Tikkabik

So our four-day holiday (actually, the kids' five-day holiday, as school was out on Wednesday) is drawing to a close, and Bonnie and I have slightly frayed nerves. We're looking forward to seeing our kids off to school tomorrow and having a bit of quiet around the house. Judging from the wide-eyed and rather nervous look from the cat, so does he.

We've come to the conclusion that Emmeline's hijinks cause about 80 percent of our work to keep the peace around the house, though that's not to say that it's 80 percent Emme's fault. She certainly makes things difficult for herself by reacting poorly every time her brothers (or we) cause some imagined slight, loudly proclaiming "It's not fair!"

Emme has also developed the habit of arguing the point at every single turn, whether it's negotiating how much dinner she needs to eat to get dessert (my stock answer: All of it) to how much of her room she has to clean up before she can have a play date with Vicki (my stock answer: All of it). You know, she's lived under my roof for her entire seven plus years of existence: You think she'd realize by now that this household isn't run as a democracy, it's a benevolent dictatorship. Well, sometimes. Benevolent, I mean. Mostly it's just a dictatorship, and I am the leader of this banana republic.

I'm not sure exactly when my daughter became possessed by the rogue spirits of an attorney and Che Guevara. She says she wants to become a veterinarian or a pet store owner when she gets older. But if she gets a law degree and goes to work for IFAW or PETA or some other animal rights group, she'll be hell on wheels. If she becomes a revolutionary, God help us all.