It was hard to leave Chelan. Our time there definitely flew by. But actually getting out the door was aided by August sleeping until a bit past 9. He was then slow to want to get up; perhaps he sense something was happening. My mom did get to help feed him spaghetti in the morning though, and then we took our traditional family photos near the front of the house before leaving a little after 11.
Carly drove most of the way, from Chelan to the McDonalds east of Monroe. August had a bit of trouble with this, especially when in sunk in that we were going to a new house. I got him to cuddle with Peter Rabbit and Marshy though, and then we read some Wheels on the Bus and a few others, then watched a lot of Kipper and videos from class on the iPad. And he ate most of the strawberries and liked the one short little tunnel by Skykomish. We stopped at McDonald’s and got chicken sandwiches and a room temperature iced latte – there was literally no ice in it. They nursed in the car, then I took over driving, and he fell asleep a bit after that, from around 2:45 to 3:15 when we got to Derek and Andrea’s new house.
It was at first overwhelming for him. Carly took him up to the bedroom and nursed. He made it out into the hallway for a couple minutes with Thatcher, then needed to retreat to the bedroom again. A little before 4 we got him out again, and he went downstairs with me and then outside the front door. There, he started to play with Thatcher, mainly with the sidewalk chalk and a paving stone that Thatcher had made at school that included bits of pottery, glass, keys, and other objects in it. Later in the evening August strung together a sentence something like “Had fun play with Thatcher pieces of glass out”, referring to Thatcher picking out loose pieces of dull glass from it. August also really liked a wind chime hanging on the wall by the door that had plastic beads on it.
Thatcher then led us to the backyard, where the two of them had a lot of fun playing in the big drainage hole, which is a little kid’s dream play area. Derek turned on the hose and let it pore down the side. August was fascinated by this and was enthralled watching a stream form down the hill. It then snuck around him and started to pool at his feet. August was unaware of it until Thatcher pointed it out and August quickly stepped out of it. August did well climbing out of the hole once, then tried walking back down. He slid down, landed on his butt, and slid the rest of the way down the hill.
We ate dinner on cushions and a little table in the yard. Derek had made delicious pesto pasta and veggies. August mainly ate the pasta, and enjoyed using Thatchers forks to eat it. After dinner, Thatcher started showing off his tricks using his red wagon. August wanted to do all of them as well, so Carly and Thatcher would help him balance on the wagon like Thatcher had. Thatcher then jumped out of the wagon, and I was holding August’s hands while he did the same. August was doing a surprisingly good job of jumping up and over the edge of the wagon all on his own – my hands were just there to keep him from falling.
After that, we went in and Carly was preparing dishes for the dishwasher. August has continued to ask “What is the messy?” Every chance he gets, and had done it a couple times to Derek when he was preparing the vegetables. He asked Carly, then answered his own question with “Doing dishes to wash the tomato off.” We went out front and we’re doing sidewalk chalk. And writing some letters. I had noticed that August was pronouncing Thatcher’s slightly off, and then I saw him draw an F and say “F for Fatcher”. August then put on his own sunglasses for awhile. He put them on and said “Like a gnome” (the one on my parents’ back porch.
We all went for a walk, with August in the backpack. He started a “Wiggle, wiggle” song to start with, then we were using the phone to look up all the flowers and some of the trees we came across. We are all going to know our flowers soon enough. He easily identified lavender and maple trees on the walk; I think cedars are going to be next. We did a lot of spinning in the backpack, and the poking mama/I’m not a tree game. August started chanting “I’m not a tree, I’m a person” and drumming on my back. Near the end, I said we were going home, and he had to clarify what that meant. He asked “What house called?” We settled on ‘Thatchers house’.
Back at the house, I took him in on Thatcher’s bed while Andrea read them a dinosaur book. Thatcher was then going to bed, and August would be up for another hour or two, so the three of us got in the car and went to QFC to get some snacks and other supplies. In the car August asked “What store we going to?” There, August really liked the bottles of vitamins and wanted to know the names of all of them. He was pretty hyper, but it worked for us. I was doing the self checkout and realized the hummus didn’t have a barcode. I called the attendant over and she said “Merry Christmas” – in part I think because she saw Carly trying to handle August close by.
We drove back and Carly gave him a quick bath while I caught up on this stuff. He went to sleep a little past 10.
New words/phrases: glass,
Last morning with gramma and grampa:
The drive:
Thatcher throwing a ball at me:
Doing tricks on the wagon:
Going for a walk:
