Throwback Christmas Songs

It's a long video, but so unmelodic!

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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...

Dinner Time

Maceo came home one day a few months ago from Grandpa and Grandma Sue's house telling me how much he liked potato pancakes. So, we finally got around to making them ourselves, just in time for Hanukkah! First, I showed him how to peel a potato.

Then, we got out the Cuisinart to grate the potatoes and the onions. Cassius got into the act, too.

Next up was forming the latkes on the pan to put in the oven.

And then, as you might expect, Maceo ate 3 and Cassius was mad about any of the latkes being on his plate.

Oh well.

In the end, Maceo said the latkes were really good, but he likes Grandpa's potato pancakes better.

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