He was up just before 8. They nursed, then he typed, then we watched Puffin Rock together. Carly made the pancakes for breakfast, and August ate a ton of them. They skyped with Vivian, and August and Vivian sent a little math back and forth, then with Cherie. Carly then hung up the second string of lights. I took a shower, and came out to find August getting upset that he couldn’t climb up on the chair like mama. A couple times during the morning, if he saw me typing on my iPad he would want to come over and type. Did that, then he played with the SoundPrism and Noise music apps. Carly got out the vacuum cleaner, and he spent a long time helping to vacuum.
He asked Carly about the season, and she said ‘late autumn’. He then asked “What if it is morning autumn?” Don’t think that one was an intentional joke, but very cute. He was playing with Smokey, and once again asked what the belt was for. He answered his own question: “His pants fall down like this.” and pulled down his own pants. He threw Smokey around, and at some point we read the Smokey Bear book. He then painted with Carly, and played a little Musyc before taking a nap.
He slept from 1:30 to 2:15ish. He came out and fell back asleep on Carly until about 3:30. He was hungry, and wanted alphabet pasta. He wanted to try it raw, and ate a little handful of it that way before the pasta was cooked. He and I wrote words and musical notes on paper. He was still hungry, so ate some apple. He really rejects the skin nowadays. He wanted melogold, so I peeled one, but then he changed his mind.
Carly was organizing in her closet, and he went in and helped. He kept moving clothes around and saying he was organizing or going to clean them: “I’m very helpful.” “You can have your pajamas in a second but I’m gonna wash it first.” He also kept saying he was going to find things that mama lost. He would look through his drawer of random things in the kitchen and take something to her.
We got ready to go outside and play. Derek was still sick, and they had asked if Jill could bring the two kids over and hang out with us. So we were going outside to play for awhile before they got here.
He peed on the big toilet in Carly’s bathroom. Yesterday he had gone on the one in my bathroom. And he has a new fake word: twuxchwenicalll. For this one he said it has 3 Ls. Finally, before we left I asked what he wanted to do. He said ‘Dragon Park’ and when I asked where it was, he once again said it was by mama’s work. In the spring we’ll have to double back to all the playgrounds by her work and see if one is the dragon playground.
At the park there was a food-related thing going on. Carly went to get a tea from the vending machine. August want around to the left and saw a mouse in the bush. Carly then saw it. He helped Carly get her tea. He then wanted the coins that came out as change: “I need the coins…I want a drink.” Carly said he could get a job and get his own coins, and he liked that idea: “I want to go to work…NOW! Fine.” Of course, this meant he also wanted to go play in Carly’s classroom now. This came up a couple times during the weekend, and I assured him we would go visit again soon.
There was a booth selling food: a rice thing, and a cabbage and meat thing. August wanted some, so we bought it, letting him pay. We went by the playground and ate it. He liked the rice, and said he liked the seaweed in it. He liked the sweet potato from the other dish, but got a couple of bites that were too spicy for him.
We played the nervous game, then he played on the play structure. He did the tube slide several times. He figured out how to get on it on his own, and was sliding himself down. A few times I let him do the last several feet all on his own. He was done with that and playing in the dinosaur footprints when Jill showed up. Logan brought a ball and was throwing it around, then when the swings opened up went on them. August wanted his gloves on, so we put them on, then he went on the swing by himself. Carly pushed him a little. He really hasn’t been interested in swings the last few months. He wanted to go up to the sky, he said, so he sat on Carly’s lap and they did more swinging.
We headed inside. Inside, everyone played in the parlor at first, with blocks and the train and Duplos. Then out to the living room for play dough. August used the play dough knife to cut up the yellow, and said he was making bones. Carly asked how he knew about bones, and I started listing all the ways bones have come up: skeletons at the zoo and aquarium, my arm, playing vet with the animals, all of his ‘What happens if you break…? questions, feeling his own bones, the anatomy app… I didn’t realize there were so many ways. Carly asked what kind of bones they were, and he said ‘jellyfish’. Which is funny, and wrong, but also made sense, since we have talked about jellyfish in regards to bones, only saying they DON’T have bones.
Finally, the last big activity was bubbles in the sink in the bathroom. Logan went in and the two of them played in the sink for 15 minutes or so, spraying bubbles, scooping them up, etc. Previously, August had been careful about not touching them. Logan, however, dives right in to things. August saw this and started dipping his hands and arms in. Of course, August doesn’t like to roll up his sleeves, so they were quickly soaked, and we took off his shirt.
They had eaten the last of the pancakes and strawberries and some other fruit as a snack. It was now time to go, and August wanted to walk out with them. So I carried him down to the elevators and we said goodbye as they got in.
Back in the apartment, he ate some letter pasta for dinner, and shared some soup with me while Carly took a shower. I gave him a bath, washing his hair. He wasn’t thrilled by it, so it was a short bath. We did some typing and then Musyc on my iPad. I had photographed Everyone Poops the last time we were in Uijeongbu, and today I had turned it into a pdf document (it isn’t available to buy digitally). We had read it sometime earlier, and now we read it again. And again. And again. And then he wanted to go on the big toilet again. And he pooped.
We then went into bed for the first time. He was looking tired. We read Goodnight Gorilla. Then he went back in and pooped on the toilet again. A few minutes later he was peeing on the toilet. He was very excited by this development, and his ability to climb up by himself, as Carly had put the stool there and he was now practicing. He kept talking about being a big kid: “What you big kid now about?” He sat on the toilet by himself about a dozen times. He had also requested footsie pajamas. He let Carly put them on all the way before he changed his mind and wanted them off. Out of no where he asked “What APIS stand for?…Where mama works.” He was seeming pretty hyper, but it was already 9:30, so Carly tried for sleep. Awhile later he was insisting on a banana, so Carly had me bring one in and eat it in there. She was keeping him in the room. I sang to him for a bit. She tried again, and I went and got ready for bed. It was 10:30. He was still upset and claiming he wasn’t sleepy. He got up and insisted “Want to fall asleep on the carpet…dada come.” I let him get out the door. As he got to the parlor he celebrated “I was sneaking! Ha ha ha!” After three big laughs – I hadn’t touched him or said anything – he instantly turned to sobbing and he headed back to bed. He climbed up with Carly to nurse and finally fell asleep a few minutes later at 10:45.
Photos. Painting:
Park:
Playing inside:
