He was up at 7:19. Pretty much straight to Sesame Street art Maker and we spent a good half hour drawing shapes and words. He wanted me to draw a heptagon, then a nonagon. He then wanted ABC songs, and was drawing letters and numbers in the air. We ate oatmeal and strawberries for breakfast, AND he ate a good amount of carrot pancake. We made letters out of Duplos and then downloaded a new letter tracing app that he liked. It also lets you trace different shapes, so he called the crosshatching “tricky crosshatching”. It forces him to be more accurate than the other letter apps, so he had to pay attention to getting all the way to the next dot, so he was telling himself “down to the dot.”
As we were getting ready, he started talking about taking Smokey to the zoo (I haven’t mentioned that in a couple weeks), and wanted Smokey in the backpack. I explained we weren’t going to the zoo today, but he wanted Smokey in there anyway. On the subway, I told August Smokey had never been here before and should show him around. So August spent the whole trip showing Smokey things on the train, saying “What do you see?” He made sure to show him the handles several times.
As we got off the train and made our way to the park, he kept saying “Walk with Smokey this way.” We went to the east playground (the one we’ve always gone to) and he played on a low structure with some turning toys. He then wanted food, so we got out the picnic mat and food. He wanted the egg, but then spent several minutes walking around and playing with it. He then wanted Smokey out and again was showing him things. He then started saying things like “Have a hamburger.” and “Find a hamburger.” which I don’t really have an idea where they came from. We changed him, then walked over to the garbage cans to throw things away. On the way back he wanted to play on the whale play structure, which is the biggest one. He wanted to climb on everything, but it was too big. He made a good effort at a walking across a rope bridge and climbing up a a rope ladder. We ended up sitting underneath it on a little bench, where he confused me by saying “make a pocket right here” and pointing to the bench. I think he may have been wanting to write it, but he wasn’t clear about that.
Anyway, it was close to nap time, but he wanted to play in the sand first. So we went over there. That mainly turned into him covering his pants and shirt with sand for several minutes. Very amusing. We walked, to the east end of the park and back, to put him to sleep. He slept from 1:13 to 2:40. Went into the spirally building only to find that the coffee counter was replaced by a nice sitting area. Went up and sat on the 3rd floor for his nap, but no coffee for me. I woke him up at 2:40. When he was awake we looked a little at the animals, but could only see fish – couldn’t spot any crayfish, frogs, or beetles. Nor could we last time we were there. Pretty sure the cages are empty.
Took him to the second floor and changed him. Then went into the library. He chose a few books, including one on anatomy. For a picture with lungs I was explaining lungs and having him breathe in and out. I was also trying to feel his heart beat. He said “ribs” on his own – don’t know where he learned ‘ribs’. He was hungry, so we went outside and set up the picnic mat on the grass (I wouldn’t use it all the time, but he really likes it now) and we ate some more. We saw the playground to the west, so walked over there. He saw a bunch of pigeons and was ‘counting’ them as we walked by. He wanted to go see the garbage, but wanted me to carry him. I said if he wanted to go all the way over there he should do more walking. He complained a bit, but then acted like it was his idea, saying “Zinnie do the walking.” or something of the sort. At the playground he wanted to “Take smokey to the water.” So we went and saw the water fountains and turned them on. Garbage and faucets before actual playground.
When picking him up we’ve been saying “I got my Zinnie” and “I got my dada” again. But he often makes a joke of it, saying “I got my Zinnie” or “I got my mama” instead of “dada”. Anyway, as we walked back he was saying all three of them, and then saying “You say that.” He hasn’t really used ‘you’, so maybe the start of more pronouns. He wanted to “Take Smokey to the stairs” and went up on the play structure. He then dropped Smokey down the slide. This became a game, with August going down as well. They went down together a few times. Seemed like a big big kid moment, as it was no longer me or Carly taking him down the slides, but him taking something else down the slide – even if just a stuffed animal.
One time, as he was going back around to climb up to the slides, he came back a bit upset, saying “No popping.” I wasn’t sure what he was talking about, then he said “Finger popped”. I think he had jammed it grabbing the bar/railing.
Now past 4 and time to head home. Changed him outside one more time, then headed out. Realized we were missing our stick, so kept an eye open for it as we walked to the garbage cans by the first playground. Found it on the ground near where we first ate. So he carried the stick as we headed to the subway. He sang the ABC song and was writing in the air and on my head. On the platform he found a heavy screen on a window that made a good noise when he ran the stick over it.
On the subway he is very aware (or wants to be) of where we are on the line, always asking which stop we are at. Today he would claim a station was Hagye, but then I would tell him it wasn’t. Eventually he would say “This is not Hagye. Going to Hagye.” Carly was going to the store so I asked him what he needed. He said crackers, tomatoes, and peppers. Not sure what he wanted tomatoes or peppers for. At the station he said “See the garbage on the way out.” all on his own.I’m sure I’ve used the phrase ‘on the way out’ many times, but here was on his own.
Got home a little after Carly. I fed him some of my enchilada and then rice and zucchini and peanut sauce that Carly had prepared. He ate a lot. I started his bath, then we traded and Carly took over. He was doing a lot of writing on the paper, and that’s what we were doing while she took a shower. After that, however, he was attached to Carly and didn’t want me to take him away from her. They did a lot of reading, and for some reason he was sad about the balloons in Marvin K. Mooney. But then he wanted to keep looking at them, but then he wouldn’t let her open the book to it… He was very confusing this evening. After Carly took him out of the bath he wasn’t sure if he wanted “More dada” or “No dada”.
Anyway, eventually he and I did play on the bed a bit, and he was trying to shove the orange balloon in the crack next to the bed. He took a bunch of books in on the bed and lined them up near the foot of the bed. While we were playing, Carly had done some rearranging because we had gotten a new couch today. Carly had asked about our old couch, asking if we could simply get it patched, as the upholstery was cracking. We didn’t really want a new couch, because of August, but they gave us a new one. Anyway, we had August eat while sitting on the table because of it. We will see how that goes. So he and I came out of the bedroom to see that she had removed the reading area so that the new ottoman would fit next to the couch. August wasn’t too happy about this, as he couldn’t slide off the end of the couch onto the reading area. He was saying “Want the blue reading area…more fall, more fall, more fall.” He asked “Where is it?” and Carly said she put it in the closet. So when he wanted to nurse he said “On the reading area” and went in and was pointing at the closet.
He was still acting pretty hyper, but she took him in about 9:20 and it worked today. I think they were both asleep by 9:30.
New words/phrases: spelling ‘park’, 인반 (garbage), rib
s, Ryan, Carly, spelling ‘gone’
I finished the first season of The Returned today. Very much liking that. Haven’t done much of this personal stuff for several weeks. Will make an effort to do more.
Drawing letters in the air:
Subway:
Playground:
Egg:
Showing me a little rock:
Snack after his nap:
After we found the stick. This is his serious sing ABC song face:
New couch, so eating on the mesa:
