Outside Again

Thursday was beautiful enough to open all the windows in the house. When Mom returned from Europe five years ago, she had introduced the Dutch tradition of opening windows even on the coldest of days for ten to fifteen minutes every morning to freshen the house, although Dad decided that this was not a good idea.
Puck spent a small part of his morning attacking paper with crayons, drawing circles, to the best of his ability, before Collette released him into the wilds of the sloping front yard to see what his baby eyes would find to explore.
She was finally able to pull her baby back inside for pasta, imported from Italy, which satisfied his voracious hungers. That, with oranges. Rose joined them just in time, after walking over from work.
She had bought a little green plant for her desk, and seemed to be establishing herself after four days in the full-time work force. Her official title was now labeled “Administrative Assistant”.
Puck spent another hour out in the sun that afternoon, saying “goodbye” to the other “babies” (children), poking around the winter leaves, and watching general humanity and nature pass by his chubbyness.
And that evening, Collette learned that the ancient Romans brought cheesecake to their temples to honor the gods. Who knew?