The Madness Begins

Today, we were finally initiated into the chaos and craziness that is children's sports. In the past, both boys were too anxious to actually take part in the various sports we'd signed them up for. When Maceo was five, we tried for two seasons to get him to do Takoma Park Soccer, but he adamantly refused and just sit on the sidelines! But now he feels pretty confident about his soccer skills, and best of all, the class we signed him up for is for kids aged 5-7, so Cassius is on the team with him!

We arrived right on time to the school in Upper NW DC where the soccer practice is taking place (Indoors, luckily, because it was a cold, wintery, and rainy day today) and the boys needed no more than one directive to go join in. There were 9 kids, and Maceo actually stood a head taller than all of them. He also was much more skilled than any other kid. Back to the level of skill in a moment.

Maceo is the giant on the left. Cassius is in lime green on the right.

The coach started them out with some warm ups, and then he introduced soccer balls into the warm up. The kids had to do various running, jumping, and agility drills across the cafeteria floor to high five the coach before running back to their starting points. For Cassius, returning to his spot meant doing this little dance called the Floss that he likes to do. After these warmup drills, the coach broke them into teams by having them count off by 1s and 2s. Luckily, Maceo and Cassius were both 2s. However, the coach didn't see this, and he tried to get Cassius to join the 1's. "I'm a two," Cassius said quietly and went to stand with his brother. Then the games began. And in true little kid soccer fashion, it was madcap. Kids were jumping around, kicking, falling, running here and there, but mostly grouping up around the ball and trying to kick it somewhere, anywhere, even if it meant kicking it away from their teammate.

(Notice Cassius doing his little dance? That's "Flossing.")

Maceo is quite good at dribbling, so he tried to dribble around the defenders, but it really was impossible because his own teammates defended him along with the other team!

(Here you can really see the brotherly connection paying off with a "shot" on goal!)

After the practice, Maceo told me, "Next time, I'll really show them what I can do!", pumping his two fists in the air.

All in all, I was just pleased they enjoyed it and took part. I was a little disappointed that it took place in a small cafeteria since it's billed as a Play Games soccer and the cafeteria is a little dangerous, but the boys are into it, and so we can get them into a more realistic team setting when the weather gets nicer.

Cassius Running Things

I came in to Yu Ying to pick up Cassius and Maceo yesterday. It was a cold day (there had been some snowflakes in the air in the morning), and so the boys were both inside. When I got Maceo from the classroom, he quietly said, "I don't like this class." He was in a room with 4 other kids, all girls, and he seemed to be working fine on writing poetry (It's a creative writing class), but he was not into it. I was a little saddened by his somber response.

In Cassius's class, on the other hand, the young man was busy bossing around two of his friends, Leo and Cecily, and telling them how to draw a house, a sun, and a flower.

Telling me about their shift at the old Drawing Factory

Checking out the official uniform

Discussing projects with a tiny bunny rabbit

Leo getting to work under the watchful eye of Cassius

Cassius giving feedback and more instructions

Sunday in the Park with Cash and Mace

The boys and I woke up late this morning and eventually got out of the house. We went looking for Fort DeRussy, a Civil War fort over near St. John's College High School in NW DC. Although there was a detour sign on the trail, we decided to ignore it and continue on. Such hellions! And we came to the fort. It was just mounds of earth now 168 years later, but apparently, during the war, they had a cannon that could reach into Maryland! I told the boys it could have hit Mamy's house! They were suitably impressed.

However, the better part of the hike occurred after the fort, when we wandered through the woods until we reached a creek leading down between two hills.

No, Cassius, don't climb the treeeeeeeee

The boys were wearing rain boots, so they decided to follow the creek bed down.

Only slightly trepid

We wandered along, and eventually, we decided to have snacks on some fallen trees. A few joggers and hikers went by. Cassius decided to go upstream despite threats of repercussions.

Before we lost him the first time.

We continued onward and downward. Soon, the boys found a small waterfall, and both of them were only slightly damp from having splashed about.

Notice that sloped rock just downstream of Maceo? Notice its possible slippery tendencies? Imagine what would happen to a 7 year old who slips on it. Also, notice the rather deep pool below it. Now imagine a whole series of events that ends with a very wet 7 year old.
Reader, I lived it.

I don't think I need to tell you what happened, but I can tell you that Maceo was soaked and we got a lot of water out of his pants once I convinced him to take them off so I could wring them out.

Notice the water line on the shirt.

We hiked back, now a bit worse for wear. Cassius, now out of the stream bed, was tired and demanding to be carried. (He was NOT carried.) Maceo, now wet and cold, complained that his "blister" from ice skating got wet and hurt. But really they were fine, and once I realized that our pace didn't matter at all and I didn't have to hector and harangue, I was fine, too, and we all got into great moods and made it back to the car. Back home, the boys had lunch, and then Kate came over to host a playdate for Maceo and two of his friends, Jackson and Dean. Meanwhile, Cassius and I bicycled over to Catholic University for a hopping CUA Women's basketball game against SUNY-New Paltz!

Look at that crowd! 

Photo credit: Cassius Manolakos-Loewen

Now that Cassius can do math, the scoreboard is super fun!

Cash and I then biked home and caught the last part of the play date, going with the bigger boys to Bunker Hill School to play before coming home for dinner, a brief game of Iota, and bed times.

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!