60 : You Need to Eat This Right Now
It was hot. About two o’clock in the afternoon, and we were taking another walk around the neighborhood. Vacation Bible School had come to an end for Puck, closing things out with an inflatable soccer field match, and he still had enough energy to hop on his too-small bicycle. But I wasn’t really feeling it.
“It’s pretty hot, bud. I’m a little tired. Let’s only go halfway today.”
“Okay, Mom.” He rode up beside me. “If you don’t want to take a walk at all, we don’t have to.”
“It’s okay. We can do half.”
Puck thought things over for awhile, biking back and forth on the street, waiting for Yali and me to catch up with him. Finally he coasted over to me, holding onto my wrist to steady himself while biking slowly next to us.
“Mom, you haven’t been getting enough health lately. We need to get you some water and vegetables, pronto.”
When we walked back in the door, Puck took charge of things. He plunked a glass of water in front of me. Then went to the fridge for a box of strawberries, which he washed and set down on the table.
“I don’t care if you don’t want to do it, Mom. You NEED to eat this whole box of raspberries! Right now!”
He was adamant.
So while I opened up that box of raspberries, Puck and Yali decided it was time to rearrange the living room. I heard furniture scraping across the floor for awhile until Puck called me out to inspect his inspired creation, explaining why it was “better this way”. I couldn’t disagree.
As the afternoon waned, I began getting dinner ready. Both boys pounded through the kitchen, laughing and screaming, and ran back out again while I started the eggs. Bacon was already in the oven, which of course made the smoke detector start yelling at us, for no good reason. Puck and Yali stormed back through the kitchen, giggling hysterically. Puck started throwing a couch pillow at the smoke detector until it momentarily stopped screeching. All while The Righteous Brothers “Unchained Melody” serenaded the chaotic scene from my laptop on the counter until the smoke detector kicked back in all over again.
When things finally settled down, it was movie night with the kids: Carrie-Bri, Rose, Francis, and Bing. Homemade snickerdoodles and bacon-wrapped goodies. And “The Truman Show”.
Towards the end of the film as Truman was thrown on his back against the deck of his ship, soaked to the bone, Carrie said, “Well, to quote Puck, ‘Nobody likes to get wet in the PANTS! NOBODY!’”