Puck Antics
They woke up to falling ice that morning, a little too slick for travel. Collette and Puck stayed at home and played with blocks. They shared strawberries for breakfast.
OLeif returned for lunch after a Bible study with two charismatic guys at work and brought a handful of the snow to the door.
Puck was making headway. During the morning, Collette found him in the kitchen standing next to his high chair. With great concentration, he let go of the high chair and with a great smile, looked up to Collette in baby triumph, as he stood there all on his own.
“Look, Mom! No hands!”
“Look – it’s not even snow,” he said.
It was, indeed, not snow, but tiny balls of ice, everywhere.
Later in the afternoon, Collette caught Puck gnawing on a giant Styrofoam piece which had come in OLeif’s computer box. He had chewed off a corner and was sitting on the rug, chewing the piece like cow cud.
“Puck, no!”
Collette retrieved the stray piece of Styrofoam.
“Waaaaaaaa!”
Puck was apparently not pleased. Collette laughed at his pouty face, which he was trying to make look as mournful as possible. He was beginning to learn the tricks of the trade. But Collette wasn’t going to fall for it.
The ice balls continued to fall.
The slowness of the day…
OLeif and Collette watched a film about Daniel Pearl over dinner. OLeif had a penchant for real-life films, no matter how depressing. Collette was not usually happy with his movie selections.
Later, OLeif was telling Collette about the first assassination attempt on a president of the United States:
“Apparently the guy walked up to him with two loaded pistols. Somehow they both misfired, so Andrew Jackson throws the guy down and beats him to a pulp with a cane until two of his aids move him away. People say he was insane. He’d just beat people with his cane. They were all scared of him.”
“That’s my ancestor,” said Collette.
He wasn’t from the same branch of the family that carried the pirate, but there was something seemingly equally bold and audacious about him, as any pirate.