Happy Bday STL!
A light sleet introduced us to the morning. Crackers watched from the patio door, trembling with fascination at the pudgy squirrels nibbling seeds in the snow.
“Mom! Mom! Look at that squirrel! He’s saying, ‘What the heck?!’”
“You mean, ‘What the what?’”
I usually tell Puck that words like “stupid” and “dumb” are appropriate for adults to use – they’ve earned the right – but not young kids. I guess “what the heck” just sounds different coming out of the mouth of a First Grader, so it’s on the banned list. For now.
“Mom. He’s a grown up squirrel. He can say ‘stupid’ if he wants to. And ‘what the heck.’”
Walked into the other room and Puck was windex-ing all the black and white photographs over the couch, including his favorite: him open-mouthed snoring, three days old, on El Oso’s stomach, pipe in mouth. Hmmm … He circled around to the living room windows, writing “pop” on the window with his finger. I’m pretty sure he meant something else; hanging around his Uncle Joe too much.
Puck ran outside to stomp the ice in the street before lunch, in his valentine red boots. We had already shared heart-shaped brownies, around another cucumber for Puck. And the energy sent him out into the post-brief-snowflakes rocketing his yellow truck down the driveway toting a single piece of round blue chalk.
Evening plans. Mom, Dad, Joe, and Jaya were attending a Valentine’s Day dance. Carrie-Bri was dying Rose’s hair at the Big House. Hadn’t gotten any tabs on Francis or Irish. So, in celebration of St. Louis’ 250th anniversary, founded by an 8th grader on either the 14th or 15th of February, (and also in celebration of V-Day), El Oso drove back by 7:30 with a paper sack of Penn Station, a case of Izze (in peach), and another ridiculous Redbox selection (Austenland), which still provided some laughs. Probably none of those items had anything to do with St. Louis, but I celebrated in spirit. And Puck walked out of his room only about three times to request that we turn down the volume on my laptop and to please save him one of those peach “sodas” for tomorrow. He even collects food.