It ended up being a big big kid day for August. He wore underwear all day for the first time, went down the tube slide on his own several times, and started doing forward rolls on his own in the evening.
He got up at 6:07. I was still asleep and he came over and whispered “Want to nurse”. I got up and told carly, and she took him to the parlor. After nursing he came and did the suggested words stories on my iPad, then found the songbook. We ate some banana bread and then he watched Puffin Rock and I showered. We did a little play dough, then played piano and xylophone. We did a big mosaic of shapes on the paper and colored in much of it. I got up to get cereal at one point and August didn’t want me to go: “I thought we were mosaic together.” When I suggested he could wear his underwear outside he got excited. There was some discussion of a balance bike and he was saying that Logan’s bike is a balance bike. So I showed him a YouTube vide of a balance bike. At the end he said he didn’t want a balance bike, although it wasn’t clear if he was upset because he was worried about the balance bike, or because he had been wrong about our bike being a balance bike: “I don’t want a balance bike to tip over…that’s a balance bike.” (The latter as he pointed to our bike.)
As we were getting ready he was in my bathroom and pointed out the floor needs to be cleaned: “Why dada needs to clean his bathroom?” And at one point he spent several minutes jumping around the room, pulling a sock over his head until he said he was tired.
A couple times during the day he asked about mama being gone, but wasn’t upset. He’s gotten used to having her around for breakfast. At one point, when he pointed out it was dark or breakfast time, he asked why she wasn’t here. “Why mama not here?” He then told me to pretend to be mama. I asked “What does mama say?” He replied, in his best Carly voice: “You’re making mama nervous! You’re deleting all my work!”
He was standing across the table from me and out of the blue said, with a very serious face: “My brothers, I see in your eyes a hunger that makes me sad.” If I didn’t know his propensity for quoting from Puffin Rock it would have freaked me out. But it is a line that the shrew, Mossy, says while giving a speech. He then was asking what ‘hunger’ was. He also turned the line into a song a couple times today.
He was still hungry so we ate strawberries and banana bread. Then played more Ants Go. The refrigerator turned on and made the fan rattling noise he likes. We just kept playing music, adding in the drums and the kalimba. The cheap drum head was breaking, so we fixed that with tape. We played music until 10:50. More than 40 minutes.
August noticed that Angeles had fallen off the chair. I set Angeles on top of the piano and August said “That’s a lovely bench.” August asked why Angele’s hair is blue, and I said some people like to dye their hair. August directed his next question to Angeles, not me: “What’s hair dye, Angeles?” I asked “Do you want to dye your hair?” He got a thinking face and said “Ummm…no.”
As we finally got ready to head outside, he said he wanted 11 pairs of socks. Actually, it was 100 at one point. After some more silliness on the floor, we headed out.
We went over to the park past the pink building, where the boys had been on the swings before. This time we had them to ourselves. August noted a few times that we were the only ones there, or that there were just adults walking through the park. Besides the swing he also played on the exercise equipment, pointed on some “dirty snow” and started investigating everything he found on the ground, especially gum stuck on the ground, as there seemed to be a lot of it. He had ridden the bike there, but walked much of the way to the pink building before getting back on.
We went to the pink building at noon where we went to the food court and chose an omelette and hamburger steak for lunch. While we waited we went and looked at all the kitchens and the food that was being made. It was good (for 5 bucks) and he also ate the pickled radish for the first time in quite awhile, eating about half a piece. He barely tasted the pickled ginger, as he was afraid it was spicy (it was), but he ate most of the soup that came with it as well (which is good, because I don’t really like it).
At 12:45 we went to the bathroom in the movie theater. He was standing at a urinal at first and couldn’t go, and said “Maybe the pipe in my penis isn’t working.” So funny, but also an interesting use of language. He also commented on the nice bathroom, saying “This bathroom looks nice.”
