Short Weeks
Another four-day school week – scratched down to three by the snow dumping on the other side of the river. Puck was swinging from his bunk bed asking me slews of questions while I dressed Yali for the morning.
“Mom? How come you didn’t take me to Colombia with you?”
“You’re a blonde-headed American boy. You could have been kidnapped.”
“Yeah, but when I get mad I get very strong.”
“So you think you could fight your way out of it?”
“Yeah. I’m like the Hulk when I get angry.”
“Well, maybe some day when you’re older, we can bring you both back to visit Colombia.”
“But I am NOT going to dye my hair black.”
On that note, we left for school.
Yali likes to linger in the hallway after we deposit Puck in the gym for morning carpool. Lately he whinnies at the horses, flaps his hands at the butterflies, or grins back at the skeleton on the current 2nd grader’s book reports stapled to the wall boards. Today he added to his adventure by crawling under the lost-and-found table to retrieve a large Cheetos box Puck had left there on Tuesday. But we had an appointment at the Big House for another podcast recording, so we left a few minutes later.
Upon arrival, Irish greeted Yali with a fresh sheet of bubble wrap before she left on her daily errands. Mom read a stack of books to him. And there was a bunch of bananas in the pantry just waiting for his eager little hands. This kid lives the life.
The afternoon was cold up at school, surprisingly cold. I ended up keeping an eye on four ragamuffins for about an hour or so, happy to be done with another school week. So they celebrated on the playground together by spitting popcorn kernels into the air, screaming like babies, and throwing large chunks of snow onto the school roof.
Come about 4:45, Puck settled himself into a large green beanbag chair in the classroom courtyard while Oxbear and I caught up on his status in Multiplication and Cursive – yes, they still do teach this subject in private schools.
Meanwhile Yali enjoyed dinner at the Big House and ten fresh raspberries to stick on his fingers for dessert.