Terrible Twos

Our first few weeks with Cassius have been a much different experience than the first few weeks with Maceo. While we are not very sure of the actuality of our memories of early Macers, it does seem to us that we spent lots of time and energy appeasing him. In addition, he didn't nurse and only slept on Kate, making life a bit difficult, especially for her. 

Cassius, on the other hand, is nursing well, and he sleeps pretty well, touch wood! We feel rather human, except on the weekends when Maceo is not at day care. For example, today, Saturday the 24th.

Our routine now is that Nick gets Maceo when the owl light turns green--6:15 or so. Then all four of us snuggle in the bed, and Maceo points out how tiny Cassius's hands are, and he gives him kisses, and he tells us about how he dreamed of deer and turtles. And he gives us each a color cupcake to be. "Mama is a pink cupcake, Maceo is blue cupcake, Papa is lellow cupcake. Cassius is red cupcake." Then, Mace and Nick go downstairs and play and go outside and have milk and coffee and recently, we look at videos of Maceo on the computer.

Kate tries to get some more sleep with Cassius sleeping on her or next to her.

Today, after all that and everyone getting up, we walked up to Rhode Island Ave and went to Flip It II Bakery. Maceo had bacon and some of Kate's pancakes and some of Nick's sausage gravy and biscuits and some chocolate cake! We walked over to the library and checked out a bunch of books and then walked home. We all sacked out for naps then, except for Kate who unfortunately could not fall asleep. Post naps, we went down to the corner where the storefront church was having a block party. Maceo wanted and didn't want to go on the moon bounce, and it was here that things started to get dicey. When we began to leave to go look at the nearby school construction site, there were tears about putting shoes on. When we got to the playground, and he couldn't do just as he wanted with the stroller, there was shrieking and screaming. After a quick talk and a snack of pretzels, he seemed fine and we went off to Shopper's Food Warehouse. As we pulled into the parking lot, he commented,"This where I eat cookies", a reference to all the goodies he gets at the store with his grandfather! Once in the store, he began to ask repetitively for cookies. He did get one, but it didn't help his mood, and he soon melted down into a shrieking, crying toddler. Nick took Maceo in his arms and pushed Cassius, who was being a dream in his stroller, and left the store to wait for Kate in the car. 

There was  a good deal of stern discussions with young Maceo. 

This was really the first time Mace has had a public outburst, and it was certainly the first time we've had to deal one with Cassius in tow. It made quite a difference! Now we fear the power of two.