Knock knock, who's there?

Sabrina's been acting like a teenager since she was about two years old, so it's surprising it took this long for her to post a "Knock before entering" sign on her door. She's not that hardcore about it, and if I walk in and forget to knock it's no biggie. If I walk in and insist that she clean up her room, however, it is a biggie.

A couple of weeks after Sabrina put up her sign, Max decided he needed one and she made it for him. Sure, the sign looks all playful, but make no mistake: Max means business.

If you walk into his room without knocking, he tells you to leave and knock. This includes therapists who come to the home, our babysitter and the handyman who recently came to fix a window. Max likes the whole routine; you knock, he says "Who is it?", you state your name and he says "Come in!" He never turns anyone away, except once after he'd had a school snow day and he wanted a second one and I knocked on his door in the morning, he said "NO!"

Max likes pointing out that all the letters in his sign are in capitals. He has this thing, for the past few months, that his name must only be written in capitals. I will see what the teacher has to say about this at the parent-teacher conference. Although it must be said that for a while in the 1990s, Prince chose to be known as this:

At least "MAX" is pronouncable.

This weekend, I heard both kids snickering and when I finally rolled out of bed, this sign was on our door. I am represented by a flower and Dave, by sushi.

Unfortunately, neither kid is taking it seriously. BUT we have a lock. He, he.