August was up at 6. He had a restless night, and by extension so did Carly. The temperature outside was -2, with a windchill of -15 or so, so needless to say we weren’t going anyplace soon. In the morning he did some more singing to ABC songs, we had Oatmeal for breakfast (I did a decent job slipping his medicine into the oatmeal and his juice), we did a lot of drawing, and we used the bricks to make towers and knock them down. He thinks the brick pattern on them looks like a puzzle, and really likes putting two next to each other and calling them eleven (or once). He picked two up and said “Hold it once.”
He took an early nap, from about 9:45 to 10:40 with Carly. For his midday medicine, I had him drip strawberries in it, which worked pretty well, then put the rest in more juice. He ate some of our leftover eggs and mushrooms from yesterday, and then a little pizza for lunch.
While drawing after lunch, and listening to ABC songs, I believe, he danced what looked like a little jog, and was then stomping. Sadly, not on video. One of the songs he likes goes “Hello A and Hello Z…”, so he got into waving to letters and numbers and saying “Hi”, particularly “Hi Q” and “Hi Zed” (since he also likes calling ‘Z’ ‘Zed’ now, thanks to the videos.
We decorated the frame of the iPad case with number stickers, then played with his shape blocks and the little parachute he got from class a few months back. Did some more drawing on the iPad with the stylus, then switched to paper when he found my pen and got really excited. We also tried out the oil pastels that Meg let us borrow. Carly still isn’t feeling well, but managed to make some yummy bean soup, so I had that for a late lunch. August and Carly then read together in bed, then August and I used the wooden alphabet blocks to stack towers (he was helping) and we counted our progress in Spanish.
Sometime after 3 August and I got bundled up and headed out. It was up over 10 by now, so that was something. We only went over to the pink building, where we first went to the book store to look at art supplies. August spotted the stickers and, in particular, alphabet stickers, and wanted a set. They had a few options, but he settled on one. Without thinking, I said, “But you could get both of them,” forgetting it is nice that he only ever wants one thing right now. At first he said “No” and just wanted the one. Good, I thought. But then I set him down so I could look at the crayons/pastels. He was looking up at the stickers and changed his mind: “Both, both.” So we got both. He did a good job handing them to the cashier, but immediately started shrieking. But progress, as in the past he has gotten upset when I have to take them out of his hands. He carried them as we went in to the grocery store and did some shopping: the citron tea that Preacher recommended, milk, etc. I set August down because he wanted to help (“helping”) and he chose the kind of milk we got. He then saw all the bottles of beverages, and was calling them “tea”. He particularly liked the blue drinks, calling them “blue juice”, he then walked down the row, identifying “mango juice.”
We took the groceries back home to Carly, then turned around and went back to the pink building and up to the Namu play area. Went in right at 3:45 and it was packed. A little overwhelming for him. Did some ball area and walking around to other things. Tried to play in the food area, but was frustrated when a boy tried to keep him from playing at the table, and then doubly frustrated when he wanted to play with the plastic fish that same boy had and I wouldn’t let him. He walked out of the room and did his arm shaking and a shriek. Also, when the train ran at 4 it was way too busy for him to try, which was upsetting, as he has been wanting to try it. Soon after that he tried to head for the door and say “All done play area. Home.” I picked him up and we went back to our spot where we wrote letters on the ground. Did that and sang some ABC/number songs for awhile, and he was back to playing. Around 4:30 it started to thin out and things went better. We spent quite a bit of time, while waiting for it to thin out, walking around and finding balls that had escaped the ball pit. August would pick them up, then I would either pick him up and hold him up so he could throw it over the glass wall into the ball area, or he would run to the entrance and throw it in. At 5, we were in line for the train, but when we started to get on the train August changed his mind, so we didn’t ride it. A little after 5 it really thinned out, and was quite lovely after that. We played in the block area, building towers, and in the ball area for awhile. I was swinging him around, doing “wheee” and bouncing him off of the soft things and a couch, and we lounged on a couch and sang ABC songs.
I was then pushing him around in the police car, and noticed a mom pushing around her little daughter (12 months or so) in the car with the cell phone. The cell phone wasn’t in it when we got there (I looked, of course), but low and behold, the girl was holding it to her ear, and continued to do so for the next several minutes (that’s a learned behavior, if I’ve ever seen one). As soon as they got out, August and I pounced, and switched cars. We spent our last 25 minutes or so pushing him around in that car. He was steering and pushing numbers on the cell phone (a distracted driver, but technically I was driving, so it was more like he was in a self-driving car) and talking/singing to himself. He was getting pretty tired by this point, so was pretty mellow.
About 5:40, just before our 2 hour mark, he decided he was ready to go home. He said “Namu play area fun”, and did good goodbyes to two of the workers, actually saying “annyang” once. We stopped for bread on the way home, and were home a little before 6.
We spent some time playing with his new letter stickers. He of course wanted to use the Qs first. He wasn’t interested in food, and I got a bath ready, but then he fell asleep nursing about 7.
He woke up coughing an hour later and wouldn’t go back to sleep. He and Carly came out, then she went back to bed. We did some reading and drawing, then he had fun hitting things with the markers to make noise. I got tape out to fix a rip in his notebook, and he grabbed it and wanted a piece. I gave him some, and he went straight down the hall to the poster by the mirror – the one he had been ripping way back in September or something and we had fixed repeatedly with tape – and put the tape on it. He came back and excitedly asked for “more yellow tape” (it looks yellow on the roll) and he did it again with a second piece. Right after that he wanted to go in to Carly and he fell back asleep about 9:50.
New words/phrases: want some of that, dada write ABCD on the paper, blue on the red (drawing on the iPad), set it on the table (pizza when he was done with it and I asked what to do with it), number stickers on the case, watercolor, mama’s phone boring, hit the freezer, hit with both
Not going outside anytime soon:
Dipping strawberries in medicine:
Realizing he could watch letters upside down:
Using my pen:
At the grocery store. Looking at the juices:
Namu play area. Looking through lockers and finding out shoes:
Stirring my (empty) coffee:
Driving the boat:
Got the numbers back:
Back home. Using his new letter stickers:
