Liquor Delivery

Maceo, Cassius, and I walked over to Grandpa and Grandma Sue's house this afternoon to drop off some wine and margarita bottles that we had bought for them. There appeared to be no one home, so I hid the bottles on the front porch. Maceo hollered up,"Knock on the door!" and I just stared at him. He yelled, "Knock on the door, please!", so I did. No one was there, which I told him as I walked down the walk to the two boys waiting in the stroller. "I knew it," said Maceo. "How'd you know?" I asked. "Because I am magic," he said calmly. 

South America and Discipline

Maceo is so enamored of his South America doll that he's been taking it to bed with him. Of course, this means that we have leverage with him! When I put him to bed the other night, I told him, "Be quiet now and go to sleep. If Mama or I have to come up here, we're going to have to take South America away." I closed the door and went downstairs. I was in the kitchen doing something when I heard a slight shriek from Kate in the living room. This was followed by her scolding Maceo, who had silently crept down the stairs and startled her. She took South America and took Maceo up to his room. He sobbed and sobbed, and eventually I went up to calm him down. I asked him, "What were you doing? I told you if we had to come up here, we'd take South America away." Maceo sobbed, "But you didn't say any words about sneaking out!"

Peekaboo!

South America

Almost every day, there's a little note in Maceo's notebook from school about his behavior. Most days, we get a shit sandwich: something good surrounding something shitty Maceo did. Often times, it's hitting or chasing or pushing or throwing something at another kid. Because we don't see any other notebooks, we fear that Maceo is the only kid at school to do this bad behavior. Recently, we instituted a program to help motivate him to behave better. Each day he came home with a clean rap sheet, we would move a jelly bean from one glass jar with 10 beans in it to another. When he had moved all 10, he would get a prize. Well, guess who got a prize!

The answer is the pleased and proud boy in the picture, if you weren't sure. And if that's not cute enough, Maceo is convinced his action figure's name is South America. (Also, hulk's name is Croco man and he has "big green muscles and purple underwear." Now you know.)

IT'S CANDY!!!

Somehow we came into possession of a bag of candy. Perhaps it was at Easter. We keep it in a cabinet out of the kids' reach. Both boys really like candy, especially jelly beans, so we are able to use it as a carrot (a sweet candy carrot) for good behavior. The other morning, Kate left early to go teach aerobics, and so the boys and I were eating breakfast, playing, making a mess (the boys), and cleaning up (me). At some point, the boys ran through the kitchen and into the powder room just off the kitchen. They closed the door and it got very quiet. "Great," I thought. "I can get some dishes washed and put stuff away! It's so great that they are able to play by themselves!" Unbeknownst to me, Kate had moved the candy from the high cabinet to a low cabinet. Beknownst, now, to the boys. After too long a period of silence, I went to the powder room and opened the door. Two quiet boys looked up at me, mouths working on candy, the bag in Maceo's hand. Cash had a thin stream of chocolate drool running down his chin. He was quite mad when I took the bag and followed me yelling into the kitchen.