Más!
Oxbear recently crafted a new allowance system for Puck, where he earns figurative “gold coins” for chores completed, difficult tasks accomplished. These gold coins later translate into real greenbacks. Puck ran through the list of challenges this morning, thinking out loud.
“Well, Dad, if I want to earn enough money for this Lego castle on wheels, all I have to do is memorize the shorter catechism today and I can get it!”
Piece. Of. Cake.
Later in the morning, up at school, I paused from serving Chick-Fil-A sandwiches in the kitchen to check on Puck sitting with Snicky and Mickey. A conversation was already taking place about names. Snicky informed me very loudly that he was the 4th Snicky in his family, hence the “IV” affixed to his name, and thrust four fingers at my face to emphasize his point.
Then Mickey paused from guzzling what might have been red Kool-Aid, and turned to me, shouting above the din of 3rd and 4th graders, “WELL, WHEN I HAVE KIDS, I’M GOING TO NAME THEM ALL MICKEY! MICKEY ONE! MICKEY TWO! MICKEY THREE! MICKEY FOUR! MICKEY FIVE!”
Good luck with that one, kid.
Later, while I supervised 5th and 6th grade boys trying to sneak too many packages of mayonnaise from the sauce cart – I might have let one or two slip in the zoo of sauce frenzy – one of the boys in question turned to me politely and said:
“Thank you! Especially because you already have two boys of your own to take care of already!”
I failed to notice whether he pocketed more than two packets of sauces while he buttered me up. Naw; I’ll take him at his word.
Back home that afternoon, those two boys of mine got busy raiding the refrigerator again. Constantly hungry. One of their heads is always in there rummaging around for cheese sticks, clementines, blackberries, whatever they can get their hands on. I really need to put a lock on that thing.
Meanwhile, Oxbear – who had worked from home – had also mounted a flat screen television on our bedroom wall, leaving the other flat screen in the basement.
“So…” I asked him at dinner, “we went from basically having zero televisions to two flat screens?”
“Yeah… that’s why one of the guys at work said, ‘Congratulations! You’re finally an American!’”