56 : Paint & Water
Day Two – Painting.
After the boys managed to knock over, and break, my last working lamp in the house, we were ready to get going.
Mom and Carrie-Bri arrived around nine o’clock to help out. While we began some silent, intense brushing and rolling, the boys were sent to the basement to see how long they could occupy themselves without supervision. A tall order.
Eventually – between rain drops – Mom took them on a walk. They came back awhile later with probably the biggest treasure discovered to date, all these nine-plus years living in the neighborhood.
“GRANDMA FOUND A TWENTY DOLLAR BILL ON THE ROAD!” Puck bellowed.
Immediately, he presented reasons for why that twenty dollar bill should find a safe home in his wallet.
By early afternoon, we were ready to call it a day on the paint. To resume that evening. About as soon as Mom and Carrie left for home, I heard a loud wail come from my room.
“Yali? What happened?”
He held up his foot, tears streaming down his face. It didn’t take too long to understand that he had somehow lodged a miniscule shard of glass in the bottom of his foot. So I got the tweezers and tiny scissors and Puck got the light, and we performed surgery. The young man handled it better than expected. A band-aid also helped. He adores band-aids. Band-aids are his best friends these days.
Nothing stops tears like a walk around the neighborhood. So we got that one going, until Puck decided he needed to hurry home and wash down his bike.
Half an hour later, both boys had the garden hose splashing in the driveway – big time water party. Some time later, Puck burst through the doorway.
“COME ON OUT, MOM!”
“Sorry, hon; I’ve got to get some stuff done in here first. I’m sorry!”
“AW, COME ON!” he grinned. “YOU NEVER GET TO HAVE ANY FUN, MOM!”
I looked out a little while later, and they were happily filling the mailbox with hose water. Fortunately, I had already removed Tuesday’s incoming mail. It was safe.
And so we somehow got through the second day of painting with no official paint disasters.