A big day for him, as he got more in the water than he ever has before – after refusing to get out of the stroller for the first half hour we were at the water park.
He was up at 7:45. More upset today. First thing he did was go to the front door and want to go out. He turned the knob thing, which actually locked it. Held him for a few minutes in the bedroom, then he was ready to go. I told him I needed to take off his diaper as he was leaking, and he laid down in the parlor. For several minutes. After I put on a new diaper, he asked “What for daytime?” Now playing with the piano and singing.
He asked where his blue water was and I said the grey backpack. He said “Nope. Maybe she took it to work.” He then sang his favorite colors in play dough and the order in which he wanted to press letters into it. “Want to rock my baby A.” He did some more GarageBand, and some good dancing to the bass guitar, then I took a shower. We then made a smoothie together, and then skyped with Cherie, Kayla, Thatcher, and Derek. Cherie and Thatcher had made a fort, so August wanted to as well, so I made a fort. August was very excited to see them, and at first was knocking the iPad over. He also tickled them a lot through the screen. After we ended the call, we played in the fort, and he had the Duplo zebra and giraffe do the activity book in there: lifting up the octopus arms, pulling the zipper, etc. We did some more play dough, then I was using my ‘sir’ voice when I changed him, and he really liked that, so I kept it up as we brushed our teeth.
Finally, we left in the stroller to go to the water park at Madeul. At the park, from 10:47 to about 11:20 he wouldn’t get out of the stroller. He ate crackers, then watched me wade in the water and the other kids. Finally got him to let me hold him and walked in the water. Had just started dipping his feet in the water when a lifeguard told me he couldn’t have his shoes on. Sigh. Took another 5 to 10 minutes to distract him and get his shoes off. But from then until 11:50, when they close the pools for 10 minutes, I was starting to get him into the water and wading. He was put off by the big kids that kept running by and splashing, and all the things everywhere that spray water, but he was fascinated by the floor colors and wanted to walk on the yellow floor, which was a bit deeper.
From 11:50 to noon we took a break and had some lunch. Soon after they reopened the pools, we went over to the regular pool, and stayed in there until we left at 1. And this was the big breakthrough. There are three steps that go down to the bottom, and eventually he was standing on the bottom, about up to his arm pits. He was fascinated by those blow up toys the other kids had, and wanted to touch them. So I kept telling him that if he got out farther he could reach them easier. Eventually I was floating him around the pool on his stomach, holding him, and we went out to the center rope (about up to my waist) when he was intrigued by it. We spent 15 minutes or so walking back and forth along it, him touching the floats on it (red, blue, red blue) with one hand, counting with his other fingers, and him singing Wheels on the Bus and Five Little Ducks to himself. He saw one of his favorite blowup car toys next to the pool and got out to touch that. The father offered to let us use it, but August only wanted to see it floating in the water. We did more floating around the pool, on his stomach and back (although only slightly getting his head wet), and I was also getting him to sort of climb out at the edge of the pool by himself. The last couple minutes we went to the corner and I got my phone out of the backpack and I tried to get a couple photos, and he stood on the steps singing to himself and stepped in and out of the water on his own a couple times.
At one he was ready for a snack and to get dry. But then he was actually fine staying in his wet clothes, so we just packed up and headed home. At home I mentioned us changing into dry clothes we started taking clothes off. August is used to Carly going to get her privacy when she changes, so he started talking about it: “I’ll get some privacy in the tent…Zinnie’s naked. Dada’s not naked. He’s got shorts on. I’ll get some privacy. I’ll close the door.” Then, he made up a new verb that I liked, when talking about the air conditioner: “It’s not temperaturing…the heat.” He played naked for quite awhile, then I finally got clothes on him and back out for a walk to see if he would go to sleep at 2:50. Late, but it still took time to get him to fall asleep. He fell asleep at 3:15 and we went to the women’s business center. At 3:57 he sort of woke up and I said good, as I was going to try to get him up at 4. We left (a woman pointed out to me that it was raining…it wasn’t much and I never opened my umbrella), but he fell right back to sleep. Tried to wake him a couple times on the walk home.
At home, he let out a “Noo!” when I picked him up out of the stroller, but he fell back to sleep on my shoulder. A little later I figured laying him on the couch would wake him up as I have almost NEVER been able to set him down without waking him. But no. Right to sleep. At one point I woke him up and sat him up and he said “Where’s mama?” But when I said she wasn’t home yet, he went back to sleep sitting up. Then he laid back down. Then he rolled over. Obviously he needed the sleep. At 5:15, finally, I touched him and mentioned going to wait at the elevators for mama, and he popped up. We went out, and she came off the elevator about 10 seconds later.
We went back in and they nursed and I prepared dinner. He was talking more about privacy, then wanted to be naked so I took his clothes off. He then went in the parlor and closed the door for privacy. He let Carly in and they nursed, talked, and cuddled. Came out and he wanted to use the eraser, so I was writing words like ‘Kipper’ and ‘reading area’ for him to erase. He crawled under the dinner table, so we spent a few minutes looking at all the cords, and discussing what he could and couldn’t touch. He washed dishes with Carly, and a few times during the evening he went into the bathroom and peed on his own.
At some point (8 or so) he talked about “Go to sleep with dada.” So we went in to read books. But mainly it turned into a counting books exercise: “I got six books…want Zinnie to get seven books!” Then he would go get another one. He laid in bed with Carly for a long time, then came back out and we played with the blender. In the parlor I started reading Me and My Dad. I said the author’s name and he said “Where Alison Ritchie go? We haven’t met her.” Which is interesting because, while I often say the author’s name, I don’t remember ever talking about the authors as people. Nor does he know someone named ‘Alison’. So a very interesting connection for him to make. We didn’t get far in the book, however, as he wanted me to hold him up and spin him like the bear dad does. So I did, then he wanted to spin in the chair. After some chair spinning, he was doing his water pen book – the numbers one. Doing that, it became clear that he is easily counting things up to 15 or 20. Although for the 20 one he used my finger to help him keep his place as he counted them (but he was the one using my finger).
Carly gave him a bath and they played the milkshakes game – apparently making “yucky” milkshakes this time. He then played with the blended again with me, making a “green soup” smoothie for the Duplo zebra. We went to bed, and he did some good singing and dancing there. Carly tried to put him to sleep, but after awhile he was back up with me. We read the little Sesame Street environmental book, and starting with the insects, he kept point out the window and saying that everything was “outside”. Finally, he suddenly got up and on his own started doing some cleaning: putting Duplo pieces away, closing a drawer, picking up a paper towel off the floor and setting it on the table (“I’ll just set it her
e”). A minute of that and then he walked down to the bedroom and got in with mama. I did hear a little talking from him a few minutes later, but it was then quiet and he was asleep just past 10:30.
Morning:
Water Park. Not getting out of the stroller:
In the water:
Home:
Sleeping in every position:
Evening:
Up late with me:
