Cabin Fever ... Sort Of

Yali woke up with a little summer cold. Better the summer than winter, I figure. He wasn’t bothered. There were more exciting things to focus on that morning. Like all those new birthday presents that still felt pretty new, two days in.

A little rain during lunch. So brief, I almost missed it. The radar is very disappointing these days.

Meanwhile, I spent all morning and afternoon painting doors, door frames, and re-attaching light switch plates. It was crunch time. The photographer could be around in less than a week to snap some shots of all that sweat and blood I poured into those painted walls. And then this old place of nine and a half years’ living would finally go on the market.

The boys, on the other hand, generally tried to stay out of trouble. “Tried”. I had no other twenty-dollar bill to offer Puck in babysitting fees. He had to do it “on the house”.

Here and there during breaks, I caught up on whatever disasters the boys were currently in the middle of performing, or at least planning. Surprisingly, there hadn’t been anything too catastrophic yet. The worst thing so far had been shredding all the packing styrofoam for both televisions. Like blocks of snow all over a corner of the basement. So much for transporting them easily again.

They had their quiet moments, too. About mid-afternoon I urged Puck to show Yali how to use his birthday coloring book on the living room floor. It was so quiet, I wasn’t convinced they weren’t getting into some kind of trouble again.

“Mom? Do you agree that I color well?”

Oh, good. Safe.

“I do, son. But remember not to congratulate yourself.”

“I know. I just think I color pretty well.”

Big bowls of pasta for dinner. Yali took one look at the dish covered in a creamy sauce and pushed it away.

“Yuuuhhhck!”

“YUCK!” Puck grinned back at him.

“Show him that you like it, or he won’t eat it,” I encouraged Puck.

Puck dug his fork into the bowl for a big mouthful. “MMM YUM!”

Yali smiled big at his older brother, picked up his fork, dug in, took a bite. “MMM YUM!”

Never fails.