7:17. Opened the door, but closed it again without coming out. Came out a bit later, then went into the parlor. I went in after awhile, and gave him a little note that Carly had left for him. He took it out of the envelope and we read it together.He wanted food. I thought there was pancake batter left, but there wasn’t. He was happy with a smoothie instead. He lay on floor of the kitchen while I got ready. He had me tell him why we wash strawberries several times. When it came to blender time he ran in the parlor and closed the door. Would open the door and say “Are You done?” then close it again when I told him I needed to do more blender.
We did some yoga and exercise together in the morning (sometimes he tells me what to do), then watched Puffin Rock while I took a shower. I also put all of the stuff we were donating to the Beautiful Store out in the halls and labeled it, and found a couple things to add to the pile. It is the first of our donations this year. Meant to get a photo before it all left, but didn’t. Had a lot of his early stuff in it: his first bathtub, his high chair thing, his first potty chair, some baby toys, the train set (that he didn’t really get into), etc.
At some point he said he was still hungry and I asked what he wanted. He got serious and said “Hmmm…something like…something that mama don’t let you have…hmmm…” We settled on oatmeal, then played a lot of piano and xylophone and drums. We also took care of animals using the vet set: the rhino, hippo, and shark. For the shark he used tweezers to remove garbage from its throat.
We left at 10:50. He sat on his own and sang on the train much of the way before wanting me to sit and doing Art Maker. We went up to the CU and got lunch. He instantly grabbed one of those questionable sausage things and wanted to try it. We also got kimbap and a mango juice.
We headed to the children’s museum where I had to renew our memberships. Then up to the cafeteria. On the way up he was talking about the sausage thing and how I didn’t like it. He insisted “Dada! Try out it too.” We ate in the big room for some reason (day off from public school, it appeared). He needed to go to the bathroom and he told me. It was a second full day without diapers.
When we came back he followed me through the lunch room. He then told me “You hit a boy.” We talked about that, but I hadn’t seen it. When I asked why, he said “On purpose” but couldn’t explain more. Nor could he tell me which boy it was. It is a sort of acting out to see what happens thing, as a few minutes later I saw him ‘hit’ a woman too, but it was barely more than a light touch on her arm. We kept eating, and before we had left he had ‘hit’ two other people. Not necessarily what I want him to do, but it seems to be like the baby pooping or washing strawberries thing – wanting to talk about it again and again. And he didn’t do it at all the rest of the day.
After lunch he wanted to go to the art area. So down to the first floor and first the chalkboard. There for a minute, then through the nature area: the minerals, through the tunnel (trying to get the button things to work – the snake wouldn’t light up), up in the treehouse thing, looking at the Venus flytrap chair, the life of a pine tree, etc.) Then on to the arts area: he did ribbon dancing for a couple minutes, then we played with the floor magnets, making shapes (they have also added more colors of magnets).
He wanted a snack of the last of the soy crisps, so we went back up to the cafeteria. Actually, this is when his last two ‘hits’ happened. Ate those, then went to the book room. Played with a tic tac toe game, then went up to the loft. He chose a Korean book and then surprised me by carefully pronouncing three or more lines of Korean, syllable by syllable. There was a mom and girl up there, playing with the dinosaurs and all the balls. August stole a blue ball, but gave it back, then they played with him a bit, rolling balls to him, trading, etc.
Done there, we went next door to the little kids area (which he can use for less than two more months!) We went up to the kitchen where a mom and daughter were playing at the table with the food. The mom set up a chair for August. He sat down, and he ended up playing with the girl. They shared food, then I suggested she wanted tea, and he kept pouring tea for the two of them. Another boy joined in as well. So cute. Suddenly, August got a sad look on his face and said “Can we go home now?” It was now past 2:00, so time for a nap if it was going to happen. Took him to the bathroom, then we headed out.
But he recovered and played around outside for quite awhile. He ran around, jumped, and looked at the plants. He got a blade of long grass and played with that. He heard water rushing under one of the circle areas. Odd, as we’ve never heard it before and it hasn’t been raining. I realized that if you turned your head it sounded like the sound went away. I showed August, and he liked that.
He was then ready for a walk and I got him in the backpack. We walked up to the new playground area, and were both sad to realize they hadn’t made any progress since we last saw it three or four weeks ago. We went to the swings nearby and went swinging for a long, long time. It was nice and sunny today, so felt good. We were there from 3 to about 3:45. He did a lot of regular swinging, then wanted to stand up and was actually swinging that way. I was teaching him out to switch from standing up to sitting down on his own. He also went on his tummy and kept talking about how he could touch the ground that way.
He then wanted a snack, and we went in the minimart, where he commented on how we saw the workers working there (making the awning for the tables). He also was fascinated by some chocolate milk we saw spilled. We got an orange juice, then he found a packet of what I thought were dried strawberries. They were actually gummi things, but still good. We ate those on the walk back to the exit to the park. August walked most of the way. He kept talking about finding the “new benches” and I figured out he meant the place we saw the workers working. That had actually been to the left out of the shop and we had walked the other way. He was a little disappointed, but kept walking.
We went to the bathroom, where he was intrigued by the squat toilets and had to investigate every stall. We then played in the maze painted out on the ground (kind of like the labyrinth in Thailand).
His only real moment of grumpiness came when we got on the subway. No seats, so we were standing at first. He wanted to rabbit and lay on the floor. I wouldn’t let him, so he got upset. We got off after two stops, calmed down, then got on the next train. On the walk home he was singing numbers, then trailed off by the corner. He was falling asleep. I tickled his feet in order to get him home awake.
We were home at 5. Played some Ants Go Marching, then ate pasta salad together and watched Puffin Rock. Carly was home at 5:30. They nursed, then he was just laying on the living room floor. He asked “Why mama home?” “How’s your work going?” “What’d you do in work?” That caught us off guard. In on the toilet, he had me tell him more about washing the strawberries. Carly made him a pancake, and he ate that. We played with play dough, and I had the idea of pressing one of his bracelets into it. We then found other textured things to press it on: the art containers, the play mats, a drum stick.
In the bathroom again we talked about babies and big kids, and I mentioned big kids stopping nursing. He said he was still going to nurse. He was then pretending to drink something, and I thought he was pretending to nurse. He said “No. I’m eating fo-MUL-la”. I had to check with Carly – apparently they did one time discuss how some babies drink formula instead.
Carly gave him a bath while I hung laundry. She mentioned ‘molecules’ (I think she was explaining the washing strawberries thing) and he asked about
them. So they were looking up photos of molecules. I suggested they also look up Venus flytraps. After his bath it was pretty straight to bed, and he was asleep at 7:45.
Photos. Warm spot while I made breakfast:
Removing garbage from the shark:
Looking at the ceiling at CU:
Balls in the reading loft:
Pouring tea:
Grasses:
Standing:
Conquering the swing:
Jumping:
