He woke up at 7:34. I heard the door open and went down the hall. First things he said were “Shoes…wait for mama…find mama.” We sat together on the step at the front door for a few minutes, then he went and found the flashlight and played with that for awhile. He found the iPad and watched videos for awhile. I made some toast and we shared that. Later we would make oatmeal, work on some Spanish together, and do some ABC writing in the notebook. I brushed his teeth after he was already in the backpack for the second day in a row. He likes it, perhaps for the novelty. He was actually letting me brush quite well (not biting down on the toothbrush, like usual, and with no video on, he could hear the toothbrush, so he said “Hear toothbrush!”
We left about 9:45. At the children’s museum he wanted to go straight up to the third floor for a snack. He knew things well enough that he could direct me up to the cafeteria. There, we pretty much had the place to ourself, as it was a bit before 11. Our ‘snack’ took about a half hour, and was more like ‘Lunch, Part 1’. While there he said “At the children’s museum” and “cafeteria”, as well as “chip de platano” (banana chip) and “queso de hebra” (string cheese). This snack consisted of sandwich, most of an egg, grapes, strawberry, string cheese, and quinoa.
He threw away the garbage, then led the way to the ‘air’ area, stomping on the pad that starts the blower and putting balls in the pneumatic tubes. He then walked down the ramp, a little bothered by either his pants and/or the new shoes as he went. At the bottom, he saw the ball area below and wanted to go there. So we went down there, but he just played there a couple minutes, and then wanted to go to the rest of the first floor, where he generally spends most of his time. We got a good turn on the chalkboard; he was sad when our ‘turn’ was up, but didn’t cry or scream. We played with the shapes on the floor, making shapes and an ampersand (totally his idea, by the way). Then ended up in the nature area, where he checked in on the minerals and ended up at the chalkboard for a second turn.
He was starting to get tired, but wanted to go upstairs, so we went up he wanted to go to the little kids area. In there he played with the puzzles and magnets, then started yawning and really rubbing his eyes. He was ready to leave there, but wanted to go next door to the book area and look for Qs. We grabbed our shoes and headed in there. As I set him down he said “Oh no!” and I asked what was wrong, before realizing he was referring to his favorite book there. He grabbed a few books and I found Oh no! We read for about 10 minutes, then went and changed him and headed out. As I was changing him he was saying “Hear something”, referring to noise I was making, or noise he was making with his hand (think he also said “Hear Zinnie”). Then we were quiet and he said “Hear something…hear children’s museum”, referring to the background noise of kids playing.
We went outside and ate a second stack (Lunch, part 2) outside. More sandwich, most of the quinoa, some banana chip, and some strawberry. Went walking. Took about 15 minutes and he fell asleep. A short nap, unfortunately, from 1:32 to 2:09. Woke up and wanted to go outside (we were upstairs), so just started walking. We wandered around the park for 20 or 30 minutes: paths on the south, then back to the north side that we don’t often go on. Walked through the playground and he was having none of that. Went to see animals. A few times through the morning, when asking what he wanted to see at the zoo today, he said “zookeepers”. We didn’t actually see any though. We walked around and saw the cats/canines, then were happy to see the primates were out. August had been pretty silent this whole time, still waking up. We were looking at the macaques, and I look back to see that he had his eyes covered and his head buried down in my hood. Wasn’t sure if he was tired, sad, or playing. Started asking him, then walked over to the baboons, where he finally laughed and revealed himself. Continued to ‘hide’ from the primates, then have a blast counting them, claiming there were 14 baboons (there were 11). A new thing is intentional skipping 13 in his counting.
Then walked up past the birds, looking at each. He was really into “swinhoe pheasant” and “fantail pigeon” today, and we got to see the white peacock with its feathers up. Then up and around to the herbivores. Looked at them for a few minutes, then he decided we should head home, which was perfect, as it was 3:20 and we needed to go to Home Plus on our way home. So we walked out, stopping at our new bathroom to change him, then playing in he bleacher area for a few minutes before leaving.
Had to actually sit on the floor for the subway ride back, which was actually pretty nice; he sat on my lap and we had plenty of elbow room with no one pressed against us. Went straight to Home Plus and did our shopping. He got all sorts of free samples: crab, mandu, sausage, apple. As we walked home, he started saying “Q U A C K, quack”. He sometimes wants to list Q words, and tries to spell them. Today, he was doing this as we walked to the herbivores, and was trying to spell ‘queen’ ‘Q A N’. I remember telling him how to spell ‘queen’, and saying we should write them out when we got home to help him learn to spell the Q words. I don’t remember spelling ‘quack’ but probably did.
Anyway, then as we passed Dunkin’ Donuts, he started saying “parentheses, parentheses”. I was looking at all the signs, but didn’t see any. He was pointing and it looked like he was pointing at an empty windows. Finally, he made it clear he was pointing at the two chairs sitting outside, facing the street. The legs of each bowed in, and the inside leg of each looked like half of a set of parentheses.
Got home a few minutes after 5, and just after Carly. He ate spaghetti from our bowls, then Carly got him his own alphabet spaghetti. He wanted the flashlight and it wasn’t in the drawer – he went and first looked under the table, where we found it last time it wasn’t in the drawer. He was playing with his magnets and dropped the Q, then said “Where’d you go Q?” On the couch he requested the rabbit dance from Bluie (the tune/dance that Bluie’s done since he was a couple months old).
As he was eating, he was hitting the table with his hands and it made a rattling noise. He kept saying “Something in there”, referring to the table. Carly showed him it was the spoon in her bowl by removing it and hitting the table. He then continued to claim it was something else, saying it was a “monster”. This led to some time spent looking for monsters again. Then he played with the English notecards. I spelled ‘quack’ with them. He would then point to another spot on the floor (sometimes just a few inches), saying “quack here” and he or I would then respell the word in the new location. I was saying “watch this” as I spelled new words, like ‘quickly’. He imitated this by pointing to the reading cushion and saying “Watch this” and using cards to make up words.
Carly gave him a bath. He was playing with Sophie and having her move around the rim of the tub. Carly asked “Where is she going?” and he replied “Home Plus”. “What’s she getting there?” “Hoo-ha” (noodles) and an “O”.
Before bed he helped make the bed again. He ran in to get the flashlight from the counter and stepped on the paper, which slipped, and he fell. A little traumatic, but didn’t hit hard. Came back and played for awhile, then Carly went and got books and they read. He then insisted on reading Happy Birthday, then fell asleep without any troubles at 8:10.
New words/phrases: At the children’s museum, cafeteria,
chip de platano, queso de hebra, macaques, swinhoe pheasant, how do you spell ____?, hiding from mama/primates, where’d the ‘a’ go?, watch this, favorite word, brasos manos, sombrero
Ready to go find mama:
My parents will remember the tiger on the ceiling of the exit from the subway to Children’s Grand Park. They have been installing escalators there for more than a year and a half, and just extended the deadline to April. That is, they haven’t been working on it, for some reason. The door to the construction site was open today, and this is what it looks like:
A study in string cheese:
Getting tired:
Zoo:
Walking home:
His parentheses:
Working on ‘quack’ and ‘quacking’:
