August was up just past 7, and started the day eating Cheerios with Thatcher and Vivian. When I started watching him, he was playing with a ball, and kind of asking what he could throw it at or over: the window, the rocking cow, etc. He got out the crayons, and we got out the Peppa Pig workbooks and did them with Vivian. Carly had gone to get some work done, and he was fine until he noticed she was gone. Went from totally fine to upset in about 10 seconds. I took him downstairs, and distracted him with the DVD player – he was intrigued as soon as I turned it on. The Last Unicorn and The Secret of Nimh were sitting there, and he initially chose The Last Unicorn. But then he saw me struggling to open it, and he helpfully changed his mind. We started watching it, and Derek came by and asked “Isn’t this a scary movie?” I said yes, but I didn’t think August would watch a lot of it. We fast forwarded to a mouse part and indeed, August watched about 2 minutes then was done.
Back upstairs, Carly came out. There were some bags of kids clothes being talked over, and August was smelling them. Carly had Colin, and put him in the Ergo. He was totally chill in there for the next 45 minutes or so. August wanted a piggy back ride at some point – the first time he’s offered that. August smelled my coffee, then I was offering him the different kinds of ground coffee to smell, and he wanted to smell the compost.
Andrea was taking Thatcher, Vivian, and Colin on a walk, and Carly and I took August and Colin (still in the Ergo) along. We walked as far as the entrance to the trail, then turned back and Andrea kept going. August was really waving at cars as they went by.
Back at the house, my parents showed up. We hung out with them, and my mom helped prepare for the party. August fell asleep for a nap around 1:30 and just kept sleeping. The party was in full swing for quite awhile by the time we woke him up at 4. At one point I had been talking to Chris and planning an Althauser/Niman brewery tour of southern Germany, where both the families are supposedly from. August didn’t want to wake up, but finally perked up when we offered him a cookie. Got him outside, and eventually he sat on my mom’s lap and ate some watermelon. Eventually, I took August downstairs and he spotted Kayla at the other end of the patio area. August then sat down on a blanket and did some hammering with a toy hammer (He said “Kayla was playing with this.” although I don’t know what he based that on). He ended up with Carly or my mom, and I went around and took some photos of the party. When I had started walking around with him he had spotted the foods, specifically the desserts, and had a bite of chocolate brownie. He wanted more, but it turned out it was gone. However, my dad had a brownie, and August got a bite of that. He then played around the driveway area in and around all the kids and grown ups doing water balloons and spraying each other. August did some singing, then eventually wanted to head back in because he wanted a “cupcake with star” sprinkles in an ice cream cone. We had first seen them when visiting with Cadance and Hattie, then he was reminded of them when a couple of the older boys came out with them. We got him a cupcake, then I set him down on the couch between Carly and Glecy to eat it.
After that, there was a big photo of most of the kids out in the driveway; he made it through the first round of that, but then took off and wouldn’t go back for the redo once Thatcher showed up. Back inside, he was letting Colin try to drink from his water bottle. He drank from it himself and ended up coughing. And coughing. Then it became clear that he was fake coughing. So he and Glecy were fake coughing together, then moved to fake sneezing. Thatcher had been looking for snakes with his grandpa, and they cornered one, so we went and saw the snake. We then did some cousin photos down by the bushes down below. Back inside, we said goodbye to my parents, who went back to their hotel and now past 7 August and Colin and Kayla hung out with Oma. We then did a cousins photo on the couch. Kind of a circus getting them to agree to it, and many cookies were handed out across the course of the cousins photos.
August then hung out with Vivian and Thatcher as they took a long, long bath. August wouldn’t get in with them, but played from outside the tub. When I went up they were making milkshakes using cups and bubbles. They finally got out, and I almost got August in – we had to remove all the toys and drain the water of bubbles before he considered it – but then he really, really wanted to see Vivian and Thatcher. So we followed them around, bouncing between checking in on Thatcher and up to Vivian who didn’t want to see anyone at the time. Eventually, Carly got August in the bath, and Andrea and Glecy read the Frida book to Vivian and Thatcher. August came down from his bath, and did some left/right up/down stomping and dancing with Glecy. Then the three older cousins sat with Andrea as she read Skippyjohn Jones.
Vivian and Thatcher headed off to sleep at 9, and it took the next two hours to put August to sleep. We spent a lot of time smelling the soaps from the shower. August would go in and get one, bring it out, smell it, then put it back. He said to himself “You can smell another one when you put it away.” He heard Vivian crying upstairs and decided “She’s sad because she doesn’t want to go to sleep.” He and Carly nursed for awhile, then he came out and walked straight to the window and looked out for awhile. Then Derek came up, and August got excited and ‘stung’ him for awhile. They went back in and tried again, but he kept popping up and talking about Vivian crying (“Maybe she said because…Mama…Colin…want to see Thatcher…), trying to work out different reasons she might be crying, and saying “Where’s Thatcher?” He was back out again one more time at 10:30. I took him back in the bedroom and sang a couple songs as Carly slept and he chewed on the plastic whale he was holding. He got up and we went into the shower and smelled the shampoos and conditioners again (he said the conditioner smells like apple). Finally, just before 11 he wanted to nurse again. I left and heard a little more talking after that, and he was asleep at or a little past 11.
New words/phrases: conditioner, cupcake
Morning:
Walk. Waving at cars:
Home:
Party:
After the party:
Milkshakes in the bath:
Reading Frida:
Reading Skippyjohn Jones:
