We’re still in low energy mode around here. We all slept in until a little after 7. August was doing the ABC puzzle with Carly in the morning. It is proving difficult to get medicine in August; he wouldn’t drink juice at all to begin with, and only drank a little through the day. Carly mixed some medicine with ice cream again and he barely touched that as well.
Anyway, Carly skyped with her mom, then we had a good Skype call with Vivi and family and were able to wish Jeff a happy birthday. We just jung out at home until he fell asleep a little after noon. He took a nice, long nap – a little over two hours.
Soon after he got up, as he was still waking up, I was talking about going to a play area. He popped up and said “Numbers missing. Numbers missing, play area.” Carly figured out he was talking about the phone missing from the car at the Namu play area.
Before we left, he took the eye piece of the elephant out from the play mat and excitedly called it an ‘urt’. We haven’t used that term in quite awhile.
I brushed his teeth and we got him ready, and we headed out a bit after 3. He still refused to wear a hat, but Carly made sure he was well-bundled: two pairs of socks, three pairs of pants, a sweatshirt, and two coats. And I did force him to have his hood up when it got windy.
We walked across to the See and Me building, just north of Home Plus, to check out the play area there. We have never been. As we walked by the north end of the art museum, August wanted his coat pulled down over his hands for the first time – something I keep encouraging him to do since he refuses mittens, but he hasn’t done yet. August had said he wanted to go to the Namu play area, and was upset when he realized we were going in the wrong building. But he changed his mind when he saw the play area through the windows. It is pretty big, and a couple dollars more. The play area you can climb in is huge compared to the others we have been to. It hadn’t looked to bad from the outside, but once inside it was quite busy and loud. To be expected when it is 16 degrees out.
August first played with a cool slide that has water and colors inside it. A slight problem, as he just wanted to touch the slide and look at it and pretend to taste the water, but that meant he kept getting in the way of all the kids trying to come down the slide. That didn’t bother him, but me moving him out of the way did. He did climb up it once, but then another kid came up and touched him and he didn’t like that, so I helped August go down the slide.
From there we went to the big bouncy area. It was brave of August to get in it with all the bigger kids bouncy around, and he lasted a few minutes. Unfortunately, it ended badly as when August was trying to go out, a bigger kid came through the entrance and literally shoved August out of the way. This was followed a few minutes later with August trying to walk into another room, but an even bigger kid, upset about something and looking for his mother, yelling “Omma” (mommy) right in August’s face. He may have made contact, too.
We soldiered on. August and I wandered through the big climbing area and into the ball pit for a minute. That went well. So did the digging area, which was actually filled with little rounded wooden cubes. He filled up a bucket a couple times. We met a guy who spoke English, who really liked August’s sweatshirt, the one from my parents, that says “My Dad is My Hero”. There was then a little show thing, involving people dressed up as the KoKoMung characters (it is based on a TV show, like the Tayo bus cafe was). August didn’t know what to make of that, but it at least reduced the crowds a bit.
August needed a break, so we had a snack. He watched a couple bigger boys play with a toy car, then wandered around a bit. August’s next big disappointment was when he saw two workers using a hand vacuum to clean up a mess. August got excited and started saying “Zinnie do that! Zinnie do that!” He was crushed when I said he couldn’t, and they left with the vacuum.
He lasted a few more minutes after that; it was actually starting to clear out and calm down, but he was getting ready to leave. We played in the room with the pin board thing for a few minutes. We were the only people in there at first, which was nice, as earlier there had been about 10 kids in there.
He lasted a little over an hour before being done and wanting “More outside.” Getting all of our clothes and shoes on and checking out was quite a chore, and he was pretty upset by the end, but as soon as we got outside he calmed down and started singing. We went to Home Plus, where he got excited about seeing the animals. The lizard was using the turtle as a head rest today. From there we did some ABCs on the floor, then he wanted to go “downstairs”. We went down and did our grocery shopping. A woman gave August a sample of chocolate Chex, so that got him through most of it. It was very, very busy. Made it through though and headed out.
Walking home (getting close to 6), it was dark and windy. 10 degrees, with a wind chill of -8 or so. That’s fahrenheit. Definitely August’s, and probably my, coldest weather experience. Coming back across the park, I asked August if he wanted to go to the art museum or home to mama. I was startled when he said “art museum”, so I asked again, and he confirmed it. So we went in and he decided to go to the play area. Played there about 15 minutes. He kept saying “hi” to me from the play area. He also pointed out the ‘q’ in the fire extinguisher instructions (“squeeze”) – Carly had mentioned the ‘q’ but I hadn’t seen it yet.
Headed home from there, forcing him to wear his hood over the bridge where it was the windiest. He was getting flustered from the wind and cold as we neared home, so I started joking about him being a “cap’n” again. That got us home.
At home he ate some ravioli for dinner, and watched more ABC songs; he’s learning from them, as when we were then drawing on the paper, he started calling the letters “the alphabet”, something he definitely picked up from the videos. Later, when he was watching them again, he was singing along to the letters on a couple of songs, then surprised us when he sang along to the line “26 letters from A to Z” in one of the songs. Carly also did a lot of drawing with him. Not a lot of reading today, somehow, but I did read pigeon books with him at some point, and Carly may have read books with him when they were in bed.
I gave him a bath after Carly got it ready. I let him play for a long time before trying to wash him. Still didn’t sit down, and still didn’t appreciate the washing when it came, but maybe it will help him get back to liking baths if we give him more play time first. He played with Sophie, having her sit down on the edge of the tub, and also played with the little cups.
He didn’t last long after that, and went to sleep about 8:10.
New words/phrases: 25 open (as we were getting ready to leave the play area, he was looking at the lockers and saying which numbers were open or closed), reading ‘5000’ (on a banner as we entered Home Plus – think we may have discussed it before), downstairs, Where’s the elephant? Right there (as we were working on the puzzle), alphabet
Getting into the Loopimal music app:
Play area. Touching the blue:
Coughing in the ball area:
The show:
Trying to make sense of it:
Kicking his foot while he watches some kids:
Lizard and turtle at Home Plus:
In his ABCD spot:
Art museum play area:
Cap’n on the way home:
The weather when we walked home:
Drawing with mama:
At home. Mama, alphabet, and 2s: