Puck's 1st

Puck’s first birthday began with a boom – a pretty large boom originating in Illinois at 4:37am. 5.2 on the richter scale. It woke up Dad and Carrie, Carrie who almost unconsciously put on a hoodie and a pair of shoes and woke everyone in her stupor, calling for them to brace themselves in the doorway. Twenty seconds later, it was over. No injuries to report.
OLeif and Collette woke the happy Puck who was already standing in his crib grinning huge dimples. He was sung a round of happy birthday and then fed breakfast.
Over at the house under cool gray skies and slowly greening canopies, the winds were gentle, and rain was coming.
“Happy birthday, Puck!” he was greeted by everyone.
A home-made happy birthday banner hung from the ceiling in his honor. Meanwhile, things were busy as usual.
“Where’s the milk?” Joe cried, looking into the refrigerator.
“There’s a whole gallon in there.”
“That’s skim.”
“So?”
“It’s like water and powder.”
“Carrie,” Mom was saying, “I’d like you to move your things off of the table.”
“Mom!” Carrie whined, “We can’t leave anything out.”
“Yeah,” Rose squawked, “We should just make this house like a museum.”
“Mom, we really need more milk,” Joe was saying.
“I know. I’m going to get some more today.”
“Good,” said Carrie, “And while you’re at it, can you get ricotta cheese, that apparently doesn’t exist at Shop ‘n Save!”
She shot Joe a look. He had run errands for her Thursday evening and returned without the one item he could not find.
“They just don’t have ricotta cheese,” he said. “It’s not there.”
Around 10:15, an after shock. 4.5.
After that, Frances and Linnea took turns trying to fake each other out with self-made earthquakes.
That evening, after the rain had fallen all day, OLeif returned from work to spend some happy time with Puck. Then they lit a yellow votive candle, sang “happy birthday” to him, and helped him blow out the flame. Puck watched in awe, and with no understanding. He was more interested in his green beans and spaghetti.