Teaching our daughter to share has been a constant challenge, as I’m sure it has with most parents. L likes and even expects others to share with her, but getting her to return the favor — that’s always been a trick. A few events of the last few days, though, makes me think we’ve made real progress.

Friday, we were to meet a friend of hers from her first grade class at the end-of-the-year school party, a carnival with a few rides and some games scattered about the school ground.

“We’re supposed to meet at six at the silly string!” she told us, countless times.

We arrived at the silly string area — a roped off portion of the field where kids ran about spraying aerosol string on each other — at the appointed time, but no friend. We got a ice treat, went on a few rides, and then suddenly discovered L’s friend, also Lilly.

With her mother’s blessing, Lilly went off with L and me, but before long, she’d run out of tickets.

“Daddy,” L said with a grave expression. “Give me the rest of the tickets. I want to slip them with Lilly.”

The second episode: today, during L’s preparation time before ballet portraits, I sat with E at the table to do his albuterol breathing treatment, but he was having none of that.

“No! No! No!”

No amount of cajoling, explaining, or begging could help.

L came to the rescue, offering the Boy use of our family Nexus so he could play his favorite game, a vehicle-based shape-matching game.

He sat patiently for the treatment, playing his game and clapping furiously whenever he finished a round.

“Bravo!” he cried, as did I, though for both L and E.

Finally, in the evening, mowing the yard after almost two weeks’ neglect, I came upon a patch of matted grass, so I headed in for the dethatching rake. As I returned, I noticed a curious patch of dry grass with bits of gray about it. I walked over, pulled the grass aside, and found a burrow of baby rabbits.

L came over to get a peek, and Papa brought the Boy over.

“What an odd place to burrow,” I said. Indeed, for it will be a disaster if our cat finds it, which is not as likely as it might seem given her age and general laziness.

Still, I’m happy to share our yard — for once, it’s an animal that seems harmless.