Warning: No TV May Cause Major Projects

Apparently our household communication system was not working. The standing under the open stairwell yelling, "Kids! Dinner!" was insufficient, unclear and would not do. Now we have a telephone and a messaging system between the 1st and 2nd floors. Designed with a pulley system (1 basket, 1 long string, 2 toilet paper rolls), we can now pass notes to each other in blissful quiet. Here's Ethan with the basket pulley system for notes and the new telephone, installed and ready.




And here's Evelyn receiving the note.

And she can also talk on our "Sliced Peaches Telephone." It's the latest thing in telecom.

This is how it works:
Ethan tells Evelyn to go downstairs because he has a note for her. She goes down the stairs and waits patiently while Ethan writes a note, puts it in the basket, and lowers the basket down.
Mom helps Evelyn read the note.

"Come upstairs, I have a surprise for you," it reads. And Evelyn comes back upstairs. It works like a charm.

Alternatively:

Ethan puts a note in the basket and lowers it down but no one notices because we're all outside. Feeling impatient, Ethan comes downstairs, goes outside, finds Mom. "Mom, check the basket for notes," he says, and goes back upstairs to wait.

"Mom, please send up my iPod," says the note.

I insert iPod, pull basket twice to notify that there's something in it and he pulls up. It's really quite the efficient means to get things communicated around here. I might as well cancel T-Mobile and unplug our Internet service.