Sick but Not Sick

About 8 days ago, Cassius was diagnosed with double ear infections. Poor little guy! He was pretty stoic about it, but the doctor prescribed amoxicillin and that seemed to be that. He was great at taking his medicine (Much better than Maceo this summer!), and we went on our way in life. But then he awakened one morning with a rash. That day, I got a call that he needed to be picked up from school because the rash had spread to his face, and so at lunch, I went and got him. We had a lovely time the rest of the day. We had already made brownies two days earlier from a mix Aunt Lucy had created for him for his birthday--

Carefully mixing and mixing, measuring and measuring.

Maceo was in charge of the fire.

Of course, there was some quality control tasting that occurred.

Careful! CAREFUL!!

Actual brownie eating occurred after bath time.

Cassius and I decided to make sugar cookies. First, we had to go to Grandpa's house to get another stick of butter. And check out his 42 pound pumpkin! Then, we got down to work. Cassius wanted to make them in various shapes, but I thought that the cookies would perhaps come out too thin that way, so we just did as the recipe said--make small balls and place them on the sheet.

Choosing all the shapes we ultimately wouldn't use.

Someone really likes exactness in his measuring.

He held this pose for me for about 5 seconds. Serious self-control!

Maceo, of course, had stayed at school. When we went to pick him up, Cassius kindly brought him a cookie to try. And we saved some batter at home, so he could make his own cookies. Which, of course, he did, along with some batter tasting. That afternoon at after-care, there were STEM activities. Maceo was very excited to share with us the different things he made. Here is a video of the things he created that day.

Now, both boys are quite interested in robots!

Finally, on Saturday, in an effort to both placate and feed the boys' interest in football, we went to a game at Howard University. They were playing Morgan State, a close-by rival. It was a cold, gray day, and still both boys were way into it, and they wanted to stay for all four quarters! We only could stay for three before we had to leave. When I texted later to let Maceo know Howard had won, "he replied, "Yay! Good old Howard." I think he's channeling some Henry Huggins from the Beverley Cleary novels, as that's all we listen to in the car nowadays.

H! U!
You know!
(That's the call and response of the fans and the cheerleaders!)

Sports, Sports, and More Sports

The boys continue to be totally into football. Everyday, we play football when we go outside, be it to get in the car to go to school or when we arrive at home after school. On the weekends, it's just football, football, football. The other day, I stole an idea from some friends of mine and printed out coloring pages for the boys. The subject? You guessed it--football. And they worked silently for about 30 minutes on them! It was glorious! 

They don't even know I'm there!

On Saturday, Maceo had his last soccer game. He is one of the better players on his team, and that has helped him to really enjoy the experience. In fact, in this game, he scored the game-winning goal!

Maceo is in there. You might be able to pick out some
of his hair and a little bit of his glasses!

Cassius, too, enjoys soccer games, but that's because he gets to play football with me and his friend Dominic and then he gets some of the team snacks after the game. Ah, well, at least he eats something while there!

Days Two (2) and Three (3)!

On Sunday, I was hoping to bring the boys down to the Air and Space for a DC tradition: "To Fly!", an IMAX movie that debuted 43 years ago, and I remember seeing it in my childhood and being thrilled by it. (Eventually, they have to go to Chincoteague and crab and see the wild horses, but it's winter now, so that's off the table for a few months.) Unfortunately, Cassius could not get himself together to clean his room in time, so now I don't know if/when we'll see it. Eventually, though, Cassius got clean up done, and instead of going to see a classic movie, we did a few chores. First, after lunch, the boys turned in reading sheets at a local book store in exchange for ice cream cones. (Cassius got cookies and cream; Maceo got lemon gelato.) From there, we went to the hardware store to get a new light bulb for Cassius's room. And then we went to the library where they had a book on hold for us. (Yes, yes, it's a football book.)

After quiet time, we watched football and had dinner. It ended up being a lovely day.

A quiet moment between the moments of madness. I just happened to walk in the
living room and found them curled up together,

On Monday, the boys went over to some visit some friends in the neighborhood, Carter (who is in Cassius's class at school) and Parker, who is Maceo's grade at school. (Earlier appearances here!) I dropped them at 9:30, thinking they'd walk home by themselves (a new big responsibility!) at 12:30 or so. On the way over, we passed some new kids in the neighborhood.

There goes the neighborhood. 

However, Kelly, P & c's mom, texted me saying there was a flag football get together over at Carter Barren park in NW DC and could the boys go? Sure, I said. (Perhaps the readers are aware that football mania has taken hold in our household?)

Not everyone is soooo into football.

Some folks are though!

Maceo scored 4 touchdowns! 

So, I went over and relieved Kelly at 3, the boys played till a little after 4, and then we headed back to our house. Guess what they went and played in the backyard! Baseball! So, that was good. The boys walked over to Parker and Carter's house on their own, and Kelly texted me that Maceo and Cassius were on their way back. They made it home, which was very exciting! 

We ate a nice dinner, took a bath, and the boys were in my bed for books at 7. Whew! It's been a long long weekend, but terrific, and we had a lovely discussion at dinner about all the fun things we'd done this weekend.

First Day of a Three Day Weekend

Whew! We got a lot done today!

Kate dropped the boys off at 8 this Saturday morning, and we had plenty to do! First, Maceo had a soccer game at 10. That meant, football with Cassius for at least 30 minutes! Maceo's team lost 4-3 on a last second goal (whatever, it's a kids' league where there aren't any standings and Maceo had a good time!). Cassius had fun punting and kicking and pretending he's also 8 years old.

After soccer, the boys and I went down to the Botanic Gardens to see the Patrick Dougherty installation. He's taken saplings of various kinds and bent them to create a sort of structure like a house. The boys played hide and seek in it while I walked around it taking pictures. It was a lovely piece, and there were lots of families enjoying the sunny fall day there.

Don't tell Cassius I'm hiding right over here!

We went into the Botanic Gardens and checked out their backpacks for kids they have there. In the backpacks are activities and experiments for the kids to undertake. We did two of the chapters in the activities book: we searched the first room to learn about cacao and bananas and bamboo, and then we went into the rain forest to learn about the flora there, sketching leaves, and searching for the "swiss cheese plant" among other things. The boys, especially Cassius, were way into it. 

Taking notes on the bamboo they had measured and studied.

Sketching leaves while on the canopy walk.

Final notes on the Swiss Cheese Plant.

From there, we went out for some Chinese food to give the boys a chance to practice some Mandarin. Maceo ordered all our food, ordered a soda, and asked the man for take out containers at the end of our meal to bring the leftovers home. Cassius ordered a soda in Mandarin, and he also took the money up to the cashier and spoke Mandarin with her. She was so entranced she came over to talk to both the boys in Mandarin. The highlight of the restaurant for the boys, though, was watching Maryland getting absolutely creamed by Ohio State in football on the tv while we ate.

"So, Maceo, how 'bout them Buckeyes?"

From there, we went to Union Market, a rapidly more fashionable quarter of the city that used to be rather industrial and lonely.

Once they start a punk band, I'll use this for the cover of their first album.

We went to experience an exhibit on the Arctic Circle. It was sensory immersive: the boys moved in front of a responsive screen to create aurora borealis, they saturated themselves in fog while wild animals populated huge projection screens around us, and they left the exhibit to pee.

It's just too realistic, this 4 D experience!

They told me the Arctic exhibit was their favorite part of the day, but we hadn't gone to watch high school football yet!

KIPP DC is ahead 35-0, and yet we still stood there in 40 degree weather to see the game.

Once home, we did the traditional one (1) hour of quiet time in our rooms, and then we made our way over to Dad and Susan's for dinner. Dad, Susan, and I had Thai spiced chicken, Maceo had non-Thai spiced chicken, and Cassius had a peanut butter sandwich. Mace beat Susan at dominoes, and Dad, Cassius, and I played Big Boggle.

OOOOoooo, Cassius, "stunts"? Pretty good!

