Thanksgiving Vacation

Once again, for perhaps the 11th year in a row, we hosted our friends Eric and Leslie for Thanksgiving. And again, we made our apricot glazed turkey that seems to be bulletproof, always tasty and golden and yummy.

Still had another 45 minutes to go!

We made the traditional sformata, the always yummy gougéres from the French Laundry, the amazing onion and drippings gravy, and Kate's favorite, I think, root vegetable gratin. Everything was amazing and we were uncomfortably full long before it was time for desert. So Eric and I and the boys (Maceo and Cassius and Sam and Leo) went exploring at the Divinity school and we found some bones and antlers to add to the collection of our Natural History Museum.

Not too shabby for Washington DC!

The next day, Kate went back to work, and the boys and I had a play date with a classmate of Cassius's named Janie whom we've known since Cassius's first days at St. Ann's. Maceo expressed disdain for playing with "little kids", but he ended up leading them around the back yard in search of caves and bears, and we all had a great time.

Later after quiet time, we went back to the ice skating rink. At first, the boys seemed only slightly better than before, and Cassius was expressing some of the same frustrations; he insisted that his plastic pusher was the wrong color and it went the wrong way and it hit his feet and he was frustrated.

But then we had a snacks and hot chocolate break.

They're checking out the other skaters' techniques

And things went much better after that!

Sunday Funday

Sunday, and the boys and I had lots to do. First, as they got rambunctious at about 8:30, we went to the grocery store for Thanksgiving supplies. Surprisingly, they were both terrific at the store. They raced around getting the produce and weighing it. Maceo read out the list, at times butchering words like "Yukon" and "celery", but keeping us on track. Cassius liked putting the produce in the scale and having me guess how much things weighed. We were lucky enogh to be there early and so we scored one of those grocery carts with two seats for the boys. Cassius soon abandoned his seat to help pull and push the cart while Maceo surveyed everything from his kingly perch. At the checkout lane, we were pleasantly surprised to bump into an old neighbor from Newton St, Greg! He was there with his infant son Emmett, so I told him to look into the book about Emmett the pig which we once gave my cousin Emmett when he was little.

This was a good book!

From the store, we came home and put everything away. For some reason, the boys retired to their rooms and just quietly played, allowing me to do some laundry and work on the bike shed! After lunch was the main event: Pokemon class for Maceo! Cassius had wanted to go, but once we got there, I was very happy we hadn't signed him up. He does a good job of "reading" the cards and can almost convince someone he knows what he is doing, but the woman at the store made Maceo read the card, and then she asked him several pointed math questions, and Cassius would certainly have failed. Maceo went into the room, and Cassius and I joined up with our friend Siri, whose son Wesley was also taking the class.

Can you see Maceo and Wesley humiliated by some dorky dad photographer?

Wesley's little brother Theo is the same age as Cassius and he was there, so we all went walking through Eastern Market and off to a playground to kill time for the two. hour. class.

And kill it we did!

And almost killed kids, too.

We have a system by which the boys can earn pompoms for good behavior, and when they get 50, they can trade them in for $10. Cassius blows through his while Maceo hoards his. Back at the store, Cassius cashed in his good behavior pompoms and bought some alien/space ship trading cards and Maceo bought a boatload of Pokemon cards with his pompoms.

Cassius and Theo examining the Legos choices.

Young capitalist consumers checking out the hands-on display.

From there, we went to a local brewery (kids at a brewery!), but it was packed with damn gentrifiers so we left early to come home for quiet time. Mostly for me, but the boys need "me time", too.

Foosball is their favorite thing.

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…"