Snowzilla!

Sleeping and Not-So Sleeping

Both boys are pretty good sleepers. Maceo's peccadillo is that he will call us up to his room after going to bed with issues like he is sweaty or his nose is snuffy. We've taken care of that by giving him a blue ribbon good for one nighttime visit. Most of the time, that suffices for him. Cassius has been a great sleeper. He goes right in to his bed, hardly ever with even a peep, seems to fall asleep within minutes, and sleeps all the night. Until the end of December. Then, he began awakening at around 5:15, calling and yelling and crying. We'd try to wait him out, but sometimes, to keep Maceo asleep, one of us would get up with him. This sleep change seems to have coincided with a lot more talking from him and recently, he's been sleeping until he's allowed to wake up (Thank God). However, last night, he awoke at about 11:30, which is very unusual for him, crying with what sounded like fear, which is also unusual. I went to him and tried to snuggle him back to sleep, but he was super tense, and he was super awake. He asked to go to our room, to go downstairs, to read a book. I kept trying to snuggle him back asleep, but after seeing that wasn't going to work, I explained that I was going to sing him a song, and then I would put him back in his crib. He wasn't happy about it, and he started to cry as I put him down. He sat up, and I asked him to lie down so I could put his "woobie" (blanket) over him. He wouldn't, so I left. By the time I got to bed, he was crying angrily, and then he started shouting, "Put my woobie on me!" over and over again. I went in, put his woobie on him, and he was instantly silent and stayed that way the rest of the night.

Frozen

Maceo and, by extension now, Cassius, really like the animated movie "Frozen." What this means for Kate and me is that we listen to the soundtrack a lot in the car. Like every trip in the car with the kids. Cassius will ask, "Is this 'Fwozen'?" at the first sounds of any of the songs. And Maceo can be easily talked into singing duets around the house. In fact, the other day, when the songs were playing on our internet radio, Maceo pulled a stool over to the counter and climbed up to lip sync along with the songs, holding a pencil in front of him like a microphone. And during a playdate over Christmas break, he and Cassius and their buddies sat enraptured by the movie, although some were a little worried about the ice monster once it showed up.

When there are no more groceries to load onto the belt....

Knock Knock!

Queen City Greeting

Aunt Lucy sent us some hand me downs from her two kids and some of them are WAAAAAY hand me downs from her childhood. Included were a shirt that features a sketch Aunt Lucy drew when she was about 3 and which was used as a logo for a school our mother helped to found, and a shirt from Queen City Park Day, a festival in the community where our father raised us in Vermont. So, with Cassius modeling one of the shirts, I thought it was appropriate to have him thank Aunt Lucy for sending it to us. He was, however, entranced by the sight of himself on the screen of the phone. As well, when he fist bumped the phone the first time, he paused the recording, unbeknownst to me. So, I had him do it again, which he good-naturedly did.

Christmas Jingles

Maceo goes to a Mandarin school, so they don't seem to have been learning any Christmas carols. He already knows a bunch, but the holiday spirit hasn't grabbed him enough to start singing them around the house. Plus, he's enraptured by the soundtrack of the movie Frozen and that's all we've been listening to in the car lately. Cassius, on the other hand, goes to a Catholic school, so he's fully indoctrinated. And he's taken by the spirit of the Little Lord Jesus, too. He's always singing and quite enthusiastically, too. We know it's a big build-up to the Pageant on Friday where he'll be struck dumb by shyness, but it's been a lot of fun. Here you'll see a number of his greatest hits, at times joined by other members of the family. At the beginning of the video, he's reluctant to sing without finishing his vocal exercises ("Musky Misky, Mickey Mouse!" for example). Then he sings accompanying himself on guitar. Perhaps you'll recognize the song, but you'll certainly recognize his Flamenco influences! This traditional song is followed by the evermore temperamental artiste Cassius as he attempts his signature song "Away in a Manger." This is quickly followed by some Simon and Garfunkel-type feuding between the two singers, Maceo and Cassius. Both then offer their unique interpretations of "Jingle Bells" a more secular song that really doesn't fit either of their oeuvres. Finally, a song all will know---"A, B, Cs" with Cash again on his beloved guitar, with audience participation.