Maceo attempts an unequal exchange of cake

One day when both Cash's daycare and Yu Ying were closed, Pat & Maurice took Mace and Cassius for the whole day.  A friend of Pat's wife had baked Pat & Maurice a delicious, but small, Basque cake-  just two large pieces which Pat & Maurice cut into four small ones, two for the boys and two for them. Maceo gobbled one and then, since Cash had no interest, gobbled the other, all but a small bite. Pat ate hers. Maurice had not finished lunch and so had not turned to his piece of cake. 

Maceo picked it up and tendered his remaining bite of the second small piece to Maurice saying “Here Maurice, you can have this piece and I can have the other (big) one.” 

No dice, said Maurice. 

"But Maurice," said Mace, “friends are supposed to share.” He was smiling when he said this and it was funny. They laughed and Maceo ate his small piece without complaint. 

Maceo Memorizes Peter & the Wolf

Driving from dropping off Cash at St.Anns to take Maceo to Yu Ying, we are of course listening to Peter and the Wolf. After the part where the wolf has come, the cat goes climbing up the tree. I see Maceo miming this in the back.

Then, David Bowie says, "This is where things stood. The cat is on one branch in the tree. The bird is on another." In the pause that follows, Maceo says, "Not too close to the cat." Which is just what Bowie then says.

Cassius says

Cash has the following vocab:

Agua

That

Cat

Dog

Book

Brother

He's a genius, I tell you!

Peet-Ah!

Maceo is waaaaay into "Peter and the Wolf", which we have narrated by David Bowie. We listen to it during dinner, during play time, and especially in the car. Each morning, I strap the two boys into the car and we're off to the Brit explaining which instrument is which animal. Mace listens and so does Cash, and the ride is quiet. Every so often, there's a voice from the back: "The wolf is a Chinese oboe." No, Maceo, the wolf is a French horn." No, Daddy, it's French hoon." Or when Bowie says, "Peter pulled the rope tighter!", Maceo asks, "Why he say 'tigh-ah'?" I have to explain that Bowie is English and that's his accent. "But I'm English," said Maceo. "No, you're American." "But I speak English!" rejoined Maceo.

School's Out!

Monday, Columbus Day, school was closed, and we hosted Maceo's friend Wesley for the day. We went by metro to the Museum of Natural History. Both boys were excited for the metro ride, probably more than any other aspect of the day. We saw stuffed animals and skeletons and we went to the Insect Zoo where the boys shrieked inside a termite mound and saw a hissing cockroach and a huge prawn. The next day, school was closed for parent/teacher conferences. Maceo and Cassius spent the day at Mami and Maurice's house. Wednesday, school was closed again for parent/teacher conferences, which Maceo, Kate, and Nick attended. Maceo apparently is quite good at languages and getting better at not pushing and hitting. After conferences, Maceo's friend Patrick came for the day. Nick and the boys took the bus to the National Geographic museum to see the exhibit on dinosaurs. When we came out, a huge thunderstorm was brewing, terrifying Maceo. We rushed to the metro. When we got to Brookland, it was pouring. We waited for the bus and rode home for lunch. Naps followed

Cash drank too much

Drinking buddy.

A video posted by Nick Loewen (@nloewen) on Oct 10, 2014 at 4:09pm PDT

Dinner time

Sunday, we awoke from naptime and decided to go to Georgetown to see the river and have an outing. We saw ducks and geese and walked up and down the river walk. After, we went to Trader Joe's and Taylor's for subs. Cassius and I went grocery shopping while Maceo and Kate went for the sandwiches. When Cassius and I joined up with them, Maceo was munching on bbq chips. He shared with Cassius and they both liked eating them. On the way home, from the backseat, Maceo commanded, "Smell my finger. Smell my finger cause it smells like chips."

A little game of catch after school

Don't Cry, Poppa

Maceo learns the art of comedic timing and telling the entire joke.

I worked with Maceo after school to learn his first knock-knock joke.  Appreciating its sophisticated level of humor I'll save for another day.  After much repetition, Maceo understood his role in telling the joke and the expected responses to get to the punchline.  So, when Nick came home, it went something like this:


Maceo:  Poppa. Knock, kno---no, wait.  I say who's there. No, wait, I say 'knock-knock." And you say, "Who's there?"
(Me, to Maceo:  you say knock, knock).
Maceo: Knock, knock.
Nick:  um, who's there?
(Me, to Maceo: now say 'boo.')
Maceo:  I say "boo."
Nick: Boo who?
Maceo:  I'm all done.

It's  a work in progress.

Shady Playground redux

Friday, Nick got out of school early, so he was able to pick up both boys from their schools. Normally, during the volleyball season, Kate gets them. Nick got Cash first, and then went to Yu Ying for Mace. His first two weeks have gone surprisingly well. Not only have there been no tears, Maceo has even expressed that he likes the school! The one caveat is that his teachers, in the notes they send home with him each day, have said he pushes while in line. We've been talking to him about being nice and patient, and Friday, the notebook said he'd done well. We never get this much news from Maceo. From him, we get, "I played on the fire truck in the playground." "Who'd you play with?" we ask. "I don't know his name," he says. Anyway, we left Yu Ying and went to play at the Shady Playground. (Alert readers may recognize the name!) Before leaving school, Mace wanted to visit the bathroom. We went to one, but that one was under construction and thus scary. We went to another, but Mace wanted the other one further down the hall. Trying not to cramp his potty style, Nick complied. But upon entering the bathroom, Maceo wanted only to wash his hands. Soon after arriving at the playground, (you know what's coming), Maceo said, "I have to poop." So, he and Nick went over to the fence and the bushes and he pooped while Cash wandered around in the woodchips, falling only occasionally. After that, there was a lot of playing, and Cassius tried a brand new slide, much to both boys' delight. 

Ni hao

On Tuesday, September 2, 2014, Maceo joined the ranks of about 40 other pre-K3ers who had little clue that learning those small words, ni hao, was just the beginning of a grand, but in the spirit of honesty, occasional tear-filled adventure.

The night before school started, I had fits of insomnia and late-to-class frantic dreams.  Luckily Maceo picked up on none of the nervous energy that surrounds a first-born getting all sorts of big and grown up and slept like a rock and asked for pancakes for breakfast as if his parents, I mean, his entire world was not changing on this very day.

But, the first day of school came with the standard amount of stalling and harassing of Cassius that all other days bring so we took this as a good sign.  As eager parents, Nick and I both drive our cars to Yu Ying, the Chinese immersion charter school that we had the amazing fortune to get into after a harrowing and stressful spring researching schools in DC for Maceo.  We get there so damned early we have to kill about 20 minutes on the playground which seems to bother, well, no one in our party.

Maceo is cool and relaxed when it's time to enter and we head in, en masse, with the hordes of other eager parents and withholding-judgment-on-the-situation-preK3ers to find Maceo's cubby and classroom.  Maceo's confident where his room is as we had visited it at the open house the week before and we are greeted by Miss Mini, Maceo's lead teacher, and Ms. Zhang, the assistant teacher, whose enthusiasm toward all of their new pupils was so heartening as a parent new to, well, all of this.

Maceo immediately went for the trains and almost couldn't be bothered to say goodbye; I could not have received a more clear cue and was off the school grounds within 60 seconds, praying I did not just delude myself into thinking he was happy to be left.

But, it appears, he was happy to be left.  Or rather, there were no tears or accidents in his first 5 hours in preschool and thus we shall consider this day a success.  Ice cream rewards at Rita's for both mom and Maceo were enjoyed before we got home at which point Maceo passed out for two hours.

When asked if he wanted to go back tomorrow, he simply said "yes."  And so it was written.

Slip Slidin' Away

Cassius and Maceo are interacting more and more each day. As Cassius becomes more able to play and do some of the physical things that Maceo does, Maceo becomes more interested in interacting with him and playing/knocking him over. Here, Cash has just learned how to use the slide at the playground across the street, and Maceo has a sort of protective and involved attitude towards Cash's progress.

