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Battles, Bruises, and a Birthday
Carver is still an early riser. He did well waiting until around 6 for a while there, and then we changed the clocks. On Friday morning, it was my turn to get up with him. As I emptied my water bottle from the night, I noticed a dark spot contrasted with our kitchen’s light floor. Closer inspection revealed that the spot was in fact a scorpion! We had heard that they are one of the unfortunate consequences of living in El Paso, but we had never actually seen one. I wished very much for a moment that I had put shoes on before leaving the bedroom, and then made sure Carver was clear of the kitchen, while I tried to come up with a quick plan. As I approached the fiend to dispose of it, it outsmarted me and scurried under the dishwasher.
I spent the rest of the morning in a minor state of anxiety, and made sure to keep my eyes on the floor in case of a blitzkrieg. We opted not to inform Avey of my little encounter, lest she never enter the kitchen for the remainder of her life. Once she was safely away at school, I took out the dishwasher and coaxed the pest out into the open where we had our final face-off. I was eventually crowned victor.
Avey rented Kung Fu Panda from the library last week, and Carver has caught martial art fever. I remembered that I still have a set of escrima sticks from my Tae Kwon Do days, so I handed him one to see what he could do. He turned out to be a natural:
I’m not sure where he learned to say “trouble”, but it sure fits!
In the last bit of news from this week, I had yet another birthday. It was less traumatic than other years, perhaps because I am slowly running out of the energy to resist the aging process. I am slowly accepting my fate to be middle aged. I received wonderful gifts, and a lot of (good) attention from my kids and wife. My aunt in town baked me a delicious cake, we tried out a local restaurant with amazing food, and we actually had a date to see Ender’s Game (very well done). I still aged, but at least I had fun doing it.
