Friday Observations by Mami

Tuesdays with Mami, where were quite the regular activity a few years ago, have turned into Fridays with Mami in which Mami and Maurice take both boys after their half-day at school concludes at 12:30p.  It's a tender thing to hear a grandparent's observation of how they observe your own children changing and growing since sometimes it can feel as though they are only regressing.  I wanted to capture these from an email Pat sent us after one particular Friday afternoon in March of this year:

Cash is still a baby in many ways, I can fold him into my arms, snuffle his neck and make him to dissolve into giggles of joy. Maceo is getting gangly and grown-up to a degree, but to my delight he is developing a great sense of humor. He really gets jokes.

Today we read a book about Mercy Watson, which I’d read years ago to Shay and Bridget. It’s charming and in it, the pig, Mercy, is comforted by buttered toast — lots of it. Today when we returned from Republic after reading Mercy, Maceo asked for pasta with lots of butter. I asked him if he were Mercy Maceo. He loved it! 

He also has fun with the way the geese gaggle in “Charlotte’s Web” and he and I have talked like geese, though he instigated it. Much of that goes over Cash’s head, and it’s fun to banter with Mace.

Maceo must have spent in all an hour and a half playing with dinosaurs in Fritzie’s yard on Willow, long a favorite stopping place on the way to ice cream/gelato in downtown Takoma. He has them tell stories, talk to one another, duke it out; and he’s been doing this for as long as I can remember. Maybe the last line in "Charlotte’s Web" was written for him: “It’s not often that someone comes along who is a true friend and a good writer…"

Behavior Note for Maceo

I'm just going to leave this right here precisely the way we received it from Yu Ying:

A new note has been added for your child Maceo Manolakos-Loewen: Inappropriate Behavior on Apr 26, 2018 at 12:25 PM. 
Amy Quinn wrote: 

Maceo was involved in an incident today at lunch. This included playing a game called "Smash your butt" and then yelling directly in another student's ear "Bow-wow-wow-wow". The other student was not happy to be included in the 'game'.
Maceo went to the other student and apologized for the yelling.

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Amy Quinn

Location: Lunchroom on April 26, 2018.

Sincerely,
Washington Yu Ying PCS