Hello Again, Kirsten
The boys had done a pretty decent job of cleaning the house before I trooped back in from south Florida on Monday afternoon. But with the arrival of our social worker Thursday at 4:30, I wanted to make sure everything was freshly covered. So that’s how I spent my Thursday, fixing things up. Almost forgot about checking smoke detectors and the fire extinguisher, but got those squeezed in too. Plus all the paperwork.
The boys came barreling back through the door from work and school at about 3:30. Puck slipped off his shoes, completed his homework with speed, and wrapped up in the eggplant blanket on the couch to surprise Kirsten when she arrived.
When she did walk through the door – it had been ten months since we’d seen her – she greeted everyone, updated us on processes and potential times, etc.
Then Kirsten asked to interview Puck, now that he’s older. In honor of the occasion, he had returned the shoes to his feet, took a seat on Crackers’ “condo”, and added a giant spring on the top of his head that gradually slipped down his face as he answered questions.
“You can’t be almost eight already,” Kirsten said to him. “I met you when you were two!”
An hour or so later when she left with final instructions, I threw a pizza in the oven (already well past the dinner hour), and asked Puck if he enjoyed seeing Miss Kirsten again.
“Yup. She’s a cool lady.”
I reminded him to take off the Chucks again to let his feet breathe. The scent of teenage boy was already upon him.
“But Onion’s coming over.”
“It’s okay. You don’t have to have shoes on for her.”
“Oh, yeah. She’s just my relative.”
Shoes off.
Rose walked in the door about fifteen minutes later, joining us for dinner and some funny videos on her phone with Puck. Puck was tucked in bed after musing about how the ocean could disappear.
“I know! I would just dig a hole to the center of the earth where all the lava is, and let the sea pour in there!”
With this dilemma resolved, and Puck snoring soundly in his bunk, we adjourned to the basement for a little Hulu, a little Netflix, and a few unnecessary snacks.