Tuesday: Last 5-TOUCH class of the session and tree playground

Awake just before 6:40. Looked happy as he sat on the bed asking for mama, and high energy as soon as he came out to the living room a bit later, asking for the iPad. That high energy would continue all day – no quiet time like yesterday. He sat on the couch watching/listening to songs while I did the blog and sang along with him. Found some bath songs, but mainly focused on the letter songs, particularly the individual letter songs by ‘Have Fun Teaching’.

Later, after breakfast, we did some cleaning, and wiped the piano, xylophone, tables, and computer. He helped, starting with the floor, and was really into the xylophone and computer. A few times later he would want to do more wiping, but then insist that I do the wiping.

We skyped with my parents, discussing summer plans, and August spent much of the time showing them how he plays with the magnets on the door. He then did a lot of letter practice on the paper (later in the day he would start to get down ‘8’) and we made letters out of Duplos. We left for class about 10:40.

He was actually excited about class today, to the point that when I tried to go downstairs to do a little of our shopping, he got upset, so we just went up to class early. He had some time to draw in the notebook before class started. It was the last class of the session, and was about oranges. Before class started, one of the moms handed out little cake-like muffin things, which he ate all of. He did fine through class, but got a bit bored when she was talking about oranges, and he was really getting tired at the end of class. But he really liked the musical instruments we played with (each child got a set of a shaker, drum, and xylophone), but I think lost a little interest because he wanted to play ABC songs, but the other music was loud and the teacher kept trying to get him to play a specific instrument. He also really liked when she gave everyone two oranges. He helped me peel them and he ate all of one and part of another. She then gave everyone an orange chocolate and a blueberry chocolate. At the end of class she saw him finishing up the blueberry chocolate and gave him a second one. “More blueberry chocolate!” Thanks, teacher. He was a little upset that I told him we’d eat it later.

We had taken the riding backpack over, so I put him directly in and figured I’d walk until he went to sleep. At first he was talking about going home, so I think he was trying to stay awake. But I walked right by our building and he didn’t complain. I walked the street between us and the stream. Took awhile, but after 20 minutes of walking he was asleep.

He was asleep 12:34 to 1:54. After he woke up I changed him, and after that he went straight to writing letters and making new A is for… lines, including “M for math, n for no, o for open, p for pigeon(?), q for question……D for dada) and trying to write upside down question marks. I made the rest of the frozen mandu for lunch. Had been awhile since we’d had any. He just ate the outside of it before. But this time he ate the whole thing. “Zinnie taste mandu …rice in your mouth…take a bite” He has also been asking for a lot of Korean words and names in Spanish, so was asking what teriyaki sauce was in Spanish. I mentioned it was a Japanese word, so then he was asking what teriyaki sauce was in Japanese.

He then got into typing Spanish words on the computer, with me telling him which letter to type next and helping him find the letters on the keyboard. At one point he remembered the blueberry chocolate (that never would have happened before) and kept chanting it, so he got the second one. He wanted to read Maisy’s First Colors in Spanish, which it isn’t, but I did my best to translate as many words as possible. Finally, he was walking around the kitchen opening and closing things, saying “close this…open this.”

He was bouncing around a lot so figured it was best to get out. As we walked he did more letters “s for snake, p for penguin, y for yuck”. It was 40, but windy, and at the corner of the main street I thought about just going to Home Plus and skipping a park. August said no and wanted to keep walking through, so we continued on to the park. Good choice, as when we got there the wind had died and it was nice and sunny. He initially protested when he saw the tree playground park, but then saw a couple girls playing in the sand, in a corner of the park we don’t often play in, and wanted to play there. So we got out and each got out a stick and were writing ABCs and then doing shapes. His math app, Todo Math, includes rhombus and parallelogram in its tracing game, so I was including those. We wandered around a bit, and he walked on the posts for awhile, but mainly we drew in the sand. At some point it sounded like he asked for a picture, so I drew a sailboat on the ocean. He then wanted me to write ABCDs on it. As I did, it erased the sailboat, so I said “Bye, sailboat.” This became a thing, with him asking for another boat and more ABCDs over and over. Did maybe close to 10 boat pictures. Later, at home, he would ask for a “ship” (interesting he chose this, as I mainly said sailboat) and say the “bye” himself when I started to write letters on it.

Finally, right before we left he found a wrapper on the ground and wanted to throw it away. He saw there was something in (“under”) his shoe, so I carried him to the garbage so he could throw it away. Then went and put him in the backpack to head to Home Plus. Still supposedly 39, but freezing in the shade and wind. Think my hands were the coldest they have been all year. Held August’s hands for a few minutes, but then he was pointing and singing, and I got a phone call from Carly. He didn’t seem to mind the cold or the wind though.

We went shopping – Carly had gotten out early so was stopping at the pink building to do part of it – and at first August wasn’t excited, and he wasn’t happy that I wouldn’t let him out of the backpack to “help”. But after we left he said “Home Plus fun” – probably because he got a couple free samples.

Got home, and he was high energy and pretty random through the evening. At one point he disappeared down the hall into the bedroom. I went and asked what he was doing and he said “Looking for Kipper A to Z”. But before we could go find it, he found a chapstick. He hadn’t liked it before, but now he was fascinated by it. He put it on his lips and got a little on his chin and cheeks. He also smelled it. When he went back out, he got a loaf of bread out of the grocery bags and handed it to Carly, saying “Gift for mama.” He kind of bounced around, eating bites of his quinoa for dinner as he went. He wrote 8s, did a lot of art. When I said it was time for his bath he got up and ran down the hall. But past the bathroom and to the bedroom, where he got on the bed and said “bedtime” and asked for books. I gave him a bath, and Sophie got to go in the water, as August had her and accidentally dropped her in. But once she was in he liked how she floated, and I said “float, float, float”, which he thought was hilarious and wanted me to keep repeating. Both was fine until I said I was going to wash his face, at which point he got sad and put his head down on my arm for a minute. But it had to be done.

He also added “M for muddy puddles” (from a Peppa Pig video) and “I for insect” (from Kipper A to Z) to his list this evening.

He was asleep at 8:10, but then kind of woke up 3 times as we were going to bed. Carly had to work to get him to stay asleep. The last time he loudly said “Big 2” and was waving his finger in the air.

New words/phrases: living room, paseante(?) (stroller), cake, matshiseyoh (delicious), delicioso, Zinnie come, m for muddy puddles, I for insect, adios, hear something dripping (holding up foot in the bath)