Off roading--How I Began my Career as a Kids' Chauffeur

 As I posted before, the boys are now interested in BMX bikes and doing jumps. A friend alerted me to a website with all the relatively local bike trails and places to do off road bike adventures. One is a bike park up in South Germantown, MD, about 45 minutes away. So, last weekend, off we went.

The park has one part called a pump course where a rider can keep their momentum going by pumping their arms down on the handlebars as they descend small declines. The other part of the park is three parallel trails with a series of bigger and bigger jumps. It took both boys a little while to warm up to the jumps part, but eventually, they tried both courses and loved both.

Here's the pump course:

Cassius was the first to brave the jumps, but eventually, Maceo did, too, and in fact, Maceo got pretty good at taking the jumps. I am sure we'll be back here relatively often and soon.

(After I stopped filming, Cassius hollered from the ground, "I'm ok!")

More BMXcapades!

While the boys were off at their mom's, I decided to build another ramp for them. This one has a little curve to it, so it gives a bit of lift when they ride off it. In the BMX lingo, it's called a "kicker." We (by we, I mean I) took it across the street to the Divinity School to set up a two jump trail.

Cassius did get a little frustrated with his jumps off the kicker, but he's into it, and his persistent personality means he'll keep trying. My next goal is to have them create a whole circuit around the school, and then I can just have them cross the street and spend hours at a time being little racer daredevils.

How It Started/How It's Going

 We now moved from scooters to skateboards to bikes. I don't know where their interests will end, but it's getting expensive. Both boys want to do BMX tracks now, although when I suggest actually going to one, they get nervous and say they don't actually want to go.

But they are willing to work on jumps in front of the house just like I used to do when I was their age!

Skater Dudes Around the City

 Maceo and Cassius have gone pretty far in on skateboarding thanks to gifts of skateboards from Mamy and Maurice. We've now visited five (5) different skateboard parks in the DC area, and we've ranked them, too.

1) Walker Mills out in District Heights, MD. A really big skatepark with "street" elements like curbs to jump off and hand railings to slide along. It also has swimming pool-type bowls à la the 70s California skateboard culture. The best of both worlds.

2) Shaw Skatepark. This is the biggest skatepark in DC and it's not far from our house. This is mostly street type stuff--lots of ramps and benches/platforms to jump on and off.

3) The Langdon Skate bowl--This is a pile of old tires sprayed with cement to form what looks like a big empty swimming pool. It's nearly always deserted, and the boys like it. I like it because it's DIY and because it's close to home.

4) Here's a new contender--the RFK skatepark down at RFK Stadium in Capitol Hill. We went there yesterday. Here you can see Cassius, surrounded by activity, work tirelessly on a trick. His personality is pretty well suited for skateboarding!

5) Melrose Skatepark in Hyattsville--This one is also quite close to our house, but it's rather small and sometimes rather crowded. When it's empty, though, it's great! This is the first one we ever went to, so it has some sentimental value, too.

City Boys and Summer Bucket Lists

 It's not technically summer anymore, as you can tell from the last post about back to school. But at the beginning of the summer, the boys and I made a list of things we wanted to do over the vacation. Maceo had an interesting one that only a city boy would think of--he wanted to ride one of the electric scooters that are all over all metropolitan areas nowadays. So, I made an account, and yesterday we found a scooter in Brookland to try where no one was around.

At first, Maceo had a little trouble with controlling the throttle, so I had him, and then Cassius, stand on the scooter with me while I rode it a little to give them a taste of how it worked. Then, they zipped around on the sidewalk for a little while, super pleased with themselves. 

This morning, one of the first things Maceo asked me was, "Can we do electric scooter again today?" I've created a monster.

Peas in a Pod

 The boys' school is fully distance learning until the middle of November. (Mine is fully distance until at least the end of September, and then hoo boy, I hope I don't have to go back). Luckily, a good friend in the neighborhood invited us to be a part of a pod of families so that the boys a) would be able to have interactions with other kids every day, b) would have some peer pressure to actually do their school work, and c) would be out of the house 4 days a week so I can get some work done teaching my classes without having to oversee them taking their classes. We're a few days in and it's been great! They started on Monday at the Kings' house:

Here's 2020's version of the first day of school. Notice Cassius is
wearing an Alternative School shirt from around 1977.

