28 : Cabin Fever

An old friend of the Silverspoon family had stayed overnight, Tuesday, and left shortly after breakfast. No sooner had she left and Puck could no longer contain the desire to say certain things that he knew probably weren’t appropriate in front of guests.

“MY BUM ITCHES!”

Yali grinned. “Bum!”

“MOM!” Puck yelled. “I TAUGHT HIM HOW TO SAY BUM!”

With that fanfare, we left for a few morning errands.

Between stops, Yali threw up the usual wail of despair when he tossed his big rubber dinosaur and couldn’t reach it again.

“Well, Mom,” Puck philosophized, “I can’t get it for him. That wouldn’t teach him anything. It’s like Grandpa always said, ‘If you can’t get up into the tree on your own, then you have to wait to climb trees until you can figure it out for yourself.’”

Much later in the afternoon of relentless heatwave, after a viewing of “Inside Out”, the boys got some of the crazies out. Wrestling. Chasing. Screaming. Whacking.

After a particular Yali fist-whack to his older brother, Puck grinned with satisfaction, “I taught you well, my son.”

A few minutes later, he knocked over a can of sparkling water with a pillow. I ordered them downstairs.

“But, Mom!” Puck protested. “Look at us!”

The two grinning boys cuddled together on the easy chair, dimples, bright eyes shining, and everything.

“I know. You’re very cute. Now go downstairs.”

“But, Mom, I’m giving you puppy dog eyes!”

Yali added his own two cents. “Woof! Woof!”

They still went downstairs. For my own sanity.

About an hour later, Puck got serious with the art projects, so I prepared to take Yali out into the heat to give him some space. When we returned about fifteen minutes later, Puck was deep into paper, tape, Sharpies, and colored pencils. He held up the beginnings of his next masterpiece.

“Do you think Mrs. Vermeer will like it?” he asked.

All art is now considered in the context of – “What would Mrs. Vermeer think?” – his art teacher of two years.

Then he and Yali ran off chasing each other, screaming and laughing together and causing general mayhem.