"Hey" Fever

I brought all three kids into the office this Saturday so Kerrie could go to yoga and I could get some work done. They have all been here before individually and I have typically put them in the empty office next to mine where they can be pretty diligent about occupying themselves.

Lev once invented a new mouse trap (which now terminates that cliche) which was a paper coffee cup with about 50 push-pins stuck into it. He placed it on the floor of my office and put some popcorn inside. In order to get to the popcorn, a mouse would have to walk across the business end of the push-pins. Daniel once built a robot out of boxes.

Today I had three kids, but the old empty office has been filled so I put Daniel in one other office, Lev in another, bigger office around the corner, and Molloy in a third empty, even bigger office that has a window.

Within seconds, the situation became cutthroat:

Daniel: Hey, that's not fair. She has a window.
Lev: Hey, Kevin Murphy stole my old office.
Molloy: Hey, why I don't have a computer?

It certainly didn't take long for them to get embroiled in the competition for office perks.

By the end of the day, Lev had taken his old mouse trap invention to the next level. He took a flattened Federal Express box and stuck push-pins through it to make a welcome mat that looked like a bed of nails. Then he taped more pins to the office door handle. He clearly wanted some privacy.

Daniel built a suit of armor out of empty Federal Express boxes and stomped around with big box-boots, while Molloy was found weeping in the aisle because she couldn't find her office among the maze of cubicles and office doors.

I will go back to the office tomorrow to really try and get some work done.