When we're rich and fanciful . . .

Dane's mom gave me a stack of old magazines this fall, including about a year's worth of Architectural Digest.  I have a slightly obsessive interest in architecture and interior design, so I was thrilled.  Pretty soon they were spread all over the house, and they became standard potty time reading for the boys.  Duncan and Tristan were fascinated by all the pictures of watches and high-end plumbing and lighting fixtures.  Now, if you spend much time looking at Architectural Digest, you can't avoid thinking about class and income disparities -- particularly if you're a raging left-winger like me and you have a little boy who keeps asking, "Why does that bath tub have two drains, Mom?  Why is it so BIG?  Why doesn't our bathtub have two drains?"

While I was trying to think of a response to these questions, I realized that the bathroom I was admiring in the magazine probably cost enough to lift five families out of poverty.  I told Duncan simply that the people who owned the bath tub with two drains were "rich and fancy" and that we were just "normal."  He seemed satisfied, and I didn't think any more about it.  I happily continued my uneasy indulgence in the magazines, alternately reveling in the pretty pictures and being disgusted by the people who spend small fortunes on bathroom tile.  Like L. M. Montgomery says, human nature is not obliged to be consistent.  Eventually, the magazines found their way to a bottom shelf in the living room and I forgot about them.

Skip forward to the end of November, and the boys and I are having a conversation about holiday baking.  "We'll make man-shaped cookies!"  "I want to eat chocolate chips!"  "And muffins!" "With chocolate chips!" "I put them in oven!"  "I want chocolate cake!"  "No, cookies!"  "No, I want cake!"  This leads to a discussion of how the boys' grandmother used to have two ovens, and how handy that was.  Sitting with cook books laid out around me, I say out loud, "When I'm rich and fancy, I'm definitely going to have two ovens!"  And Duncan pipes up wistfully, "Then we can have a bathtub with two drains! Yes-yes."