Kelly was kind enough to send out pictures of the children doing their work at her house. 

2nd graders in their Zoom meetings.

Mr Casual takes part in class.

On Tuesday, I hosted. I was a bit nervous, but it turned out ok. There was only one episode of violence and Cassius felt very badly about it afterwards, the kids were great, I've decided perhaps daughters are better, and we all survived! 

Lesson learned: separate the young scholars in the future.

Mid-morning playing/burning off steam.

The "studious" 4th grade boys.

They look studious, but I learned that they join their meetings 
and then immediately start reading Big Nate comics on their iPads.

I'm pretty sure that's Big Nate on the screen
and not school work.

The boys will be rotating from house to house. It's just the beginning, but with tweaking and adjusting, it seems like it could work pretty well, and perhaps we'll make it to Christmas Vacation intact! 

Maceo on Laughing Gas

I'm just going to put this right here for your viewing pleasure:

Another Swim Meet

Maceo tried out a new stroke in this week's meet--the back stroke.

Look at that arm extension!

The exciting season is coming to an end with the divisional meet this weekend. Only the top two swimmers in an event are counted in the competition, but everyone gets to participate. However, as it stands now, Maceo is the second fastest in his age group in the breast stroke and the freestyle! So, I think he'll be one of the swimmers who counts along with his friend Wesley whom he's known since he was 4 months old or so.

Look at that form!

Look at that speed!

I made a little chart so Maceo could see his improvements in numbers--his freestyle time in the 50 meters has gone from 47.08 to 44.66 and his breaststroke from 34.68 to 29.88! It's pretty exciting and he likes being on the team so much that he said he'd like to do swim team this fall.

Sadly, Cassius does not like competing on a team even though he really likes swimming and swim team practice and he's gotten so much better in such a short time! He can even do a butterfly, and it's super cute because when he was showing his form to me yesterday at the pool, yes, he was really moving, but also his swim suit was a little big so with each dolphin kick, his half naked little bottom was poking up out of the water.

Alert! Alert! Second Swim Team Meet!

Just to keep you updated since there's so little sports to follow nowadays--

Maceo took part in two races this past meet--he came in second in his heat for the breast stroke, and he came in second to last in his free style heat (but first for kids his age as he was racing older kids). I'm hoping that tomorrow at the third meet, he'll take part in three events--either backstroke (which is what he wants to do and is signed up for) or butterfly which is what I think he'd do really well in. Either way is great, and he seems to really enjoy being a part of the team.

Cassius finally took part in a meet and won his free style heat! He has quite an impressive freestyle stroke. First of all, his arms stay almost completely straight, so they really slap down on the water with ferocity and make a frightful splash. Secondly, he heaves his head and shoulders out of the water to breath, although he does work to practice taking breaths on both sides. And third, he's so cute and small!

AND THEY'RE OFF!!! That's Cassius in lane 6.

Look at the effort! Look at the splash! He's speeding along!

Maceo in the breast stroke race.

Freestyling to victory! (Well, not victory this time, but some day!)

My neighbor Houston is already talking about college scholarships for the boys. He really is.

Swim Team has Begun!

We belong to a neighborhood community pool about 10 minutes from the house, and the pool has a super swim team. I mean, I think they're good swimmers, but what's really great is so many kids take part, the coaches are super nice and team-oriented, and Maceo and Cassius have friends on the team. We've wanted them to take part for the last few years, but the boys were too timid to commit to it. Until this year! Finally, now they both are on the team and they both really like it. Maceo especially is quite good, and Cassius just seems to have a great attitude at practice. They had their first meet last Saturday and they'll continue having meets pretty much every weekend. With COVID, it's actually ideal! Each team swims at their own pool, and then the coaches share the times for each event and the winners are determined. So, not only do the meets not last so long, Maceo and Cassius don't have to overcome the fear of swimming against strangers with lots of strangers watching. Both boys signed up for the free style race, and both boys were signed up by their coaches for the back stroke. Maceo did very well in his free style heat, winning it with the second best time for his age group on his team and coming in 4th overall! Cassius, on the other hand, refused to participate. Maceo also refused to participate in the back stroke. However, buoyed by Maceo's success, both boys eagerly signed up for the next meet. Maceo is doing free style and butterfly, and Cassius is signed up for the free style! So, perhaps we're on our way to being a sporty family!

Maceo with a very good start!

He's in the lead!

He's been working on a flip turn,
but decided not to try it in this race.

Maceo free styling to victory

Wet West Virginia

The first two days of our vacation were terrific. Wednesday was rather gray and wet, but we went to Dolly Sods for some hiking. We drove up and up and up because a friend told me at the top there are some relatively flat trails that suddenly open out and you can look east towards the Potomac River side or west on the other trails to the Mississippi side--it's the east coast continental divide! But we realized there would be no views for us. The top of the the mountain was wrapped in clouds.

Our lunch picnic at the top of the clouds.

 Maceo was not game for a hike, so Cassius and I left him in the car to build bear traps (?) and we walked off into the woods. It was quiet and misty and Cassius just chattttttttterrrred. It was very cute, but I did have to follow each of his steps or I'd die in hot lava and his opprobrium.

"And then, and then, step on this rock, and then come this way,
and WATCH OUT FOR THE LAVA!"

We returned home to the warmth and comfort of the house. The boys got way into playing Clue and reading their copies of Calvin and Hobbes. By the evening, the weather was nicer, and we watched a movie and ate popcorn.

Professor Plum's name elicited many giggles.

Just a lot of "Daddy, listen to this one."

The view from my bedroom.

The morning view from the deck/hot tub.

Wild and Wonderful West Virginia

The boys and I are out in West Virginia for a week's vacation. Through the website HomeExchange, I was able to find a free vacation house to stay in from Monday through Friday, so here we are! We left DC on Monday morning and drove to Seneca Rocks, a world famous rock climbing spot. I had been here last year, and I had noticed people swimming in the river, so the boys and I went looking for the beach. We found it and had a good time swinging on the rope swing into the water, skipping rocks, and swimming. It was a bit cold, but still nice and refreshing.

Maceo braving the cold and the rapids.

Warming up post-swim.

Then we headed to our house! (Here are some pictures from the house's website.) We settled in, unpacked, and had dinner and went to bed. Tuesday, I had planned for us to go hiking in Dolly Sods State Park, but there was rain forecast for Wednesday which was the day I thought we'd climb to the lookout post at Seneca Rocks. I figured Seneca Rocks would be terrible in case of rain, so we switched the two days. Before we left to go on our hike, Maceo insisted we go out kayaking on the big pond down below our house. It looked idyllic, but in truth the floor of the pond is shallow and quite muddy, and there was a bit of wind. So, we didn't stay out too long. Maceo was a bit worried and anxious at the push off into the water because he was alone in his kayak while Cassius rode with me. However, once we were on the water, Maceo did great, and despite some whining, he was able to pull his kayak both all the way down to the pond but also all the way back! Once we returned and cleaned off, it was time to go hiking. We drove the 40 minutes back to Seneca and climbed the mountain. The trail is only 1 mile long but 1000 feet up a mountain, so it took us about an hour to hike up. I was impressed that the boys made it!

On the way up!

At the top!

Heading back down.

 At the very top, one can clamber out onto the spine of rocks past the sign that says "Warning--15 people have fallen and died here since 1975!" Well, surprisingly, that got Cassius's attention, and he was much more spooked about rock climbing much further whereas Maceo seemed unfazed. Other people are more daring than we are!

Not my picture! (https://i.ytimg.com/vi/D5cSl8CZ_8Q/maxresdefault.jpg)

We hiked back down, and we headed home. Once back, we soaked in the hot tub, and then we got dinner ready. Tacos for Maceo and me and left over pizza for Cassius. We watched some Wallace and Gromit on the huge tv, and then roasted some s'mores on the back deck.

You may see Maceo's head in the tub and
Cassius's s'mores in his hand.

I was hoping to keep the boys up late to see the starry night, but both Monday and Tuesday night it has been cloudy, so the boys went to bed a little late but before the sun had set. However, the day was so tiring that they fell asleep with their lights on and books in hand before I could come back down to tuck them in! And then they slept in until 8 o'clock which is, I believe, a team record!

Ft. DuPont Mountain Biking

The boys and I returned to Ft. DuPont on this past Sunday to try the single track mountain bike track again. I was excited, and we got there early enough so that it wasn't too hot. Plus we brought a bunch of water!
The park is closed right now to cars, but open to bikes and pedestrians which was great for us because we could bike all over the streets once inside the park. We found our way on to the path, and it was really nice, although Cassius was a bit overwhelmed by the one big hill. We saw a cool skink, a box turtle, and a beautiful fawn. I made a little video with my handlebar camera to try to show you the different areas of the ride and the terrain we covered.

Scenes from DC

It's been a bit crazy around here what with the quarantine, school ending via distance learning, protests downtown, curfew, and quarantine still. But we have adapted and the boys and I are doing all right. It certainly helps having friends and family around.

There have been some haircuts--

Perhaps a more professional or at least seasoned veteran at the clippers here.

Birthday dinners, both at Mamy and Maurice's house for Maurice's birthday and at our house for Susan's.

We went over to Dad and Susan's for dinner the other night. Dad and Maceo made spaghetti a la carbonara, which was very good. And we had a mean croquet tournament.

And we've been visiting Rita's for ice cream!

I bought an inflatable pool for the back yard but it didn't hold air well. So the boys made do with jumping the sprinkler.

We made it one early morning to the skate park to beat any crowds.

 And we visited Fort Washington down south of DC on the Maryland side. The fort was closed, but the river was not!

I Scream!!!

Both Aunt Lucy and Mami suggested we try the NYT recipe to make ice cream in a mason jar. Now, I didn't have the smaller mason jar, so you'll see in Maceo's video what we used. But Maceo is waaaaay into making movies now, and both boys are way into ice cream, so here you'll see a blending of their passions.

A Trip to the Barbers' Shop

Boys Making Stuff

For the past year or so, Cassius has been sleeping with me, and I let him because he seemed to need it. But--he's not the easiest person to sleep with because he kicks and moves and grinds his teeth. So, in an effort to help him go back to his room, and to appease Maceo who would also like someone to sleep with (and thanks to Mamy's eagle eye on her neighborhood listserve), I got a free bunk bed for Cassius's room. This Sunday, I built a border to keep Cash from rolling out of the top bunk in his sleep and to stoke his enthusiasm, I let him spray paint it with his own original design. First, we put down painters' tape. 

Cassius designing an aesthetically pleasing work.

Cash generously allowed a collaborator to paint
the other side of the plywood.

Kids and barrier in place and ready for bed!

And then last night, they went to bed, no problem, and I didn't see them until about 6:30 in the morning!

Weekends Are Work

So, even during normal times, I felt like weekends were somehow harder to get through than week days. Something about being next to small boys at all hours makes me sleepy. But during quarantine, it's somehow more tiring? Is that possible?

Anyway, yesterday, Saturday, we were in the house and the number of activities skyrocketed. It was a lovely day, but a little cold, so the boys were happy to play in the house. And we brainstormed a bucket list of activities for the sunny days to come, so we had plenty of things to start doing and crossing off the list.

Cassius's first bucket list item was to "make forts of couch."

You might find a small boy in this photo.

Maceo wanted to get in on the action, too.

Maceo's in there somewhere.

The next thing we did was not on the bucket list, but we might add it. The McMurrers had given Maceo a macarons kit, so we made them. And holy cow, they were delicious.

Not perfectly beautiful, but so tasty.

 Maceo then worked on his video about solving energy waste. He was impressively proficient with adding text, sound, and music, though the throughline of the project isn't so well thought out.

Once the macarons were cooled, we were able to mix the filling, taste it, and then make the actual cookies.

The judges gave the macarons passing scores.

Then, it was time to get out of the house before we rubbed each other the wrong way once too often! We went across the street to explore one of our favorite places, the Howard Divinity School.

Some industrious folks had been busy building structures, and Maceo and Cassius were entranced. They worked on the huts, too, and loved it!

This quiet hang out lasted SO LONG!

Again, there are children in the photo, if you can find them.

When we came home, it was quiet time. I let them pass the hour silently reading in their forts, and I retired upstairs to take my afternoon nap.

All in all, a day chock full of good activities and good times!