On our way out he wanted to go in the kids book room. We went in and ended spending a lot of time reading. We started with a book called Duck goes Potty, which we read three times, and he did a lot of the reading. We ended up reading three more: It’s Raining Cats and Frogs!, Ding-Dong-Ding!, and Chocolate Mud Cake, each which we read more than once. He would have kept going, and was climbing on the shelves to get more. But it was definitely time for a nap, since he had gotten up so early.
We got home at 1:45. Ate some strawberries and played the musical instruments, then went on the toilet. He then sang one of his “My brothers, I see in your eyes a hunger…” songs.
We got walking, in the stroller this time, and he fell asleep at 2:28. Had walked by the Sarang Bbang coffee shop, but it was closed, so headed back to Brownstone. Almost just came home, but decided to go in Ediya, as I’ve never actually been to the one in our building (the one that replaced the bubble tea place). While there, Torrey came in and we talked for a minute about Israel and India (where they are going).
When he left, I pushed August home, and woke him up at 3:15. Took him awhile to wake up. We did a little play dough together, some some yoga, then he found his little baby trumpet and played that a lot. He was getting quite loud, pretending to wake me up, and I made a joke about bothering the neighbors. He took this pretty seriously at first, and I had to assure him they couldn’t hear.
We went out one more time on his bike. We rode around the park and over the bridge. He wanted to cross the street, so we went down the walkway by Home Plus, then headed back to the playground. Went on the swings, then he saw two slightly older brothers doing the tube slide (which August today decided should be called the ‘pipe slide’). August did it a couple of times, needing my help to get going. But then he figured it out, and did it entirely on his own about 6 times. He still wanted me to spot him at the top, but I wasn’t touching him at all. I had told Carly we were there and she came and, unknown to him, watched him go down the last time. This was all very exciting for him, and he was very proud of himself.
We went home about 5:30 and they nursed. Then ate dinner and played piano and xylophone and drums. He asked for a Flynne story and I told the one where she is mean. He wanted a new one where she is hungry, but we got distracted before I could come up with that one. He then read the Milk Bob book with Carly. I got stuff ready for Beautiful Store and they were playing. August took the baby blankets from me while I was carrying them. After that, he took a long bath with me. He wanted to write ABCs with the squirt cars and sing the ABC song. We haven’t done that for a long time. He then had squeaky feet as he walked around the house. He then read Berenstain Bears and the Double Dare with Carly. But he hid behind me on the reading area while she read, covering his head with one of the baby blankets. She kept asking if he wanted her to keep reading, and he said yes. Afterwards, he pretended to be a sheep.
She went to take a shower and he and I went in on the bed and he sang to the songbook. He came up with all sorts of songs. A few:
“Good friends everywhere
Cat and a dog
Cat and a God
Fri nds everywhere
.”
“The pool
I can go in there
If I pay money
You have to be seventy years old
To go in there…
Seventy years, not seven…”
“This song is called ‘I can go whenever you want’”
Finally, we read Berenstain Bears Go to School. He was then being silly on the bed and surprised himself by doing a forward roll. Another exciting moment. He kept trying to do more, and was successful a couple times, but the first one was the best. He then pulled all the pillows over as if he was making a fort, but then pulled Carly’s blanket over on my bed and said “You’re taking over dada’s bed…Dada cannot sleep anywhere…why you not giving any space to him? No space.”
While playing around, I bonked him in the head worth my elbow. He got a bit upset, but not hurt enough to cry. He went to Carly and wanted to go to sleep. But after bit they came back out. Just for a few minutes though, and then she had him back in the bedroom. I went to bed a few minutes later and he was still awake, but calm. He fell asleep a couple minutes later, just after 10.
Oh, and this morning I finally read the shirt I got from my parents for Christmas. August saw it and asked why it said ‘English’ on it.
Photos. Our mosaic:
Park. Dirty snow:
Exercise equipment:
Lunch:
Radish:
Pushing:
Wanting more books:
Waking up:
Hiding while Carly reads:
