Publishing Party

The kindergarten at Yu Ying today had their publishing party of the stories they've been working on. This morning, a grouchy Cassius insisted he didn't want me to come. However, by the time I showed up at 12:30, he was happy to see me and excited to show me around the classroom. First, we read his three stories. Two were in Chinese: Goonies and Jack the Cat. The third story was  Mister Fox and Mister Rock. He read them all to me, including reading the one in English (the Chinese stories were more paraphrasing), and he is really improving in his spelling and reading!

The Is Mister Fox and Mister Rocks By Mr. Manolakos P. MaGillicuddy (alternate spelling)

He then took some time to do last minute illustrations and editing of the texts for me, and he gave me a tour around the classroom to see some of the work he's been doing and the things he liked. It was very nice, and I was gently swarmed by his friends Blake, Leo, and Oliver.

Cassius drawing a cat for me.

Some last minute editing while kids and parents meet behind him.

Rainy Day Weekend

The DC region received a record amount of rain this weekend, and we can only think of what might have been if it had been a little colder. Instead, we had to come up with activities and ways to get exercise that didn't destroy the house or the Papa.

Saturday afternoon didn't quite fit the bill. Two of the boys' friends from the neighborhood, Parker and Carter, came over, and the first forty minutes of 4 boys under the age of 8 in the house was intense; it was a bit of madness. However, they calmed down somewhat, though both Maceo and Cassius were awfully goofy, making silly noises and jokes the whole time. We have some friends who have 5 boys, and I cannot imagine how they function on the weekends.

Sunday was a little better. In the morning, the boys and I went to Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens, braving the elements.

The intrepid explorer in his foul weather gear

It wasn't raining too hard, but we were the only folks there. We walked right past a Great Blue Heron, which was pretty cool, and out onto the boardwalk. Both boys had fun throwing rocks and being silly.

Cassius and his favorite coat, which is not so waterproof

From there, we went to the College Park Aviation Museum, which we hadn't been to in years. It's a small place with some hands-on activities, and this time of year, there's a model train running, so I figured it'd be a good diversion. Of course, their favorite activities were the video game flight simulators.

They pretty much just try to crash.

The trains were also a hit!

They also "flew" a plane, a real one. 

We then came home for lunch and quiet time, and, with the rain stopped, we walked over to our old street and visited our friends Daniel and Lillian who were hosting their annual Hot Cocoa Open House. Our boys went immediately to the playroom and I didn't see them for quite some time. 

NEW TOYS!

We ended the evening by riding around the Brookland neighborhood in a trolley to see the houses with their Christmas lights. At the best houses, we would call out, "Ring that bell!" and the trolley driver would ring the bell, a 12 year old boy on the bus dressed as Santa would get out and go knock on the door, and we would sing a carol to the residents. It was a very nice community activity and the boys very much enjoyed it, especially the one house on Newton were a man dressed as Santa got on and handed out candy.

Créches Galore!

On Sunday, the boys and I went whole hog, Christmas style. First, we went to the Postal Museum to make holiday cards.

They just took off!

We even ran into a friend there with her kids, and we sat with a Russian mom and her son while they worked. Cassius just sat there staring open-mouthed as they chattered away in Russian, trying to figure out what magic this was.

There was a two card limit for each kids, so apologies if you weren't one of the recipients! But congrats to you if you were! (Just a warning, Maceo made his two cards for his best friends Dean and Jackson.) 

From there, we went to the toy store so both boys could cash in their good behavior pompoms on, you guessed it, Pokemon cards and tins. (Insert big sigh from the parents here.) But they were happy and well behaved and the cashier quizzed Maceo on how to play. When Maceo passed the test, the man gave him a card from his personal deck! Maceo then kindly passed it to Cassius, saying, "I already have this one." It was very sweet until Cassius replied, "I don't want it, it's weak." The air went right out of that generosity balloon.

We drove home for lunch, had quiet time, and then walked up to the Franciscan Monastery to see their exhibit of créches from around the world.

I believe this one is from Mexico, but it reminded me of those Renaissance paintings.

This is a favorite: Mary and Joseph as hipsters, taking a selfie, and the wise men with their packages from Amazon.

Maceo was our cinematographer. You can see his movie that he made. He even chose the music from my iTunes collection.

 Cassius insisted on riding his bike, which was great on the way, but then he had a hard time maintaining his motivation on the ride home and had to actually be carried for a hundred feet. When we got home, Maceo worked on the computer to make his movie of the event. (You don't really have to watch it, though.)

