Cassius!

Cassius A somewhat brief summary of the way you chose to arrive: On Sunday, August 4th, 2013, you had clearly decided you wanted to join our family. But, perhaps, given your youth, you didn't have all the tools to tell us you were ready a few days ahead of schedule and with no signs of labor. So, while your older brother and your poppa were at Kenilworth Gardens, I drove myself to the hospital for a quick check-in with the midwives to make sure the two or three odd contractions I had had the night before were nothing more than a little indigestion from eating two desserts after dinner on Saturday, an all-too common practice for me by the end of my pregnancy with you. That was around 10am. After a bit of waiting and some disjointed conversations between nurses, doctors, and the midwives, all of the dots were connected abruptly for us when I was informed around 12:30p that, simply, you needed to come on out. And, fast. So, Maceo was whisked to Mamy's house and your father rushed to the hospital and I was rushed into the OR and you arrived to us via c-section at 1:44pm. Et voila! If this is a sign of your future efficiency, I'm loving this trait of yours already! And I promise not to blame you too, too much for the pain of recovering from a c-section. You weighed 6 pounds, 13 ounces, and measured 21 inches in length, almost the exact same size as your big brother. But that will be the last comparison I make between you and your older brother as I recognize you are separate and unique creatures and I will love you both for your differences. And by last comparison I mean the first of many.

Terrible Twos

Our first few weeks with Cassius have been a much different experience than the first few weeks with Maceo. While we are not very sure of the actuality of our memories of early Macers, it does seem to us that we spent lots of time and energy appeasing him. In addition, he didn't nurse and only slept on Kate, making life a bit difficult, especially for her. 

Cassius, on the other hand, is nursing well, and he sleeps pretty well, touch wood! We feel rather human, except on the weekends when Maceo is not at day care. For example, today, Saturday the 24th.

Our routine now is that Nick gets Maceo when the owl light turns green--6:15 or so. Then all four of us snuggle in the bed, and Maceo points out how tiny Cassius's hands are, and he gives him kisses, and he tells us about how he dreamed of deer and turtles. And he gives us each a color cupcake to be. "Mama is a pink cupcake, Maceo is blue cupcake, Papa is lellow cupcake. Cassius is red cupcake." Then, Mace and Nick go downstairs and play and go outside and have milk and coffee and recently, we look at videos of Maceo on the computer.

Kate tries to get some more sleep with Cassius sleeping on her or next to her.

Today, after all that and everyone getting up, we walked up to Rhode Island Ave and went to Flip It II Bakery. Maceo had bacon and some of Kate's pancakes and some of Nick's sausage gravy and biscuits and some chocolate cake! We walked over to the library and checked out a bunch of books and then walked home. We all sacked out for naps then, except for Kate who unfortunately could not fall asleep. Post naps, we went down to the corner where the storefront church was having a block party. Maceo wanted and didn't want to go on the moon bounce, and it was here that things started to get dicey. When we began to leave to go look at the nearby school construction site, there were tears about putting shoes on. When we got to the playground, and he couldn't do just as he wanted with the stroller, there was shrieking and screaming. After a quick talk and a snack of pretzels, he seemed fine and we went off to Shopper's Food Warehouse. As we pulled into the parking lot, he commented,"This where I eat cookies", a reference to all the goodies he gets at the store with his grandfather! Once in the store, he began to ask repetitively for cookies. He did get one, but it didn't help his mood, and he soon melted down into a shrieking, crying toddler. Nick took Maceo in his arms and pushed Cassius, who was being a dream in his stroller, and left the store to wait for Kate in the car. 

There was  a good deal of stern discussions with young Maceo. 

This was really the first time Mace has had a public outburst, and it was certainly the first time we've had to deal one with Cassius in tow. It made quite a difference! Now we fear the power of two. 

