He was up a little before 6. I’d tried to distract him with videos as Carly got ready, but that wore off before she left and it was a clingy goodbye. But he calmed down pretty quickly when we got cereal out. Before I took a shower, he wanted to pee in the toilet, so we went into Carly’s bathroom for that. I took a shower, then he played with the handheld one, wanting the water cold and spraying his feet. A bit later, we were in the parlor and he started rolling around on the floor and said “soft is a yes, yes”, referring to the rules for what can be thrown. He wanted Spanish videos, and we watched some Elmo in Spanish, then found a Spanish version of Wheels on the Bus that he really liked.
I was in the kitchen, getting snacks for the day and cutting an apple. He wanted toast, and I asked “How about starting with an apple?” and offered him a slice. He slowly shook his head and seriously said “Bread. Bread, not apple.”
We skyped with my parents, and he traced letters Carly had written on the paper. He also pretended to throw a ball back and forth with my mom. And he sucked water out of the spray bottle, swished it around, and spit it out in the sink. He was imitating me with mouthwash, I think.
He also started putting things away that he found around the house: crayons, stickers, magnets, detergent, spray bottle, his shorts. That was fun to see. He tripped on the little step running out of the bathroom, but he checked and realized he hadn’t scraped his knee. We then talked about how the floor was smooth, and not like concrete or asphalt, and he he remembered the road where he scraped his knee. We did some silly walking around the house before leaving to go to Dream Forest.
As we left, he put his sunglasses on upside down. I stopped by the pink building to check the backpack, and put them right side up for him, but he switched them back to upside down, saying “you’re wearing them upside down.” We sang “Yellow Submarine” on the way to the bus, and he turned it into a chant, saying something after every repetition of “yellow submarine”.
Out of the bus, he didn’t like the light and put his head down. Tried to give him his sunglasses, but he acted like he just wanted to take a nap (it was about 11:30) so I put the top up. He kind of rested on the way, but didn’t fall asleep. In the cover of the art center, we got down and ate lunch (sandwich, apple, string cheese) at a table. He then played with the swinging lids of three garbage cans, and talked to and made faces at a little girl through the doors of the GS 25.
The water in the wading pools came on, and it took some work to get him in, but I lured him in with the ball. He got in and we threw that around a lot, him working on overhand (eventually over hand dropping the ball, which I think helped got him to focus on the hand above his head), and he played with the spray bottle. He was spinning the bottle around in the water as it floated and said “This is a dream catcher”. At one point, a boy started splashing him and I thought he was going to get upset, but he decided he liked it. After that, he got splashed quite a bit and did just fine, and even splashed another mom. Finally, we were working on kicking water, one of many skills he is quickly developing.
Now around 1, we changed him out of his wet swimsuit had a good plan for a nap: walking around the circle area (he said it would take two turns, I said three) to put him to sleep, and going to Cafe Dream then having juice when he woke up. But after 15 minutes of walking he wasn’t acting sleepy, and I wasn’t going to keep walking in 93 degree heat. So we went in and I got coffee and he had orange juice and we sat at a table. He did the Cookie Monster game, but we kept trading off on decorating cookies, so I didn’t get much else done.
When we were done there we headed home. As we walked down the stairs in the building he was looking at all of the photos of spots around the park and said he wanted to go to each of them – kind of like looking at the map yesterday and wanting to go to all the parks. Anyway, he sang about covering something up, poop, etc. as we walked through the park, then touched the water plants near the information center on our way out. We took the bus home, then of course he fell asleep on the walk home, at 2:55. He slept until 3:33 and wasn’t ready to wake up. I got him out, then put him in the stroller. He calmed down, and I started walking the hall to see if he’d fall back to sleep. He was okay with that but then figured out we were just walking in circles and got upset. Went home, but then he wanted to go outside. So we headed out again and then walked a loop up towards Chrysanthemum Park, then back along the road by the stream. As we went out he started yelling for his sunglasses, which I luckily had in my pocket. Back by the building, he wanted water, which I didn’t have, so we went up and got wanted, then headed back out and went to the pink building and bought banana chips and milk and a few other things.
We came home, then went back out and surprised Carly at the elevators. Back in the apartment, he had some good mama time on the reading area. He kept asking her “how was the water?”, referring to her rafting trip today. They watched some videos together, and I put Yellow Submarine (the movie) on his iPad. We had bought tangerines, so I cut up one of those and we ate it, and we had bought mushrooms, so I cooked those, and he ate 3 or 4 mushrooms. He also finished off a string cheese from earlier.
I wanted to go register him for classes at Home Plus (one Teuni Teuni class and one English class) so August went with me. He played in the bus/plane toys while I filled out the form, then he helped me pay by handing over the card and signing the credit card thing. We went downstairs and he helped me shop, choosing soy milk, then wipes.
We paid and went through the park. We stopped at the skateboarding ramps and he played on those. He scooted down one a few times, then was running down it. He said “That’s a thatcher one.”, referring to Thatcher running down the gravel pile by Chuck and Cherie’s. It was now dark, but he wasn’t done: he wanted to go to the art museum, then wanted the playground. I said no. Instead we went to Tous Les Jours to get bread, talking to Sarah along the way for a minute. August wasn’t upset by seeing her, and said hi. After a little while he wanted to go, but was asking nicely: “Go home, please.” We got bread and I let him choose one thing. He chose a little pack of 3 donut holes, one for each of us.
Carly called as we left the bakery and we went up. I gave him a bath, washing his hair. He wanted to do all the washing himself, and with a lot of coaching managed to clean his neck with the washcloth – his neck gets filthy every day now. He and Carly were asleep by 9.
Since returning to this full time parent thing, I’ve noticed just how many skills August is currently developing. I’ve mentioned a few above, but he’s also been focusing on the following:
The door code and buttons, typing in the code to unlock it, then pushing the lever up to lock the door after we are inside.
Kicking, specifically the water.
Twisting the toothpaste lid (and other things) on and off. He does ‘off’ quite well, and is clumsier with ‘on’.
Overhand throwing, and throwing in general.
Tracing.
Telling time and understanding signs – he keeps asking what all the symbols mean on changing stations, stairways, etc.
New words/phrases: noon (I’ve pretty much given up on this list, but this one was pretty notable today, as I use ‘noon’ quite a bit (it is when the fountains turn on), and he used it on his own today.)
Morning:
To Dream Forest:
Water:
Headed home:
Home:
Home Plus:
Home:
