High Five

Yali spent the morning begging for his favorite foods: hot dogs, string cheese, hard boiled eggs, and yogurt. He also devoted some of his time to chasing Crackers the cat around the house. He wanted to play. She did not.

“CRACKERS!” he screamed in frustration, slamming the bedroom door when she wouldn’t come out. “CRACKERS!”

At two o’clock, Yali started speech therapy again. A three-month break – like summer in the fall – due to our move from Wentzville to Creve Coeur. And now he was back at it, ready to learn again. Of course shelves of toys and books and puzzles always make learning pretty fun.

I put Yali in the tub after dinner. Puck paused from writing his book report in cursive at his desk and walked in to check out the party.

“Eyeball! Eyeball!” Yali cried, scrubbing bubbles out of his eyes.

Puck handed him a towel. “Oh, you got soap in your eyes, buddy?”

After Yali used the towel, he held up one small brown palm and grinned at his big brother. “High five!”

Later that evening, Carrie-Bri and I recorded the 128th episode of the old baseball podcast at my kitchen table while Oxbear sold the Mazda to German out in Wentzville. Since the summer he had been making plans to get back to a truck. And so the process began.