We walked home in the cold darkness, went straight up to bed, and decided that tomorrow, we'll go see "To Fly" at the Air and Space Museum and start the whole adventure over again.

Teachers' Conferences, Days off, and words, words words

Lately, at dinner, the boys set the table, and Cassius goes to the games cabinet to get a game to play. He has really been all about words lately: Big Boggle and Scrabble are the games we play.The other night we were playing Scrabble and with just a little help, Cassius played all his tiles for a 50 point bonus!

B--R--A

N-C-H-E-D!

On Monday and Tuesday, the boys' school was closed for Student Goals Conferences. However, I had Parent/Teacher Conferences at my school on Monday, so Maurice and Mamy took the boys. They went out to Wheaton and had Chinese food (by which, of course, we mean to say Maceo tried various foods and Cassius ate the old standbys of apple sauce, apples, peanut butter sandwiches, and crackers). On Tuesday, I took the day off and the boys and I went to the Air and Space Museum. They spent their time doing what any boys would: video games.

Here they are playing a flight simulator game.
Maceo stayed here for about 45 minutes.

Cassius is here waiting his turn (again) for the Send a Rocket into Orbit game.

From the museum, we went to Chinatown for lunch. I promised the boy that if they spoke Mandarin with the waiter, they could order a soda. Maceo promptly ordered steamed chicken dumplings and a Fanta.

He was super helpful with getting Cassius a Fanta. He poured some unbidden to share with Cash,
he play acted as the waiter ("What can I get you, young man?") and he would go off looking
for the waiter to have him come and wait perplexed as Cassius buried his face in my arm.

Here's Cassius with his quesadilla, slices of pear, and of course, apple sauce for lunch.

Finally, as I paid the bill, Cassius mustered his courage to order a Fanta in Mandarin. He had to bring it with him because it was so late that we had to leave to make it to his conference at school.

Waiting made it that much tastier.

All Hallow's Eve

Cassius and Maceo chose interesting costumes this year, and happily (in Cassius's case) stuck with them in the buildup to the big night. In past years, I'd get Cassius's costume a couple of weeks ahead of time, and then, at the last minute, he'd change his mind, throw on a wild coupling of various different costumes from our dress up bin, and voilá, weird costume! This year, he decided to be a knight in armor (shining armor, that is!).

We ordered a helmet for him and Kate made his buckler and swords. Mace helped me to make his: he learned how to spray paint, and he was good at it.

He works hard for his money/costume.

A few days before Halloween, there was the annual block party on Dad and Susan's block. The boys brought their football and made new friends.

They play a game I called 500 growing up, but they call it Moss after star
wide receiver Randy Moss who never played during their lifetimes. It's a bit of a mystery to me.

Here's one young football player taking a short break to sneak a cookie in. 

After being told by Dad that Cassius had eaten several cookies.
"How many cookies have you eaten, Cassius?" I ask.
[garbled by mouthful of cookies] "One," he replies.

Charlie Brown asks the hard questions.

From the block party, we went to a bar to meet some friends to watch a Charlie Brown Great Pumpkin tv special which the boys enjoyed and which mystified me because how could this have ever actually been on tv? There were such slow moments, such grown up jokes, and such terrible animation that I wondered if the boys would like it. But that Schultz magic worked and they were entranced.

Halloween night, Kate brought the boys over for some neighborhood trick or treating.
Cassius was a knight in shining armor.

Homemade cardboard armor added at the last instant.

However, the crest on Cassius's knight's helmet went missing the night before, and he was devastated. It took quite a while for him to warm up to actually enjoying trick or treating, but after about 20 minutes, the little guy was having fun. 

Maceo was dressed in a design on his own--a reverse vending machine. Candy went in and nothing came out. It was a fun costume and people were baffled by it.

The night was quite warm and we kept running into friends in the neighborhood, which was lovely. Sadly, our next door neighbors the Bigelows were not out. Houston is getting ready for knee surgery, and they were busy preparing for that. Every other year, they have specially prepared bags for each boy, filled with a variety of yummy candies and snacks!