April 17th, 2025
Yali has a loud announcement to make as I walk out of my room that morning... “I HATE BEING A SHORTSTACK!” he roars... doesn't help when the baby sister two+ years younger than you is about three inches taller...
It's Patience's turn to join the glue gun madness up at the old school that morning... she furiously attaches parrot body pieces together in one corner of the room while I hot glue about nonstop for ninety more minutes myself... one interesting request after another... the creativity is palpable... and by the time we clean the room and lock up after ten-thirty... the needles on my social dials for the week have reached critical mass...
Sit down to bookwork with Yali at home – psyching himself up for online math quizzes...
Then Puck wants help checking his window systems for cracks... finally figured out how to keep out the hordes of stinkbugs and now the wasps are making efforts... out comes the foil tape and duct tape sealing openings between window panes nearly 70 years old... “Cheese keeps batting at the wasps on the other side of the glass” he explains... “He's making them so mad, they're going to sting anyone who goes out there”...
After hearing this assessment Yali – who is mortally afraid of anything with stingers – takes an abnormal amount of time convincing it's still okay to play outside...
The boys are more raucous that usual that afternoon though... through their various escapades I somehow manage to take paint and sequins in fun shapes and banana guts all to my face before the end of the afternoon... which of course the boys find hilarious...
Then after placing various upcoming birthday gift orders through Amazon – like Minecraft Nerf guns and plush hedgehogs and paisley origami paper – and a new swimsuit for Patience because that sun-faded thing has been pushed too many years through creeks and pools... and once more rescheduling Puck's jump... and trimming out the rapidly green-growing plants outside the windows... and taking the kids on a quick neighborhood walk in the wind and sun at Yali's request (anyplace away from those wasps)... it's already time to leave for the studio...
Skip ahead to ten o'clock at night... the skydive has once again been postponed due to high winds... all three of the kids are uncommonly already asleep... and Oxbear and I continue folding eighteen money-bills into origami frogs for Puck's golden birthday in the morning...