved the pirate problem, for everyone.
Ruby: I know, lets make a flag with a cake on it. I’ll make my favorite cake (chocolate cake with chocolate frosting and sprinkles and flowers on top) and we’ll put the flag up. Then the pirates will know that we have cake and they can come over and eat it. Then they will like us and won’t eat us or take our boat.
Ruby: (after some more thought) … and then we can tell everyone in the world what to do and nobody will have to be afraid of pirates anymore.
Me: Oh Ruby, that’s beautiful.
Ruby: Oh, and we can make a cookie flag, and a pizza flag too. …
This conversation has spanned several days, but Ruby is really excited about making friends out of the pirates. I have never been so proud of my little girl. With any luck she’ll carry this attitude into her adult problem solving and interpersonal self.