He was up about 8. Carly was skyping with her mom, and August said “Oh, hippopotamus”, which he hasn’t used much recently. A bit later she was blowing up balloons for him and he said “Went out of hands” when he had been holding it and she let go and it flew away. I then did more balloons with him, and we were typing words together on my computer. He read duck, sheep, cow, book, and yellow with no prompting, was able to sound out ‘bed’ on his own and read it, and sounded out ‘food’. Carly then started a whole poking thing when she poked me. August then requested more poking between her and me. He got into the game, leading Carly to remind him to do “gentle poking”, so he started saying “more gentle” when he wanted more poking. Carly read Jeff’s book with August. He really laughed at the word ‘bottomless’, wanted there to be a zookeeper in it, and, because the pictures are made of letters and punctuation, agreed it was a “tricky book”.
Carly went to the pink building to do grocery shopping. While I was changing August he started talking about ’biotite’ – one of the minerals at the children’s museum. He then, out of nowhere, said “Make a fort at home…make a fort in the parlor.” So we did, draping a blanket between the rocking chair and the end table and covering the reading area. First he was just into knocking it down, but eventually he got in it with me and was pointing out the “ickys”. We were in there when we heard Carly come in the door, so we hid in it and August thought that was pretty great. He eventually pulled it down, and was sitting in the remains of the fort with the blanket around him. He was lounging against the pillows and pulling the blanket up around him, and hiding behind it. We asked if he was cozy and he said “cozy cozy”.
He had a great mystery word today, that sounded like “Fred”. It at least clearly started with an ‘F’ as he was really emphasizing that. When we would ask him to point, he would usually point to the floor and say “Fred here”, which makes me think that it is something he wanted us to do or put there.
He went to sleep for about an hour starting around 1:40. Nursing, then more balloons after that. Carly took him in to change him to go outside and they played with the animal magnet set (which we had taken on the plane last summer, but haven’t used since), practicing a lot of Spanish. August had the snake and was going “slither, slither, slither”.
He and I left for a walk a little before 4. Went over to the stream, where he spotted a group of boys coming across the bridge with their RC cars – I think the same boys we saw in the park. We watched them for a minute, then I let August choose which path to choose along the stream. He chose the right side. We walked up it, August immediately looking for duckies, and then up to the Madeul Stadium area. Looked at the science exhibits (he helped pull open the big earth’s core exhibit a few times, and we ‘heard’ letters coming out of it). Then let him choose our path around the stadium. Got to the dog park, and he wanted to go right, which takes us out of the park and then he pointed to the river. So we went down along the river, and immediately saw a group of kids on unicycles on the track there. We watched them, then sat down to watch some more and have a snack. When two of the girls on unicycles came close and noticed him, he started singing the ABC song for them; he also later sang it to a woman who was talking to him (and trying to get him to hug her, which he refused). When someone fell of a unicycle he would say “uh-oh” and “Se cayo!” At one point, he told me to take “photo unicycles”. I then taught him to push the gray button to take a photo, and let him do it. This became the start of a long photography session/lesson. I held the phone all the time, but he would say what he wanted to take a photo of, and then I would ask him what angle he would want to take the photo from (giving him some options) and whether he wanted it in portrait or landscape. And, like with his foot, have him move it closer or farther from the camera. He was really into taking photos of the stripes of track and concrete, his shoes, the bolts on the bench, his water bottle (which he placed on the ground, then under the bench, then, when it fell over, he wanted to take a photo of the “uh-oh”), and the backpack (particularly our hedgehog pin). He said “Photo hiding” so I took a photo of him with his hands over his face. He later said “Photo Zinnie”, so I had him take his first selfie.
He was then having fun stepping off the big curb and saying made-up words as he did it. One woman tried to tell him he shouldn’t be crawling on the ground (or maybe warning him to stay off the walking path) but didn’t press the issue when I didn’t intervene. He also played with the yellow ball, which I had gotten out of the backpack, throwing it up and saying “Where’d it go?”
He was having a blast doing all of this, but I was getting cold (around 43 and cloudy) and my hands were freezing. Eventually I convinced him to head home. He didn’t seem bothered by the cold though, and wouldn’t hold onto my hands. On our walking to and from, we had been working on counting backwards, which he did from 10 (always adding a “14!” after getting to zero). He then requested letters backwards, so we started figuring out the alphabet backwards. He was also really practicing ‘LMNOP’, trying to say it fast, then was asking me for LMNOP in Spanish, so we were working on saying LMNÑOP fast.
At home, Carly had done some grading and had made beans for burritos. August wouldn’t eat the beans though, so basically ate quesadilla for dinner. Didn’t eat a lot today, it seemed. I gave him a bath, which went as usual, playing with the letters and Sophie. We then played with the Fisher Price animal dominoes we just opened this weekend. He got the general idea of making the trains and matching the animals, but really liked getting it wrong as I would make an “Errr” sound he liked. When he was done he said “wreck dominoes” and destroyed the train. He went in the fort with Carly and read, then he and I used a balloon as a percussion instrument and sang several songs. He then got silly, calling a balloon first a “heating system”, then “amethyst”, which surprised Carly as she didn’t know he knew amethyst. He requested that she draw an amethyst, so they went out to the paper and did some drawing. He went to sleep soon after that, around 9.
New words/phrases: ostrich, photography, heating system (under the sink), counting backwards from 10, estellas (pointing out the stars on a balloon),
He hid from both of us behind the chair. Confused us pretty good:
Fort:
Our walk:
Some of his first photos:
I took this one, of course, but he requested a “photo of hiding”:
His first selfie:
Photo of the “uh-oh”:
Other fun along the river:
Bird up there:
Headed home:
Reading his book:
Super Q:
Reading with mama in the fort:
