He slept all the way to 9:30. Made for a nice morning for us, but we were expecting/hoping he wouldn’t also want a nap. When he came out, he did the standing in the door and not coming out first thing with Carly – the first time that has happened; usually he just walks right out to her. After he was up a bit, they Skyped with Chuck and Cherie. He is getting more into Skype, and seemed to be following their conversation a lot. He then wanted the iPad, and was playing Todo Math on the couch. He was doing the months of the year puzzle, and I sat on the table and helped him. When I tried to get up, he said “dada sit” and pointed back to the table. After making green eggs for him yesterday, today Carly made green spinach pancakes. They turned out really well, and quite green.
Eventually, about 12:30 I was getting him ready to head outside. Carly was staying home to do some work and make hummus. He chose the tree playground and had a lot to say about it: “No wear hat in the sun. No hat on the hair. No raining today…Find garbage.” We headed out, and as we walked south of the main east-west street he saw the strip mall area ahead and started saying “See the S”. Well, he couldn’t see it yet, and it took a couple minutes for me to figure out what he was talking about, but he was referring to a big Hangeul S (ㅅ) that is on one of the businesses. It is kind of square and looks like a mountain, flat on top. We looked at that and a little of the other Hangeul, then kept walking. When he saw the playground he pointed and said “Raining here”, remembering the last time we were here when we had to take cover in the bench area.
Of course, the first thing he wanted to do was “Find some garbage.” But he wasn’t into throwing it away today. Instead, he would use his shove to bury it or, in the case of a can, just put a little sand on it. We then found some of those little plastic balls that are everywhere and we don’t know what they are from, and that became the next activity, finding more. Of course, I was the one that was good at spotting them, and he kept wanting more. After awhile we turned to writing shapes in the sand. He wanted me to draw up to a nonagon (9 sides – he learned it on YouTube). He then wanted food, and as we were sitting by the backpack he looked at the little sand area and asked “What shape is is?” then insisted it was a “Nonagon” (really a triangle). He also started repeating “Answer me questions”. I didn’t know what he was talking about. He could explain that it had something to do with the zoo, then the picnic table where we ate lunch and played, and that it had to do with letters. Later, when Carly was there, we figured out that he wanted me to ask him how to spell words. I don’t remember doing a ton of that on Friday, but we of course did a lot of word stuff. Anyway, asking “How about ‘nose” etc. seemed to make him happy.
I had tried to record him talking about the “Answer me questions” so maybe I could figure it out later, but he said “No photos” and turned off the video. But that got us into taking photos. He wanted to take photos of the screw in the bench, etc. then wanted to take a photo of his “messy hand”. He did that, after I taught him to hold out his messy hand and take the photo with the other, then wanted a photo of his “clean hands”. We then moved over to the the little grassy area, where he took photos of flowers and sticks and rocks and looked at ants. We ended up sitting there, and just sitting and singing “Bingo” for a long time. He didn’t like me taking the letters out and clapping – he just wanted to sing the whole name over and over again. I tried getting up a couple times, but he wanted me to keep sitting next to him. Eventually he got up too, and started running around the little grass area with the stick, writing ‘BINGO’ in the air and on the bushes and everything over and over. At least 10 minutes.
Carly showed up, and they sat in the grass area and nursed. He just kept wanting to do that, until I suggested he play with mama on the play structure and shaky bridge. He agreed to that, so we went up there. Carly and I had been talking about how high he could reliably count, and we had said 8 or so, but hadn’t tried him recently. As if he heard us, as he climbed up the stairs he easily counted all 13 stairs, even pausing for the landing in the middle. So, at least 13.
They climbed to the top of the tree, and he was fascinated by the kids going down the big slide. The sudden independence thing kicked in again, and he wanted to go down the slide. By himself. We talked him into one of the shorter ones, and I went to the bottom of the slide. Carly let him go, and it went just fine. It was actually a pretty slow slide, and he took awhile to get down. He then wanted to go up again. We were going to let him try the next bigger one, but he wanted to go to the tall one. Up there, he changed his mind though, which was good as it was faster and he’d probably fall off the end. He agreed to ride with Carly, and they went down the slightly smaller one.
He then spotted some Hangeul in the said that other people had written and spent several minutes trying to read it and trace it. He then found a little stick that looked like the Hangeul character ‘ㅏ’ (ah). We ended up back at the sand area where we had done shapes earlier and ate grapes, then sang a lot more of “Bingo”, both there and up in the grass area, and with him standing on the little posts in between, writing in the air. We changed him, did a little more writing in the sand, and then I was ready to head out at 4:15, as it was really windy. August set the stick across his legs and saw that it looked like an ‘H’.
We walked home and stopped at the pink building and did some grocery shopping. Finally noticed that the grocery store has changed from a Sing Sing Mart to Lucky Mart. Went home and heated naan for dinner. August still isn’t into hummus. I tried to share my sandwich, but he declared “No hummus” and just wanted naan. He ate a little soup instead. Carly drew his bath, and I started it with him while she made a cake to take to Megan. I was with him quite awhile, doing words on the door, then we switched nd Carly took over.
After his bath he started saying “Answer me questions” again so we did a bit of that. It was now past 7 and we thought he might be going to sleep. He read with Carly (Rub-a-Dub from set 2 of the Bob Books is now easy for him) and nursed and seemed to be falling asleep, but would pop back awake. Eventually he just got back up. He and I sat on the couch and table and worked on our mosaic, then he started working on ‘K’. At the playground he had been working on ‘K’ in the sand and seemed to be getting it (up until now his best Ks still looked mostly like Rs). He was getting it down, and was very proud of himself. He would do one and then look at me, smiling. After awhile he wanted to nurse again, and he fell asleep at 8:30.
New words/phrases: help me find…, answer me questions
Green pancakes:
On our walk. “See ‘S'” (the one that kind of looks like an upside down V):
Shapes:
His photos:
Bingo:
With mama:
Home:
