House-less

“Well,” Oxbear turned to me as we drove away from the title company. “We are now officially homeless.”

Later, he corrected that to “houseless”. Seven and a half weeks at the Silverspoon’s and I’m pretty sure Yali now believes that is our permanent residence.

Oxbear and I celebrated with sandwiches at one of his favorite places – Fozzie’s, in Des Peres.

Thunder growled in the west while Yali and I drove through the rain to school.

Around 3:15 I took a headcount of the gaggle of kids who had collected themselves in Hans’ room for the “after party” as he called it. Eleven. And counting.

Heidi just stared at me and shook her head. “Why does everyone always come in here?”

It must have been about four o’clock that the crowd finally thinned out and I was left with only Puck, Robi, and Bob for about another half-hour as they played another unsolicited game of “Run Away From Mom”, while rain poured outside.

When we got back, I heard Puck take on Oxbear in conversation from the kitchen.

“Dad. Mom isn’t healthy at all! She eats so much chocolate! Why do you keep giving her chocolate?”

“Because I love her and I want to give her gifts.”

“Stop giving her gifts!”

“It’s okay, bud.”

“But, Dad! All that chocolate you give her – that’s the reason why she’s so short and skinny!”

“I think she’s short and skinny because she’s a Snicketts, not because she eats chocolate.”

“What?”

“Well, is Sun short?”

“No.”

“Is Aunt Onion?”

“No.”

“Is Lila?”

“No.”

“I’m pretty sure none of them are that much taller than Mom. And none of them eat that much chocolate.”

“Oh, Dad… you’re breaking my mind!”