Swimming at PG Pool

We are members of a less and less hippy dippy pool just over the DC line in MD. Most of the adults at the pool have at least one tattoo, and many have been members for years and years, dating back to when it was not a desirable place to be for many. Now, the waiting list to join is nearing 1,000, and we are lucky to have joined three years ago before it was impossible to get in. Maceo has basically learned to swim here, and Cash is totally at ease in the toddler pool, though he gets a bit upset soon after going in the big pool.

Rainy Day Excursion

Pretty much right when Nick went to pick up the boys, the rain stopped and the sun came out. It had been raining all Tuesday, but now there was a chance to get the boys out in the fresh air. We took Maceo's bike, which was given to him by Bridget, and Cash's push toy and went for a walk around the block to the Otis St complex. There's a beat up playground there, a football field and basketball courts, a track around the field, and some tennis courts. That was our destination. Nick could let the boys move around freely and safely. We did explore the track, replete with big puddles and mud (both of which were attractive to the two boys) and there were tantrums, though you won't see them here.

Dinner discussion

Maceo: Papa, I kill my hot dog and I kill you!

Nick: What does that even mean?

Maceo: I don't know. 

Boxcar Cassius channels Eeyore

Once again, the cheapest thing in the house proves to be the best toy. Maceo received a sleeping bag in the mail, all fancy and personalized with his name. But Cash was much more into the box. He went all Eeyore on it, putting his ball in it and taking it out, pushing the box around, and generally just crowing to anyone around about how awesome it was. (If you remember, Eeyore was given an empty jar of honey and a popped balloon, but he thought it was great because he had a place to put his piece of balloon rag.)

I scream, you scream...

Soon after this, Cash did scream when he fell and busted open his lip. He was bloodied but fine.

The Beauvoir Slide

Summer Doin'

We are members of a local private pool club. It's just over the line in MD, and it seems that everyone there has little kids, and most of the parents have a tattoo. So, Kate and I are taking the plunge! No, actually, another dad there and I were commenting on it, and we came to the conclusion that soon it's going to be hip to NOT have a tattoo and we are very avant garde.

Because I am on vacation, most days I pick up the boys, and most days we head to the pool, to be met later by Kate. There is a little kids pool and a regular pool. When I am alone with the boys, I tend to stick to the little pool, holding on to Cash while Mace runs around and jumps and splashes and swims. He is pretty much independent in the little pool. We do spend some time in the big pool, until Cash freaks out a little. It's hard to manage both of them in the water. Maceo is getting to actually swim, though. Today, at his friend's birthday party at the pool, he showed off his surface dives, which none of us knew he could do. I would submerge myself at the bottom, and Maceo would swim over and dive down towards me. Then, I would grab his hands and pull him further down. We'd both come up and he'd ask to do it again.

A short list of Cassius' accomplishments by 8 months of age

To Cassius -

Because we did this for your older brother, it's only fair that we do it for you.  To date, which is just past 8 months to the day, here is a list of things you are doing either poorly, in a mediocre fashion, or like a boss.

1.  You eat like a boss.  You want cereal and avocado and applesauce so badly you grab the spoon on its way to you to cram it into your mouth faster. Then you chew the spoon as if it had nutritional value.  You start to fuss a bit if we don't have rapid spoon deployment of food/reloading of food quickly enough.

2.  You roll over poorly.  In fact, you barely roll over.  You are crawling and you have the ability to roll over (in fact, you did it several times when you were 2 months old) but you seem to choose not to. And that's cool.

3. You're really good at being fat.  We mean, you wear it well. Your head is round, your cheeks are sweetly full, and your fingers, hands, and wrists almost seem swollen with pudge.  You have no fewer than 4 knee folds but no actual kneecaps as that is going to take a bit more time biologically speaking.  Your inner thighs touch, a no-no for swimsuit season. 

4. It's hard to upset you.  Your older brother tries very hard at times to do so but your good mood perseveres.  You want to smile at people.  And sometimes the door, or a ray of sunlight in the living room, but mostly you direct your two-toothed gummy smile at people.