Then, we went to a living créche up at Catholic University. Unusually for our family, Cassius rushed right up to the animals and petted them enthusiastically. More usually, Maceo hung back at my side.

A donkey!

A camel!!!

It was awfully cold, so we only stayed 15 minutes or so, but it was long enough to help ourselves to some hot chocolate and get yelled at for getting it before we were supposed to.  Cassius, however, didn't have any, and he made sure to tell us that he hadn't broken any rules.

Throwback Christmas Songs

It's a long video, but so unmelodic!

SportSportsSports

This was the second soccer practice for the boys, and Kate took them this time. She reported that they were into it and active, which is all we want! However, later in the day, Maceo did ask why we signed him up for soccer inside. "Because it's winter and no one's doing soccer outside," I told him. "Uh-unh," he insisted. "OK, well we aren't doing soccer outside," I said. But we are ready to sign him up for some more soccer once this program is done now that he's shown us he can take part!

After quiet time, the boys and I went to see the University of Maryland Men's Club Hockey team play Penn State Altoona. It was our first time, and the boys first time seeing competitive hockey. They really enjoyed it the first period!

Of course, in the grand tradition of not professional hockey, the rink was essentially outdoors, and we got quite cold by the end of the second period. As well, one of us got quite antsy and had to go jump off benches. (That was Cassius.)

On the ride home, the boys got into quite the conversation. We were playing a word game and Cassius said he had an "s" word. "Are you going to say the "S" word, Cassius?" asked Maceo. I worried about where we were going in this conversation. Maceo started to enumerate the "s words: "Stupid, shut up....shit. Daddy, what's the P"" word?" "I don't know, Maceo, what is it?" I asked, feigning innocence. "It's pussy, like pussy cat!" What's the "F" word?" I stayed quiet now. "Fuck," said Maceo. Cassius chimed in quite meditatively, "Fuck. Fuckin' fuck." 

I told them, "Those words are kind of rude, and we really don't want to use them to try to be mean to people. Does that make sense?" They agreed. 

Fuckin' fuck, we're going to have this discussion several more times, I think.

Seasons Are Upon Us

On Sunday, Kate and the boys put up the Christmas decorations. The boys have wanted to do this for a long time (4 days), and they patiently waited for Sunday to do it. They started with a bang, first opening their Lego advent calendar and putting the pieces together.

Cassius offers much needed advice to the two older kids.

Then they spent a bit of time getting out all the lights and organizing them, going on an outing to the Lowe's for various more decorations and lights, and helping to hang stuff in front of the house; but by the time Kate was ready to go get the tree, they pooped out. So, Kate forged onward, and soon they were all decorating our lovely Christmas tree.

The boys and I made a quick trip to the Woodridge Library then to get new books, and we came home for quiet time. At the end of the hour, Cassius came in to snuggle and then, a Christmas miracle occurred!

It has been quite some time since he has fallen asleep in our bed during nap time, and he slept for a glorious hour until his friend Blake came over for a play date. 

M. B. B (Moments Before Blake)

The boys played for about an hour and a half. Cassius has been begging for a play date with Blake for at least a month, and they got along great. I didn't really have to engage with them. 

Soon after this, Cassius, too, was wearing a cape.

Maceo, on the other hand, varied wildly in his behavior....

Cassius and the ER

Sunday night, when I went in to tuck Cassius in, he complained a bit of pain in his hip. I thought he was a little groggy with sleep and he had a boo boo of some kind, but two hours later, when he finally drifted off to sleep, I was a little worried. My colleague Lisa had told me about her fiancé having a blood clot in his leg, and I wondered if something similar might be happening with Cassius. Despite all the bandaids we placed on his knee, he was still in pain and couldn't walk or even move.

I took Maceo to school and dropped him off, and then Cassius and I drove to the pediatricians' for a quick check up. When they saw he couldn't walk, they told us to go to the ER!

Cassius waiting in the ER waiting room

Luckily, it was early in the morning, 7:45, and rather empty. We were seen pretty quickly and whisked into the back. Nurses gave Cassius some children's motrin, a robe, and a pediatrician gave him an examination.

Nice robe! He wore it all day.

They decided he needed a sonogram of his hips

He enjoyed that and the man administering it seemed to really like Cassius, too.

After that, we waited a while to get x-rays.

And then Cassius very bravely and with fortitude, had a lot of blood drawn and an IV put into his hand in case they decided they needed more later!

They supplied us with turkey sandwiches, apple juice, goldfish, and a graham cracker...

and coloring pages!

In the end, the diagnosis is transient synovitis, and by the next day, Cassius was able to gingerly and slowly walk on the flat floor.

It was a long day...