78 : Riding at the Ranch
When I picked Puck up from the Big House, Francis had just finished bagging the tent Puck had camped out in overnight. A tent in the living room, that is. Francis was “scared of bugs”, as Carrie-Bri had already informed me.
The holiday continued out at Double Eagle Ranch, a nice distance from nowhere. At one point, I had the boys stand still and just listen to the silence. A few cicadas, some birds. Just how the natives would have heard it hundreds of years ago.
Before we got to ride Rocket again though, Yali managed to smash a thick, but tiny, splinter into his little brown paw. No tears. He watched carefully as the tweezers removed it and resumed play by sitting on a pile of salt blocks with his brother.
Rocket was a shiny penny-brown, now that his winter coat had shed. Calm enough now through Theodore’s training that we could all rub his soft nose and pat his back. Then almost everyone took their turn on the saddle. And this time, Theodore coaxed him into a trot.
“OW! OW! OW! OW! OW!” Puck bellowed, bouncing up and down in the saddle in front of me, but still wanted a third round after everything was said and done.
Lulu, Curly, Ansel, Oxbear, and Theodore also took their turns before the afternoon had ended. I think by the time Rocket returned to his stable, he had worked up a decent sweat. So had most of the boys.
When we got back to the Silverspoon’s sometime after one o’clock, Puck begged me for another all-fruit popsicle from the fridge. I grudgingly gave in. I guess Puck felt guilty for pestering. A few minutes later he came to me.
“Mom! I have a good news and a bad news! Actually, two good newses. I’m sorry for asking for the popsicle. And… I have GROWING PAINS!”
Yali, meanwhile, fresh off a twenty minute nap, was having some kind of temper tantrum on the back deck. Puck consoled him, pulling him into his lap and putting both hands on his shoulders.
“Yali. Yali. Yali, listen to me. I know you’re feeling really droopy right now. But I want to do something fun with you, okay?”
He coaxed him down to the kiddie pool and all was quickly resolved.
Until… Yali decided to very eagerly and much too quickly follow Curly down the carpeted stairs after lunch. Following the tumble and, from what we could tell, cracking his skull on the molding, a large lump swelled up on the side of his head. Gloria gave him a couple of little arnica pills, he dried his tears, and gave me the “thumbs up”. Back to business.