July 23rd

Puck started his morning with peanut-cornmeal cookies and 3-D sidewalk chalk on the back patio, all courtesy of Carrie-Bri.
He had also caught Linnea’s cold.
But this didn’t stop him.
He had soon taken a dip in the dog bowl.
Poured Carrie’s tea on the floor.
Dumped over Linnea’s glass of cranberry juice.
And rolled Mom’s battery-powered tea lights around the living room floor.

Meanwhile, Dad had injured his leg playing a mean inning of baseball on Monday night, and was recovering, still at work.
He was a little perturbed at Francis, who, in the process of digging a large hole in the backyard for the foundation of the shed which would house all the bikes until the airplane had been built in the garage… had dug up all the wrong parts of the yard, and was using the sod to build himself a Teletubby house.

Puck had used up a quarter box of Kleenex by the end of the morning. Fortunately, to help his baby cold leave, there was Carrie-made chicken pot pie.

Mom, Francis, and Linnea returned from their first sample day of Classic Conversations in Illinois, and then stopped at Grandma Combs’ on the way back home.
They visited Nagle’s and returned with a little baking set for Puck, which included a cake pan, whisk, spatula, and stirring spoon, or ‘scoon’, as Puck called it.
He was very happy with this gift.
“Danks!” he cried out.
There was also a rolling pin which he rapidly rolled up and down on his stomach.
“This way, this way!” he commanded it.
Then he put on a pair of sunnies and marched around the house.
“I’m a cool dude!” he exclaimed.

Mom had also spent all of Wednesday with Grandma Combs, visiting with Grandma’s Normandy friends. She had returned with a water cooler for the kitchen (an early Christmas gift from Grandma), and a box of freshly picked peaches.

Later in the afternoon, while Collette worked with Francis on his math, Linnea took Puck next door to the neighbor’s garden to pick baby tomatoes and a monster zucchini.

That evening, Collette took her walk under rolling thunderheads. The neighbors were on their porches, walking with their children. Thunder. Wood smoke…

And back home, OLeif sat in Puck’s room in the rocking chair and sang him to sleep with The Streets of Laredo and Tonight You Belong to Me. Puck smiled at his daddy and drifted into dreamland.