5. You have an adulterated crush on Maceo.  Even when he tries to scrub your head with the bottle brush, you smile through the pain and hope he'll clean your back afterward.  We now give you and Maceo baths together.  Even when he splashes you in the face with water, your eyes turn a little red and a worrisome expression crosses your face but you smile at Maceo anyway.  That's love.  You giggle at almost anything Maceo does and you laugh for him in a way you don't laugh for us.  Yes, we are slightly jealous of our 3 year old's ability to entertain you.

6. When we pretend to eat you like an ear of corn, you are delighted beyond belief. 

7.  In turn, you seem to enjoy eating my face with your gummy mouth.  You don't like Poppa's bearded face. It's bad tasting.  I foresee a time in the near future, a future that contains more teeth, in which I won't find this as charming as I do now. But, for now, eat away, Cash.  It's perversely a very endearing move on your part.

8.  Stats-wise, you weight about 20 pounds, perhaps 21 at this point.  You are 1.5 inches shorter than Maceo at this age but the same weight.  See item #3 about being good at being fat. 

Latest news...

Maceo seems to have passed this phase, but as Joni Mitchell pointed out, seasons go 'round and 'round, so soon enough, we'll have Cash asking us lots of questions, too. Last night, Maceo stood at the top of the stairs and yelled down to Kate, "Mama, do you know who this is?" "Who is it?" she replied. "It's the Maceo!" And he went down to find her. And here you have it: inaugural footage of Cassius learning how to ambulate, sorta. He tends to keep his right leg bent, doing nothing, and straightens out his left to push along. This unbalances him, so he topples over. Plus he gets tired quickly and can only go a few feet at a time before sitting on his (substantial) haunches and clapping. Or falling forward to examine the ground verrry closely.

Stunt man extraordinaire

Stunt man extraordinaire!

Ice Slide

An accident

Tonight, the timer went off and we told Maceo to go try to pee on the potty. We are well into week two of working on peeing in the potty, and he's doing very well. He didn't want to try, and we didn't push it, though we did ask him a few more times to go try. He stood in the kitchen and held onto the edge of the sink and sang a little song while he jumped up and down. "I. Don't. Have. Toooooo. I. Don't. Have. Toooo." After a few rounds of this, he stopped and peed on the floor.

Ha HA!

The other night at the table, Maceo and Cassius were making eyes at each other. Cassius started to smile and Maceo laughed. Kate said to Maceo, "He thinks you're funny!" Maceo replied, "I am funny."

Love is a many splendored thing

Putting Maceo to bed one night, Kate leaned in close and said, "I love you , Maceo." Maceo looked at her closely and said, "I like your nose. Whatchu like?"

Blizzard of 2014

We just got about 4 inches of snow yesterday, which is really the most snow the boys have ever seen, and it's probably the only real snow Maceo remembers seeing. We went out several times to sled, and I tried two different ways of doing slo-mo of the action.

Various Christmas Videos

In the following video, you will see where Maceo demonstrates his fear of Santa, some of the presents he received, and Cash eating a toy.

Why?

Maceo is getting a lot of mileage out of questions. One set of questions is to look at a variety of things (Christmas lights, trucks, donuts in a book someone gave him (cough*McMurrers*)) and ask, "Which one you like?" He isn't really even that interested in your answer, but merely in posing the question and telling you his choice. "Maybe I like the yellow one," he'll say. He will also ask Cash which one he likes. Those responses generally involve clumsy grabbing and stuffing of the closest thing into Cash's mouth. He also has begun the ever-exciting "Why?" game. One day, on the drive home, it went something like this: M: "Papa, where's Mama?" P: "Downtown." M: "Why?" P: "Because that's where her office is." M: "Why?" P: "Because that's near where the other people she works with also work." M: "Why?" P: "Because it's better that way." M: "Why?" P: "Because it's more efficient." M: "Why?" P: "Because if people are closer, than they can spend more time working and getting things done. M: "Oh, ok." Sigh.