8:45. Kind of a quiet wake up, as we just sat on the bed in the dark for a few minutes, then were doing numbers with our fingers. Then came out and and got on the iPad, had breakfast, and got ready to head to Children’s Grand Park.
Got there around 11. Almost empty again. More and more baffled by usage patterns, as we haven’t seen a single field trip group (outside some very small child care groups) to anywhere in the park since the beginning of the year. And yet, for months the children’s museum was packed with them, and last spring the entire park was full of school groups.
Anyway, we first went up to the second floor to see what had been changed. The tortoise and hare stuff was gone (which included the Hangeul magnets) and has been replaced with space-related stuff. Mostly interactive video game things, which are a little beyond August. He did like a planet hopscotch thing with hexagon pieces, and played with that for a few minutes, but then wanted to go down to the nature area. Went down and made letters on the floor, played with the static cling magnets (mainly focusing on the shapes), and went and looked at the minerals. Then he was ready for lunch. Went up to the cafeteria where there was just one other family eating lunch a few minutes before noon. We sat by the windows in back and one of the screens was down on the window. He was very intrigued by it, and so I showed him how it worked and we put it up and down several times. We peeled an egg, and he was really into spelling ‘egg’. He was peeling the egg and said “Messy with the shell…wash your hands.” He was singing a lot – we have been singing the Mother Goose Club “Count with me” song and he would sing lines of that.
From there we went down to the book room, primarily to read Oh No! There was also a little pop-up colors book that he really liked. We then played with the texture squares, matching them and counting them, and he played with a magnifying glass, carrying it around and looking at pieces from the various games.
He wanted to go back downstairs, so we did that. He wanted to “Make A out of floor magnets.” When we got down there he saw a girl and pointed at her, saying “Kitty cat on her shirt.” We played there for a little while, but didn’t last long; he decided he wanted to go up to the little kids area. There, he spent his whole time playing with the puzzles, and playing with the bumps on the cushions.
He was actually talking about falling asleep today, and even getting Camel out as a pillow (something he hasn’t done for a month or two), before we started our nap routine. So I thought it would happen today. Alas, when we were walking he kept wanting to do other things, and got upset when we walked by garbage cans without looking in them. So after 15 minutes or so I walked down to the zoo. Thought he might fall asleep as we walked around the zoo, but after awhile he wanted down for another snack, so we ate pine nuts and string cheese by the leopards. He heard noises from the little upstairs section by the cats, so we went up and spent ten minutes or so pushing the buttons on the half-working display on predators. The button for the monkey only worked sometimes, and I said “Come on monkey!” He liked that, and said “Come on mono!”
We talked about going to play at the playground, but on our way there he saw the conservatory and said “See pez (fish)!” and wanted to touch water. So we went in there, and mainly out to the potted plant exhibit. He watched the little streams and touched the water where he could, we then went back in and looked at the fish in the pond.
We went around the corner to change him, and this is where the no-nap day fell apart. He’s been a little afraid of the changing tables recently (he has taken the ‘beware of falling’ warnings to heart, and now says “No fall!” a lot on the changing tables), and started to get really upset as we finished up today. He then just clung to me when we were done, but I had a dirty diaper to dispose of, and had to put everything back in the backpack and put it on. He kept screaming, and even after I had the backpack on and was carrying him outside to go to the garbage can, he was screaming and started pinching my face. I had to set him down, screaming on the ground, so I could throw away the diaper and set up the backpack to put him in. Got him in, and he calmed down enough for us to head out, but then he wanted to go play at the playground with the numbers, and got upset when we walked the wrong way.
Luckily, he settled down enough to head home. He kept yawning, and I expected him to fall asleep at any moment, but didn’t. We were home about 4:30 and he was fine with waiting for mama. We sat on the couch, him on the iPad and me reading Sherlock Holmes, until Carly got home.
Evening went pretty smoothly, considering. Carly made herself a salad, which August found fascinating. He said “See the salad…very, very, nummy” He looked in and would name off everything in it: “lettuce, feta, cucumber, tomato…” The funniest part is that he won’t even taste salad himself.
He had one more meltdown with me. I had put the iPad behind me on the couch and he was trying to get it. He said “Dada in the way.” That part was funny. But then when we had the iPad open, he accidentally turned the page on my book. I told him to wait a second while I got the page back, then he could have it. He grabbed my arms and started pinching them and screaming. Carly took him into the bedroom for a bit of a timeout. While they were in there she was trying to get him to say sorry to me, but he insisted “No say sorry to dada.” But a few minutes after they came back out I was sitting with him and asked if he’d say sorry. He first said no, but then said “Sorry, dada.”
There was one of those blowup toy things from class that you use a straw to blow up. This one was a frog. He was trying to do it himself, so I was explaining how to blow into the frog. I told him he had to close his lips and blow, but then he would scrunch up his eyes, closing them at the same time – that’s what we’ve been working on in the bath. Very funny.
Carly gave him a short bath, and he was asleep in bed about 7. A little later he got up and walked out of the bedroom and Carly had to take him back to bed and he went back to sleep.
New words/phrases: egg shell, flamingo, feta, wrapper
Yoga:
Children’s Museum:
Book room:
Little kids area:
Conservatory:
