July 8

“I’m back on KP,” Carrie told Collette earlier that week. “Helps pay for Ireland.”
By the time Collette and Puck had arrived at the house that Tuesday morning, there were two fresh loaves of pumpkin bread waiting for Mom and Grandma for their afternoon tea. A sure sign of Carrie. She had also baked a giant chocolate chip cookie for Joe and his cronies the night before. There were not even crumbs remaining the following morning. This was eaten while fireworks were being shot off late at night, including a giant “bomb” that had been constructed the week before. Carrie hadn’t been pleased that it had been lit at ten o’clock at night.
“I told them not to do it!” she had said angrily.
Meanwhile, that morning, Carrie and Joe were already gone on a morning bike ride to see Grandpa after Joe had made a pot of Hawaiian blend coffee. Grandpa was lonely, at home all of the time, so Dad (in particular) made extra efforts to visit him.
Now that he was in New Mexico, Carrie was taking over.
“Grandpa was so funny,” they said. “And he offered us sodas and peanut butter crackers.”
Meanwhile, as soon as Puck’s feet hit the floor at the house,
he was down to business. His project of the day was loading the dishwasher with a badminton racquet. This skill was soon drawn to a finish when he started to stand on the open dishwasher door.
After a walk in the intense humidity of the mid-morning, Puck was escorted to the kitchen for a round of homemade green playdough.
By the afternoon, Grandma had arrived. She had come to plan her and Mom’s trip to Texas and Louisiana in August for Zoysia’s wedding. She and Mom also had reservations at Jbuck’s for dinner that evening.
While Grandma was there, Puck learned how to walk backward, and became pretty proficient at it. He also begged off almost an entire slice of pumpkin bread from Grandma as reward. Shortly afterward, he learned how to point to his nose when Mom asked him:
“Puck, where’s your nose?”
He danced to Cajun music while Carrie was looking up restaurants and hotels in Louisiana for Mom and Grandma.
Over breakfast, he learned how to say “uh-oh” when he dropped something off of his tray.
And on the way home, he finally learned how to clap. Then he took hold of his feet and made them clap too.
It was a successful day in Puckland.