Sixteen

It was sort of rare for the young tyke, but he spilled tears at Cardinal Glennon for Appointment #16 since becoming a Snicketts. I wasn’t really sure why, but for some reason he got spooked. Fortunately the examination was brief, and he was restored to his mama, wet patches under his eyes. A few minutes later we were walking back to the parking garage, a much happier Yali babbling to me as I carried him to the car.

We had a couple of quiet hours at the Big House that afternoon. These are busy weeks. So Mom was back at the hospital with Grandma. Carrie-Bri and Francis were networking at class. And Linnea-Irish was training at Applebee’s. So Yali and I hunkered down for some lunch and a solid nap for Yali.

When Puck came out of the gym for carpool, Violet was already holding Yali on her hip, showing him off to a circle of girls in the hallway. The man of the hour. Puck wasn’t forgotten either. Violet helped him – a little too eager to tear into the little candy bag handed to him at the door to promote next week’s biathlon.

“Here,” Violet told him calmly, loosening the curly ribbon on the bag. “Just slip it off like this.”

“Oh,” Puck made a face, embarrassed.

With one boy, nothing surprises me; with two boys, nothing surprises me, and I don’t even get upset about it. This time, Puck had destroyed the bathroom and tub with blue shaving cream and all sorts of bath toy apparatus, just as I was getting Yali ready for bed. One of his experiments of course. Having two boys now also makes it one hundred percent certain that Puck cleans up all his messes, solo. After awhile, I saw him drawing up a sign at the kitchen table with paper and Sharpie:

“out of ordr”

Later, I found it taped to the bathroom door.

“It’s just a joke, Mom,” he assured me with a big grin. “Just a joke.”

CARDINALS:

Milwaukee: 6-3 win after Brewers’ pitcher hit in head by Pham line drive.

5 games up on Pittsburgh: 92 and 54; 16 games remaining.

Magic Number: 12.