They wanna look @ fotos THAT bad?

I just got an e-mail from Dee, who wrote:

'April'! I know that Michael has been keeping you apprised for the past couple of days of certain 'goings on' at our new home (your old home). He is back to following his 'muse,' so he's missed some things I thought you might be 'interested' in.

I was busy vacuuming (love that 'central vac'!) when my 'children' were clamouring and reaching for the photo 'albums' your mother left for us in that 'whatnot' closet. (Though honestly I don't know why she calls it that. I wonder if she'll mind if I change it to something more sensible, such as "the closet where we keep the photo albums"?)

Well, 'anyway,' Meredith was reaching up towards the top 'shelf' and asking, "Mom, can we look at these?" And I told her, "Not now, honey. I have cleaning to do." Meredith 'persisted,' with "Please? I wanna see the photographs." And little Robin joined in with "Fo-graffs! Fo-graffs!" Because really he'll just mimic whatever his big 'sister' says. I was telling them "We'll look at them together after I've finished my work, OK? We'll look at them later!" Unbeknownst to me, 'April,' while I was 'saying' that, the little ones were wheeling an office chair over to the closet for Meredith to stand on, completely 'disregarding' what I had been telling them! Of 'course,' the way that I discovered this was to hear a big CRASH sound. And when I went to the 'whatnot' closet to investigate, there were my two 'angels,' with Meredith partly under that 'chair' and photo albums everywhere. I thought, "Um ... we'll look at them now."

As I comforted my children and righted all this 'disarray,' it occurred to me that maybe we shouldn't look at those photo albums. After 'all,' the children defied me when I told them that we couldn't look at the photographs until I was finished with my cleaning. And now because they got themselves hurt while defying me, I was going to be giving them exactly what they 'wanted'?

But my dear 'Michael' put my fears to rest. He says that he's certain the 'children' learned a valuable lesson about finding a sturdy chair to stand on when getting things from a high shelf. And also that in a couple of months, we were going to start spending days on end poring over the old photo albums, comparing past events to what's going on 'now' (when we find time for a 'now' between photo-album 'sessions'). So it's good to get them used to the idea early. Then he told me he'd see me at 'dinner' and that he really must 'focus' on his 'windjammer' novel.

Oh, well. That's marriage to a writer, April!

No, Dee, that's just marriage to my jackass brother. There are writers (better ones than Mike) who can balance their writing with their not-ignoring-their-fam. Mike just enjoys disengaging himself.

And I think yr original instinct was rite. Rewarding the littles 4 not listening 2 U will give 'em the idea that they'll get what they want when they want, no matter what.

Also, if I were U, I wdn't worry so much abt whether Mom minds changes U wanna make. Just do it. Your house now. We're sure as heck not calling George Stibbs 4 permission 2 change NEthing, U know?

Apes