He was up at 6:20, but Carly got him to nurse. At 7 I thought he was getting up for good and I started to get up, but Carly got him to lie back down, and he slept until 8:20. He came out and climbed up into one of the big chairs. He then got grampa to look at sticks with him: “Another stick!” He saw Paul, and kind of walked to the other side of the chair next to him and said “Hi uncle Paul.”
While Carly went and showered, the rest of us took August to the playground. He started to climb the plastic thing again, but grampa was helping him, and August got a static shock. After that, he was done with that. Instead, he wanted to climb the big metal ladder part that he’d done part of before. This time, with first gramma and then Paul spotting, he made it all the way to the top – 7 feet or so.
We were packing up, and he was in the tent with Carly. He kept walking back and forth and hiding in one of the interior flaps, and was nonsense singing the entire time. Back out, I got the iPad out for him and introduced him to the new Marco Polo weather app, which he really liked. At one point he fed an animal carrots, and then I asked what the animal was. He replied “I didn’t see…walked away.” After that, he ran across the pavement and fell, scraping his elbow a little bit – his worst fall of the trip. As we were about done packing up, he invented one last game, using his water bottle, with the lid off, to create puddles in the dirt next to the concrete platform. As we were ready to leave at 11:30 I told him he needed to finish up dumping the water. He dumped one more, then handed me the water bottle and said “want it full of water to drink…the cold.”
We drove to the dam to go on the tour. They are in full security mode, taking our IDs, checking the trunks and hoods, etc. We then had to wait by the entrance until the ranger came and drove us down to the visitor center in a cart. August did really well, and we enjoyed the tour. Our tour guide, Sydney Hudson, was a bit of a character and had grown up in Australia. At the end we learned that he travels a lot with his father, and they recently did a cruise to Antarctica. August liked the noise in the dam. I carried him down the little stairway to the lower floor, where we got to see the parts of the generator that is being replaced. We also got to walk right in by a turbine, which seemed a bit crazy. There the noise was a bit much and he wanted to leave. There were also a lot of dials and lights and buttons, and he got really sad when he couldn’t touch those.
From there we headed home, stopping in Pateros at the quick stop sort of place for lunch and ice cream. He fell asleep as we got into town. As Carly took him into bed, he took his shoes off while half asleep. He slept from 2:23 until Carly woke him up at 4. They then read Max’s Dragon Shirt twice forwards and once backwards.
After he woke up, he spent time out back with gramma, watering the steps and the sand below with the watering can. After we played in back for awhile, I took him down to change him and he was singing a song. Suddenly he started putting in the names of subway stops “Junggye…Hagye…” We went back outside and did more watering. Eventually, he was making sand castles with Carly. He was having fun knocking them down, but then wouldn’t even let her finish one first. He got upset when I stopped him from destroying her sand castle.
We ate dinner outside on the deck, spaghetti and green beans. He liked both, and liked the green beans dipped in the spaghetti sauce. He also ate all of Paul’s mushrooms.
Carly and I took him out for a walk in the evening, down to the river and then through Riverwalk Park, with him singing in the stroller. As we walked down the hill to the river, he was doing a loud “Noona neena” chant at the dogs in the yard across the street, and I realized he was basing it on the “Neener neener” thing I taught him when we first got out of the car so he wouldn’t be afraid of the barking dogs.
We walked over to the old bridge, then came back. August wanted to find a playground, but at the benches area he started playing on the benches and jumping. I would hold his hands and he would call a number (“11!”) and he would then do that many jumps. He was also jumping off the benches and onto the ground. I was holding his hands, but he was doing most of the jumping – I was just making sure he wouldn’t fall over when he landed.
At home, he took a bath, then before going to bed he went up and said good night to everyone, and to Celeste. Celeste was sitting in the window sill, and August was able to get up really close to her for a few seconds before she jumped down. He went back down and fell asleep at 9:30.
Morning:
Playground:
Getting ready to leave:
Home. Watering the ground:
Evening walk:
