We’ve got three cupboards in our “play room”. This is where the TV
is; it’s also the one room we could easily close off with a gate to
keep the little ones inside. It’s like a big playpen. The cupboards
are all “locked” with those white plastic two-piece babyproofing locks:
the kind that you snug down around the knobs on a pair of double
cupboard doors so they can’t be opened?

The middle cupboard has toys and games in it, most dating from when
I was a kid. Even David is still too little for most of them, so
the cupboard stays locked all of the time.

I was reading my e-mail after dinner when Jane called up to my study,
“Will, Dave, can you come down? I need some help.” We duly came down,
and found Jane sitting in the play room. James and Anne had gotten
into the middle cupboard, and there was my childhood scattered all over the
floor. There were crayons, coloring books, barnyard animals, two sets of
dominoes, a couple of games, some puzzle pieces, and a number of decks of
cards: one Peanuts-themed Old Maid deck, two normal decks, both dirty,
one oversized deck, and a Flinch deck. That’s only a fraction of what’s in
that cupboard (for which God be praised), but it was still enough to cover
about ten or twelve square feet of carpeting.

I gather that Flinch is a card game intended for
people who class regular playing cards with short skirts, dancing, and
alcohol. I’ve never played Flinch, and while I believe my mom played
Flinch when she was a little girl I don’t believe the set we have has
ever been used, except that I used to take the cards out and fiddle with
them when I was little. They are in remarkably good shape, all things
considered.

Oh, and there was a little box filled with little stars–the kind
elementary school teachers used to award. That got dumped out, too.
It took us a good half-an-hour to get everything squared away enough
to vacuum, by which time it was time to get the kids to bed.

James has solemnly promised not to let Anne into the cupboard again.
We’ll see.

UPDATE: I just sat down to do something else, scratched my knee,
and found six more of those little stars stuck there. I expect we’ll be
finding them floating about for days.