Appointment Five
Just before eight o’clock, Yali and I walked into Physical Therapy for his very first appointment. For all he knew, his mama was paying for him to play with toys for half an hour, including a pretty cool set of heavy duty plastic stacking cones. I guess that’s one perk of going through all of this when he’s just two years old. Not only will he probably not remember all of these medical visits, but he has practically zero idea what’s going on while he’s there. More like mini playdates.
When we left at eight-thirty, all the female therapists cooed over him as we walked out the door.
Irish drove over at eleven o’clock to study U.S. History just as the kitchen was an explosion of sausage-and-kale soup and a watermelon just laid open on the counter. She took over stirring the pot of bacon and chopped onion while I worked on Yali’s first physical therapy exercise of the living room rug. In the end, we talked through Yali’s nap instead with a little chocolate and cookies; no actual studying was accomplished.
A box was waiting on the front step when we got back from school in the mild sunshine of another late summer afternoon. Puck tore into it as soon as we walked through the front door.
“A drum?” he asked, confused.
I had almost forgotten. Rose wasn’t kidding when she rushed the package to little Yali. There it was – a shiny, brand new conga drum for his very own. He already knew how to use it.
POUND! POUND! POUND!
About half an hour later, Puck had finished his geography homework – recalling the names of continents and oceans. He walked into the living room just in time to prevent Yali from de-clothing himself. He’s been into the idea lately of walking around naked. I know he comes from a warm climate, but he just can’t walk around in the buff. That doesn’t fly around here so well/
“Mom!” Puck called from the living room. “This child is insanity! He was trying to take off his pants!” He paused to encourage Yali back into his wardrobe, then added once again to himself just for good measure, “This child is insanity…”
“There’s a set of bongos coming too,” Rose added via text later, “and a finger harp for Puck.”
This had all the makings of an intercultural family band. I’m sure Oxbear was very excited.