Sometime during the night Carly heard him say “S A T, S A T, sat” in his sleep. We didn’t know he could spell ‘sat’.
He was up at 6. He read the word ‘and’ in something’ and was also spelling ‘sit’. Soon after Carly left, I tried restarting my phone, which was a mistake, so I had to do the hairdryer thing again to get it back on (going in tomorrow to try and get the phone replaced). August of course loved this, and helped me hold it over the phone. He then played with the hairdryer, first in the kitchen, then I plugged it in in the parlor, then in the living room. He had me writing ABCDs with it, and wanted “big” letters, but they weren’t big enough, so he wanted “bigger” – first time he’s used that.
After that, we made a good bowl of oatmeal and strawberries, and he wanted the iPad to play math apps. Since the math thing kicked in it has really cut down on his ABC songs.
We headed out a little after 9:30. He remembered “Hat Monkey on subway funny” and spent part of each trip there and back playing Hat Monkey and laughing at it.
We first headed to the children’s museum. Played on the first floor to begin with. Pretty empty. When he was back with the little compact discs, one of the staff played with him a bit. He liked that, as when he went back to the cotton balls you decorate the window with he went right up next to another staff member and played with him. August first requested that I make letters with the cotton balls, but then said “Make a plus!”
He wandered through the nature area, and went to the minerals. He would pull out one he couldn’t remember, point at it, look up at me, and say “This is…?” and wait for me to answer.
He was done on the first floor, and decided he wanted to go downstairs, but as I took him down the ramp he said “No, no this…eat.” So we went up to the cafeteria and ate our lunch. He got excited at the prospect of stealing my sandoo again as I took the food out. He was singing as usual, and near the end of our lunch he wandered over close to two women and was singing the Spanish ABC song. He sand that a couple times, then changed to English, but he got a bit shy when they started singing along. At one point he decided to walk all the way out of the cafeteria and I had to catch him and remind him we needed to get the backpack. As we walked down the hall, a man walked near us and said hi to him. August did a good wave and said “Hi” back.
He looked around a little more, then it was time for a nap. Changed him and headed out. Took about 15 minutes for him to fall asleep on the walk. Slept from 11:49 to 1:02. Played more Todo Math in the coffee shop, then we headed to the zoo. He wanted to check on the elephants, kitty cats, and primates. His looking today mainly seemed to be about finding out which animals were in and which were out, as he didn’t want to spend any time at each animal. So it was a quick trip around the main area (no elephants, all the cats but servals and lynx, etc.) He paused enough at the leopards to Q them.
From there he wanted to go back to the children’s museum, but as we got close he changed his mind to the water museum. We went there. Pretty much a repeat of Wednesday, playing with the dams to make the water wheels turn, but I noticed he is much better at putting the dam pieces in the slots. He also played with the drinking fountains again, and one of the workers got him to walk over and look at the fish.
He wanted to go back to the children’s museum, so he got to see his handstamp lit up again. Started on the first floor – light stuff, nature area, etc. – but just for a little while. He stopped at the flower rubbing area. There was a piece of paper there when we walked up with some scribbles on it. I’m pretty sure he never wrote on, or if he did it was only a couple scribbles. But when he was ready to leave he gave it to me and said something like “take it.” I thought he wanted me to throw it away so I started to do that, but he stopped me and insisted on taking it “Home” and walked off with it. So I caught up to him and we put it in the backpack. Then he was hungry again.
We went up to the cafeteria again. This time he ate the rest of the rice and beans, string cheese, his sandoo, and anything else in sight. He was walking around, singing as usual, and watching other people. One of his favorite places. He finished up with a packet of crackers. He was getting them out himself, and when he got the last one out it fell on the floor. I left it there to see what he would do. When he was done with all but the last bite of cracker (which he gave to me), he saw the wrapper, picked it up and crumpled it in his hand, walked all the way across the cafeteria and out the door, and to the garbage can, where he waited until I caught up and picked him up so he could throw it away.
August led the way from there. Walked across to 3rd floor exhibits, put one ball on the air thing, then wandered down the ramps to the second floor, but didn’t want to stop there. Went to the little kids area, where we were able to take off his shoes – something he had requested two or three times earlier. Played there, mainly with the cube things.
Finished up there and headed home. Outside the children’s museum, we got ready to get in the backpack. I called it the back-uh-pack and he thought it was hilarious. He was then going on about the back-uh-pack and what is backpack in Spanish and then pointing up at the big signs and saying “This…”
He had 4 jokes/running jokes in the museum today:
1. I was pretty sure he had guessed at the Spanish translations of words before, taking the English word and making it sound Spanish. Today he definitely did it, and as a joke, when he said “‘Up’ espanol?” and answered his own question with “Up-uh” and laughed.
2. He wanted to go to the book area at one point, but then he kept going. He was then pointing random places and saying “Book area here.”
3. Similarly, anything that looks like an employee door or storage is now “Zookeeper door”. The height of this was after I changed him and was putting on his shoes and he looked up at the ceiling and all the stuff up there and said “Zookeepers!” Then, as we walked out he was pointing up the stairs, saying “Zookeepers here!”
4. The last time we were at the chalkboard, he wanted to write Hangeul. But what he did was write English letters and call them “Hangeul Q” etc.
Soon after we left he said “Children’s museum fun…fun is diverteda.”
We headed home and got there a few minutes after Carly. Carly gave him a bath and did a lot of art and reading with him while I got my iPhone ready to be replaced tomorrow. I did do some magnets with him, helping him find them as he put most of the alphabet together in order on the door (I wasn’t helping with the ordering at all). And he entertained the both of us for quite awhile with his singing and talking in the parlor.
He fell asleep about 8:15.
New words/phrases: bigger, shiny, doggie goes right there, divertida (fun), pájaro (bird)
Playing with the hair dryer:
Children’s Museum:
Playing with the staff member:
Getting ready to steal my sandoo:
Water museum:
Second lunch:
Home:
