Independence Day!

Maceo and Nick blew out of DC on Sunday the 1st of July. Since they raced out of the house so quickly, Nick suggested to Kate that they stop at Dunkin Donuts on the way to Pat's house for breakfast. Kate let slip to Maceo while Nick was upstairs that this was the plan. When Nick came back downstairs, Maceo announced, "I need donuts!" "How did you know we were going to get some?" Nick sputtered. Kate asked Maceo, "What kind of donut do you want?" Maceo gazed at her for a moment, gauging the silliness of the question, and then he replied, "Dunkin Donuts!"

So, the two boys whipped across town to Pat and Maurice's house and they all began the drive north.

Sacked out on the way north.

At around 11:30, after lunch, Maceo fell asleep for 2 hours or so, and when he awoke crying, he was quickly subdued into a good mood. We arrived at Aunt Helen and Uncle Tod's house at about 3:45. Within an hour, Nick and Maceo were in the pool, even though it was raining. The general consensus was that it was warm enough. And that Maceo needed to get some exercise. He went to sleep just fine in the toddler bed, and the next day we went to the Berkshire Museum in the rain. There, Maceo got to see lots of animals, dinosaurs, reptiles, and fish. He very much enjoyed to dioramas and the taxidermy and especially the stools.

On Tuesday, the troupe headed to Amherst to see the McMurrers. Kate flew up to Hartford and was picked up there, and there was a great reunion at the house across the street from the McMurrers, where the visitors were all staying. It was a terrific house and well-suited for all our needs.

On Wednesday, a large number of Hanrahans and their families came to visit. Aunt Helen and Uncle Tod drove over from New Lebanon and Aunt Bea, Uncle Kevin, and Emmett Farley drove up from Pleasantville, NY for a huge and drawn-out lunch of roast lamb and lots of other goodies. We uncorked a number of the wines Nick had picked out at Costco, and they all were judged to be more than acceptable.

Nick's first attempt at a panorama of the family lunch,

On Thursday, the intricate dance called the South Amherst Fourth of July parade occurred. This consisted of children riding bikes, trikes, roller skates, scooters, and wagons around the village green. Over all the racing, an overbearing emcee demanded that we raise our hands for various activities we might have engaged in during the year. "Raise your hand if you were locked out of your house! Raise your hand if the EMTs came to your door!" This went on for a while, but we managed to ignore it and enjoy our post-parade picnic and free ice cream.

Relaxing post-picnic.

Bridget and Maceo hug it out on the 4th.

Friday was the beginning of the swimming. It had been stultifyingly hot all week, and Lucy, Bridget, Seamus, Kate, Nick, and Maceo piled into two cars to go to Lake Arcadia, a nearby swimming hole. There, we chased fish, swam, ate lunch, and rode the paddle boats, and just enjoyed ourselves thoroughly.

Picnic at Lake Arcadia!

 On Saturday, we again packed into cars, and we all drove the hour or so back to Aunt Helen's and Uncle Tod's to visit with them and with Nick's cousin Allen Burton, his wife Beth, and their four kids. A good deal of time was spent in the pool, and then we all sat down to a lovely meal en pleine aire. 

Sunday, we packed all of us, plus Kate this time, into the car and drove back to DC. Both up and back, we were pretty lucky with traffic, though we ran into more congestion on the way home. Maceo was a very good traveler, and we all were quite pleased to have made it back!

Monsters and boy parts

While on vacation in Amhert visiting Maceo's cousins (and, of course, Aunt Yucy and Unca Dan), Bridget and Maceo were out in the hot July sun in a kiddie pool trying to cool off.  Maceo was, as is his style, naked.  Bridget was in her swim suit. 

At one point, Maceo asked where Bridget's penis was.  I explained Bridget didn't have a penis; she was a girl.  He asked again.  I responded - again with Bridget very goodnaturedly giggling throughout this exchange.   Satisfied with the response, the conversation between he and Bridget proceeds as follows:

Maceo:  I have one penis.

Bridget:  All boys only have one penis.  Unless they're monsters!


Well said, Bridget. Well said.

Singalong

Maceo is a big fan of nursery songs. Sometimes he doesn't sing them; instead, he  declaims them as if he were a slam poet. "The ITsy BITsy SPIder went UP the WAter SPOUT." Sometimes he sings a song with syllables instead of words. "Bla bla/Bla bla/ Bla bla bla bla bla." (That's "Bah Bah Black Sheep", if you couldn't tell.) Sometimes he just sings them, but he doesn't know all the words. This leads to some amusing versions.

"The itsy bitsy spider went up the water spout.

Down came the rain and washed the spider out.

Up came the sun and dried up all the rain,

And the itsy bitsy spider went up the water spout.

Down came the rain..."

I think you can see where this goes.

Another version he has created:

"Old McDonald had a farm and Bingo was his name-o!"

Today, we heard a new song with a mistake in it.

"Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall.

Humpty Dumpty had a great time."

Who knew? HD didn't even see that fall coming.

Recent doings and news

School let out for Nick on the 14th of June. Vacation! However, Maceo still goes to school and Kate to work, so let's not rub anything in anyone's faces. Nick's first week of vacation consisted of a lot of Maceo time, however, as there were several doctor's appointments to go to. One was the audiologists's. There has been some concern that the fluid in Mace's ears is affecting his language acquisition. (Most of us believe that this is not a problem; Maceo is speaking more and more.) He had visited the same office in February, and the doctors told us to come back in June when the environmental causes of ear congestion would be less. He took the same tests that he had the first time, but with different results. The problems started in the sound room. Maceo sat on Nick's lap and was to be drawn to sounds on either his left or right. Then, when he glanced at the sounds, a bear on the left or a rabbit on the right would light up and move. The first time, in February, he loved it and spoke of the animals for months afterwards. This time, after the first movement, he turned and clung to Nick. After a few minutes of trying to restart the test, he murmured, "Bear is scary." Later, he said, "Rabbit scary." That ended the test. He now will claim he needs to go to the doctor's, often because he wants a haircut, and he mentions the two animals, but doesn't mention their level of scariness.