This morning AJ found the Cat Dancer. For the feline-impaired, the Cat Dancer is a piece of heavy wire about two and a half feet long with several short, twiglike objects that spin around on one end of it. You hold the other and and wave the wire around and your average feline goes ballistic. Since AJ loves it when the cats do anything besides sleep, the Cat Dancer is one of his favorite toys.

This morning, however, he was not so interested in playing with the cats. He decided that we should each hold one end of the wire and whirl around in a circle, something we used to call �Crack-the-whip� when we played it on a playground with a jumprope when I was a kid. I was game. We cleared some space at the foot of my bed and began to spin. Soon, however, I got so dizzy that I had to stop, lest I pass out on the floor. But there is no such thing as too dizzy for AJ. He wanted to do more. I refused, citing my general agedness. He wanted to get his dad to do it, but I told him daddy was in his office and we couldn�t disturb him. AJ got upset and started yelling. I told him he needed to be a little less loud and to stop and be quiet until he could count to ten. At the end of ten, AJ announced very determinedly, �Okay, here are the rules:

Number one is 'Caution, yes to friends getting dizzy.' (That means you, Mommy,� he said as he jabbed a chubby little finger at my chest.)
�Number two is you have to let the words out.
Number three is I want daddy to be done working."

These strike me as some good rules. They are certainly more interesting than those we tend to levy on AJ, which are generally geared toward ensuring his relative safety and preventing unnecessary wanton destruction. But AJ�s rules are meant to protect the fundamental rights to have fun, to express oneself, and to be surrounded by one�s loved ones. Our founding fathers would be proud. The non sequitur "Caution" in rule one is the result of AJ's continuing survey of anything that says "Caution" or "Warning." I never realized just how many things say one of these words until he started pointing them out. Often he also insists on being read the entire small print warning that inevitably follows. He has, by now, memorized the FBI warning that appears at the beginning of each video tape, although he has not yet mastered the INTERPOL warning that occasionally follows. But AJ's rules suggest that his approach to life is probably a lot less obsessive than ours. I'm all about caution. AJ, despite opening his rules with a caution, is all about having a good time. Perhaps we can learn something from one another. We should be in good shape, at least until AJ realizes that he has a right to bear arms.

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