Patches the Pizza Man.
This morning had a cheerful beginning. Patches had crawled into bed with me at some point during the night and we both woke up at about the same time. It was a perfect opportunity for snuggly giggles, so we had some. Then we got up and headed downstairs for breakfast. We ordered pizza last night so that the boys would have something special since the girls got to go camping and make dutch oven pizza. I’d put away the left over pizza, but left the boxes out on the table. Patches saw the boxes and announced “Pizza!” He pulled the coupon sheet off the top of the box and studied the picture of pizza on it. He then walked over to the fridge where we have a Pizza Hut magnet. He pointed to the magnet, then to the flyer in his hand. “Pizza and pizza. There are two pizzas!” He held up two little fingers to emphasize his point.
We had leftover pizza for breakfast, which made us both happy.
After breakfast Patches wandered off to play and I wandered into my office to fill some book orders. Right now the process of fulfilling orders requires both my old machine and my new one. It’s a newly complex process and I was pretty focused. Patches appeared at my elbow. He had in his hands a small stack of little papers. They were the little white tabs which go inside binder separators. Apparently Kiki had some left over yesterday. I’m not sure whether Kiki gave them to Patches or whether he appropriated them, but he treasured this little stack of papers all day yesterday. This morning he informed me that he was a pizza man and the little papers were pizza orders. He was ready to go to his friend next door and play. I was distracted and not ready to walk him over, so I told him that he had to get dressed first. He accepted that and went off to play again.
I was deep in the printing of invoices when Patches appeared at my elbow again. This time he had a full set of clothes in addition to his pizza orders. I helped him change. Once dressed, Patches reiterated his request to go to his friend’s house. I figured that he’d earned it. So Patches the pizza man clutched his little stack of “pizza orders” and went to ring his friend’s doorbell. The friend was still in pajamas and couldn’t play yet, but this did not dent Patches’ irrepressably good mood. Instead he took his “pizza orders” and started back home. Every few steps he stopped to jump over or dodge an invisible obstacle. Sometimes there were shooting noises as well. A whole adventure happened in the space of two driveways and one short front walk. Apparently Patches is not just any pizza man. He is more akin to the Pizza Deliverator from Neal Stephanson’s Snow Crash.
We came home and I began this blog. I can still hear Patches over my head running from kitchen to living room and back. Apparently pizza delivery has never been so exciting as it is today.