Buh-bye to the chokey

Perhaps you vaguely remember that our kitchen used to have a pantry closet. Well, to create our new kitchen, Dada put up a wall where the pantry was and sealed it off. He also removed one of the pantry's walls in order to completely drywall the backside (the basement stair side) of the new wall. What all this made was a strange little three-walled room above the stairs, with no obvious way to get in or out of it, lit by a bare lightbulb. Perhaps you've read that most fantastic Roald Dahl book, Matilda? Well, Dada gave us a "chokey" of our very own. We used to tease all the little people who came to our house that this "room" above the stairs was for Baby Solitary Confinement. This was made all the more hilarious because, to help him reach the top of the drywall, Dada left a chair sitting on the floor in there. Why did I never take pictures of this? Why?

Anyway, Dada got a wild hair today to take the chokey down, perhaps in part because Isaac's birthday party is tomorrow. Our breakfast this morning was accompanied by ear-splitting noise from the Sawzall.

"What's that noise?" asked Isaac.
"Daddy's using his saw," said the mommy.
"What's a saw?"
"You use it to cut wood."
After thinking a minute, Genius Monkey says, completely out of nowhere and on his own, "Like a drill, Mommy?"
Mommy and Daddy together say, "YES!! Yes, buddy. A little like a drill."