Five Days In
Second of four dream sequences in the night: short German man with his daughter – “Amy from basketball”, Carrie told me – hunting for our old golden retriever, Trooper, while I made quesadillas in the Big House kitchen. Good thing I don’t live in the olden days when they thought dreams really meant something.
Later that morning I heard Puck reading his big fat King James Bible to Yali in his library. This lasted fine until Yali decided to start causing trouble at some point. Puck handled the matter with calm.
“Now, Yali, for your punishment, give me something that you like to play with, a lot. And I will put it in the confiscating box.”
He pointed to the large orange K’NEX box – a relic of the kids’ childhood days – sitting on the floor of the library.
“Go get your Daniel Tiger,” he said solemnly to Yali. “Bring it to me.”
Yali tip-toed over to the rocking chair to retrieve the stuffed tiger and brought it to his big brother, handing it over with no regret.
Puck took it carefully and placed it in the box. “Now, Yali, you will get this back tonight, okay?”
It was about 4:45 in the afternoon when they called us back to the lab to collect a blood sample from Yali. The kid had lasted surprisingly well during the two and a half hours at the nephrology clinic. I think he was already so used to doctors by the time we got him that just one more on the heap doesn’t make much difference to him.
“No contact sports,” was about the only rule necessary to give him.
And while he’s still hovering around that 0% in the height category (still not sure how that’s possible), he’s graduated to 4% in weight. Explains those chubby brown cheeks of his.
Meanwhile Puck had spent his afternoon at the movies with Gloria. “Zootopia” – which he insisted was rated PG-13 before leaving; it was not – and a few games in the arcade, including air hockey.
This is definitely the atypical spring break – no beaches or geocaching or Chick-Fil-A dinners – but so far, no one’s complaining. Not even Yali as we left the hospital with a neon green bandage wrapped around his poked thumb. I think the Hershey’s kiss I gave him for the hour-long drive home in rush-hour definitely helped.