18 : Puerto Rican Style
We had been invited by friends from church to attend a Puerto Rican picnic in Kirkwood that afternoon. Until about half an hour before the event, I hadn’t considered that Puck might take issue with the spread of edibles, which I wasn’t quite sure what that would look like yet. So I tried to prepare him.
“Bud, I want you to keep an open stomach today.”
“Mom. My stomach has laws. And Puerto Rican food is…”
“Delicious,” Oxbear suggested.
“Outlawed,” Puck joked.
Although I knew it was only a half-joke.
“No one can be in charge of my stomach though, Dad. Mom made my stomach, but no one can tell it what to do.”
True point, but he was encouraged to try his best anyway.
After we picked Rose up in Creve Coeur to join us, Yali fell asleep in his carseat.
“Mom, look!” Puck yell-whispered at me. “He’s clapping his hands in his sleep!”
Sure enough.
“Could I have something for him to smell?” Puck asked.
I handed him a box of wintergreen mints. Puck carefully stuck it under his nose.
“Look, Mom,” he grinned. “I’m messing with his dreams.”
It was all loud and all Puerto Rican at the park. Puck covered his ears tight against the live salsa blasting over the speakers. But I liked it. Just like back in Colombia a year ago. I also pulled Puck’s hands off his ears. He’s not always the most adaptive to cultural experiences.
And we finally learned the look of Puerto Rican food. Plates loaded with rice, beans, pasta, pulled pork (the good kind), and salad, meant to be eaten together in one big mountain. Good stuff. Even Puck had to admit that it wasn’t as weird as he expected. Although he passed on the fresh yucca rinsed in olive oil. That was good, too.
A couple of hours later we checked out our first-option house down the highway. The boys ran around the upstairs and downstairs and the big old quirky yard, explaining their likes and dislikes to each other. Yali’s explanations were mostly done using hand motions, imitating big brother. We left with all three of my boys pretty satisfied with their observations and research.