I Just Gave Mom a Piggy-Back Ride!

With Ansel scheduled to be married in April, Puck had some thoughts for me as we left church that morning.

“Guess I’m gettin’ a new aunt.”

“You have lots of aunts and uncles, don’t you?”

“Yup! But… I can’t really picture Uncle Francis getting married.”

“Why not?”

“Let’s just say… he strangles me a lot.”

(Wrestling matches are a weekly occurrence between Francis and Puck.)

“And Rose…” Puck chuckled to himself. “Well, that’s just another story altogether.”

The Big House. With everyone together again for the first time since Mom got back from Germany, there were gifts for the masses, including chocolate and marzipan.

After lunch, Yali was caught screeching in the living room after Puck confiscated his shoes.

“What happened, Puck?”

“Mom, I was just doing ‘the worm’, and then he hit me for no reason!”

Typical.

Halfway through the afternoon, I lined up the boys for hair cuts. Everything was going fine until Carrie stepped in to give Yali a faux hawk.

“Oops.”

Wrong guard. Yali was looking pretty bald. Some time later, the cover-up was concluded.

“Well,” Carrie summarized, “he looks like a Navajo cop. Moral of this story is – don’t shave a bunch of angora bunnies before giving your nephew a haircut.”

Yali clearly did not care.

When the boys prepared to leave in one car for the evening, I walked outside in my socks to see them off. Until I hit a wet muddy patch that spanned the whole street.

“Hey, Puck,” I teased, “why don’t you come piggy-back me to the car?”

Puck, always eager for another display of strength, dropped everything and hustled over. “Mom! Mom! Stay right there! I’ll give you a piggy-back ride! Just wait right there!”

I had been kidding, but what do you know the kid actually managed to pull it off. And he was very – very – proud of that fact.

“I JUST GAVE MOM A PIGGY-BACK RIDE!”