Summer Break Day #27

Mom checklist for the day :

• Braid color-changing unicorn’s mane for daughter
• Pull tooth for youngest son
• Pick up Dairy Queen chicken strips basket and Dr. Pepper for oldest son’s second dinner

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Yali walked into the living room where Patience was busy fastening a necklace of many-colored yarn around my neck. Yali observed carefully…

“Patience, you do a lot of busy stuff.”

“I know. Hmm mmm.” Patience stepped back to also observe her work, then went back to fixing the yarn. “Can you please not bother me?”

Yali was not put off by this request. “You really do busy stuff. Are you making a necklace?”

“Yup. Don’t tie it really hard.”

“Just do it really gently,” Yali advised, beginning to sing something from “Frozen”. He took the roll of yarn from which I was knitting, stuffed it down his shirt, then smacked his lips and patted his stomach. A few moments later, he noticed scraps of yarn in blue, green, yellow, orange, and red resting in a pile on the floor. He immediately began to imagine they were worms.

Patience looked me carefully in the eye, adjusting the yarn for the final time. “You should always take it off at dark so you don’t sleep in it. You promise?”

“I promise.”

“Patience!” Yali declared, juggling the yarn scraps in his hand. “These are worms to feed the baby owl! Ooh! Squirmy!”

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That night from his bunk, Yali anticipated the arrival of the Tooth Fairy for the first time in his life. He knew the Tooth Fairy was Mama, but was also convinced Mama Tooth Fairy had wings. Patience, however, was even more bamboozled than her brother…

“The Tooth Fairy is going to take my tooth, Patience.”

“Who’s the Tooth Fairy? You mean that little boy?”

“Ha ha. Good one, Patience.”

“But why?”

“Patience, you are so cute, I want to eat you like ham.”