Ice Skating

Sunday, the boys and I went ice skating out in College Park. I was impressed by both of them, but for different reasons. First, Maceo, after a few seconds on ice, whimpered that he couldn't do it. Within a few minutes, though, he was doing it and doing it well. He would go ahead, and then he would wait, looking back at us. 

Cassius, on the other hand, whimpered he couldn't do it, and then proceeded, for the rest of the hour or so, to fiercely yell at me to let go of his plastic supporter, that he could do it all by himself, that the blue supporter wasn't working and that he needed a red one, that they both were broken because his skates kept hitting it, that he couldn't do it and "LET GO", all while he then did three laps of the rink. Afterwards, they both wanted to do it again, so I consider it a great success. They both argued that we should build a rink in the back yard. 

Sleeping is Next To Godliness

When we were in Montreal, the two boys slept in two different bedrooms. And now, upon our return, after one night sleeping in the same room (Cassius's), Cassius insisted on sleeping by himself, much to Maceo's initial consternation. Maceo now sleeps in his room, Cassius in his, and they tend to sleep in later than when they were in the same room. We have, however, been having trouble with getting Cassius to just get in bed and go to sleep. Maceo appears to have inherited my (Nick's) ability to fall asleep rather quickly and easily, but Cassius is able to rile himself up and keep himself awake, leading to fights with us. Last night, I refused to come upstairs, leading him to yell and scream until Maceo came out of his room to complain. "Won't you come up, Daddy?" asked Maceo. "Nope," I said. Cassius stood next to Maceo sobbing, "I want a book." "Maceo can get you a book," I told him. "If you're not in bed in 1 minute, next time we go to the pool, you won't be allowed to swim." I walked out of sight downstairs and listened. "Maceo," whimpered Cassius, "Will you get me a book? And a tissue?" And that was the last I heard of them! Cross your fingers for tonight!

What 20 Questions Sounds Like in This House

Cassius:  So, so, so, so, guys, I'm an animal that is black and white.

Maceo:  Are you a panda?! ARE YOU A PANDA?! Are you a penguin? A PENGU---

Cassius, beaming: Nope. Nope. No.

Kate:  Wait, guys, we are not using our questions wisely.  You are supposed to narrow down your -- wait, wait! Are you a skunk?!

(More grinning from Cassius).

Nick: Are you a raccoon? 

Cassius:  Nope!

Maceo:  YOU'RE A PENGUIN!  You're a monkey.  Are you a black and white monkey? Where do you live? 

Cassius, starting to hesitate a little more, begins to look confused by his "nopes."

Nick:  Are you a zebra? It's a zebra, right?!

Cassius:  Wait, wait. Guys? Um, can we go back to the beginning?  Can we?

Nick:  Why, Cassius?

Cassius:  So, so, it was a penguin but now it's an orca.  That was a hard one to guess wasn't it?  Guys?

Morning Commute

For Maceo's birthday at the beginning of April, we got him a mountain bike with gears and hand brakes. Mamy and Maurice got him a bell and water bottle, and Grandpa and Grandma Sue got him a brand new helmet. He was ready to go. Of course, Cassius immediately wanted in on the game and decided to learn how to ride. He began to practice on his strider bike which has no pedals and is designed to help kids learn to balance.

Soon after came the Great Brookland Yard Sale, and with Cassius now a master of the balance bike, we found him a $20 pedal bike to ride. He took to it rather quickly, and there's been a lot of talk of biking to school, which is just under a mile away. One Sunday, we tried a practice run. We made it back home an hour and a half later, and someone was tired.

However, we've all been practicing since then, and since I didn't have to be at school until 9:30 the other day, we took off on bikes to try a new route to school that hopefully wouldn't take 50 minutes or so!

Both boys did well. Cassius chattered incessantly, as is his wont, until we reached the big hill that leads to their school. At this point, he got tetchy and began to insist we take the route we'd done the practice attempt on. I put his bike on my bike's saddle, put Cassius on my crossbar, and pushed them all up the hill, finding Maceo at the top! So, it seems Cassius isn't ready yet for the task, but Maceo is. Perhaps next year, we'll all 3 be biking to school!

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

Maceo Turns Seven

Can I still say we have young kids?  We now have a 7 year old.  Oh, and a 16 year old trapped in a 4 year old's body.  But I want to talk about the 7 year old.  Maceo declared this birthday the "best birthday ever" however I suspect I'll be hearing that until he gets too cool to be around us in his teenage years.  This year, though, he did have the perfect storm of three days of birthday celebrations in a row:  Thursday, April 12th on which we celebrated his actual day o' birth, a day which should be more properly described as "days" o' birth since it took him almost two full days to arrive.  But this is not about me and I am not as bitter about his drawn out arrival as I once was.  So, birthday #1 - two types of cake, day of the dead stacking dolls, and The Most Amazing Stuffed Dinosaur Ever who was promptly named Jolt (as in Jolt the Gigantosaurus) by his starry-eyed owner.  Thanks, Nene, for this amazing gift! 

Birthday Party #2:  The McMurrers were in town on their way through DC to the Carolinas.  Et voila, chocolate mocha homemade cake, more presents, and Maceo is loving life as the birthday boy.

Birthday Party #3.  Saturday.  We invited some of Maceo's classmates and friends from when he was in our neighborhood daycare to our house to play in the backyard, use the newish zipline, and participate in a scavenger hunt across the street at Howard's now-defunct Divinity School.  We like to keep a one-to-one ratio of juice boxes to adult beverages so I'd like to think the adults had fun, too.  Maceo's third and final birthday was in the bag and while I'm no math wizard, three birthdays seems definitely better than one.  I'll be managing expectations for the next birthday for the next 364 days now.