The Daily Digest

Most days this summer look like this. Maceo's owl turns green at 6:12 and he shouts to us, "Owl green!" Most mornings, Kate goes in and gets him and changes his overnight diaper. They often have a conversation about Maceo's dreams and they often are this "What did you dream about?" "Airplanes and cruise ships and helicopters and trains!" Soon, they come to bed and we all snuggle for a little while. Lately, Maceo has become bossy. "Papa! Get up and put on shirt. I want go downstairs." We all traipse downstairs and have some food and Maceo does what he calls a "milk snuggle." This entails sitting in one of our laps in an armchair and looking around while drinking milk. Kate leaves by 7:15 and Maceo and Nick leave by 7:45. Sometimes they bike to daycare, and sometimes they drive. Along the way, there is road construction going on. If they are biking, Maceo directs the way. "Go this way. Go alley." Eventually, we make it to construction and count the diggers. On bike, we are free to watch for awhile, but then either way, we continue on to school. Lately, there has been a tall crane at the school for use in fixing the walls of the building. This has made drop off very easy, as all the boys are happy to go off and stand on things to look out the window at the crane and possibly the men working. Kate works all day and Nick does some chores and sometimes naps. The pergola over the back deck should be finished in the next day or two. By 3:30, Nick goes to get Maceo and they continue on, weather permitting, to the PG pool where they swim and play in the sandbox until Kate shows up. If there's been enough foresight, Maceo gets his dinner there. At 6 or so, we leave and come home and Maceo often gets a bath and is in bed for books by 7. Lately, he has been more independent and sometimes insists that he read one book and the parent read another. Or he'll read the book to the parent. There's not as much parent reading to the kid as there used to be, sadly. A drink of water and a towel across the sheet (he's had a cold lately and he wants the towel to keep the sheets dry!) and he's off to sleep. He has adapted well to the big boy bed, and he rarely wakes during the night and he seems to go right to sleep when we put him down. We are very lucky in that regard. Lather, rinse, and repeat, and you've got yourself our week!

Independence Day!

Maceo and Nick blew out of DC on Sunday the 1st of July. Since they raced out of the house so quickly, Nick suggested to Kate that they stop at Dunkin Donuts on the way to Pat's house for breakfast. Kate let slip to Maceo while Nick was upstairs that this was the plan. When Nick came back downstairs, Maceo announced, "I need donuts!" "How did you know we were going to get some?" Nick sputtered. Kate asked Maceo, "What kind of donut do you want?" Maceo gazed at her for a moment, gauging the silliness of the question, and then he replied, "Dunkin Donuts!"

So, the two boys whipped across town to Pat and Maurice's house and they all began the drive north.

Sacked out on the way north.

At around 11:30, after lunch, Maceo fell asleep for 2 hours or so, and when he awoke crying, he was quickly subdued into a good mood. We arrived at Aunt Helen and Uncle Tod's house at about 3:45. Within an hour, Nick and Maceo were in the pool, even though it was raining. The general consensus was that it was warm enough. And that Maceo needed to get some exercise. He went to sleep just fine in the toddler bed, and the next day we went to the Berkshire Museum in the rain. There, Maceo got to see lots of animals, dinosaurs, reptiles, and fish. He very much enjoyed to dioramas and the taxidermy and especially the stools.

On Tuesday, the troupe headed to Amherst to see the McMurrers. Kate flew up to Hartford and was picked up there, and there was a great reunion at the house across the street from the McMurrers, where the visitors were all staying. It was a terrific house and well-suited for all our needs.

On Wednesday, a large number of Hanrahans and their families came to visit. Aunt Helen and Uncle Tod drove over from New Lebanon and Aunt Bea, Uncle Kevin, and Emmett Farley drove up from Pleasantville, NY for a huge and drawn-out lunch of roast lamb and lots of other goodies. We uncorked a number of the wines Nick had picked out at Costco, and they all were judged to be more than acceptable.

Nick's first attempt at a panorama of the family lunch,

On Thursday, the intricate dance called the South Amherst Fourth of July parade occurred. This consisted of children riding bikes, trikes, roller skates, scooters, and wagons around the village green. Over all the racing, an overbearing emcee demanded that we raise our hands for various activities we might have engaged in during the year. "Raise your hand if you were locked out of your house! Raise your hand if the EMTs came to your door!" This went on for a while, but we managed to ignore it and enjoy our post-parade picnic and free ice cream.

Relaxing post-picnic.

Bridget and Maceo hug it out on the 4th.

Friday was the beginning of the swimming. It had been stultifyingly hot all week, and Lucy, Bridget, Seamus, Kate, Nick, and Maceo piled into two cars to go to Lake Arcadia, a nearby swimming hole. There, we chased fish, swam, ate lunch, and rode the paddle boats, and just enjoyed ourselves thoroughly.

Picnic at Lake Arcadia!

 On Saturday, we again packed into cars, and we all drove the hour or so back to Aunt Helen's and Uncle Tod's to visit with them and with Nick's cousin Allen Burton, his wife Beth, and their four kids. A good deal of time was spent in the pool, and then we all sat down to a lovely meal en pleine aire. 

Sunday, we packed all of us, plus Kate this time, into the car and drove back to DC. Both up and back, we were pretty lucky with traffic, though we ran into more congestion on the way home. Maceo was a very good traveler, and we all were quite pleased to have made it back!

Monsters and boy parts

While on vacation in Amhert visiting Maceo's cousins (and, of course, Aunt Yucy and Unca Dan), Bridget and Maceo were out in the hot July sun in a kiddie pool trying to cool off.  Maceo was, as is his style, naked.  Bridget was in her swim suit. 

At one point, Maceo asked where Bridget's penis was.  I explained Bridget didn't have a penis; she was a girl.  He asked again.  I responded - again with Bridget very goodnaturedly giggling throughout this exchange.   Satisfied with the response, the conversation between he and Bridget proceeds as follows:

Maceo:  I have one penis.

Bridget:  All boys only have one penis.  Unless they're monsters!


Well said, Bridget. Well said.

Singalong

Maceo is a big fan of nursery songs. Sometimes he doesn't sing them; instead, he  declaims them as if he were a slam poet. "The ITsy BITsy SPIder went UP the WAter SPOUT." Sometimes he sings a song with syllables instead of words. "Bla bla/Bla bla/ Bla bla bla bla bla." (That's "Bah Bah Black Sheep", if you couldn't tell.) Sometimes he just sings them, but he doesn't know all the words. This leads to some amusing versions.

"The itsy bitsy spider went up the water spout.

Down came the rain and washed the spider out.

Up came the sun and dried up all the rain,

And the itsy bitsy spider went up the water spout.

Down came the rain..."

I think you can see where this goes.

Another version he has created:

"Old McDonald had a farm and Bingo was his name-o!"

Today, we heard a new song with a mistake in it.

"Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall.

Humpty Dumpty had a great time."

Who knew? HD didn't even see that fall coming.

Recent doings and news

School let out for Nick on the 14th of June. Vacation! However, Maceo still goes to school and Kate to work, so let's not rub anything in anyone's faces. Nick's first week of vacation consisted of a lot of Maceo time, however, as there were several doctor's appointments to go to. One was the audiologists's. There has been some concern that the fluid in Mace's ears is affecting his language acquisition. (Most of us believe that this is not a problem; Maceo is speaking more and more.) He had visited the same office in February, and the doctors told us to come back in June when the environmental causes of ear congestion would be less. He took the same tests that he had the first time, but with different results. The problems started in the sound room. Maceo sat on Nick's lap and was to be drawn to sounds on either his left or right. Then, when he glanced at the sounds, a bear on the left or a rabbit on the right would light up and move. The first time, in February, he loved it and spoke of the animals for months afterwards. This time, after the first movement, he turned and clung to Nick. After a few minutes of trying to restart the test, he murmured, "Bear is scary." Later, he said, "Rabbit scary." That ended the test. He now will claim he needs to go to the doctor's, often because he wants a haircut, and he mentions the two animals, but doesn't mention their level of scariness.