He came out at 7:12, rubbing his eyes. Lay down on the couch beside me. Then sat on the floor, with his head on the couch before going fully on the floor and slowly rolling around on the warm floor for the next several minutes. Watched some math and cow milking videos, then age Cheerios for breakfast. He played some piano and xylophone and we played together. He took the keys out of the piano. To put them back he said “I want Bluie to help us. He’s a nice friend.” We put the keys back and I introduced him to practicing intervals on the xylophone. He’s also working on playing the full chromatic scale.
We went in on the bed. For breakfast I suggested the friends have omelettes. He didn’t know what they were, so we watched a short Jamie Oliver video. They had omelettes, then ice cream, of course. I had Bluie do the rabbit dance, and mentioned I’d invented that when he was a baby and that I think I had it on video. The video wouldn’t play, but we looked at some of his baby photos.
August started describing the languages and alphabets of all the animals, drawing with his finger on the bed. He then took Peter Rabbit and GM out to learn Arabic. We did lion (asad) and home (bayt) (I can’t type Arabic yet), writing them on paper, and he traced letters on the iPad. I got the video working, so we watched the rabbit dance, which was on April 13th, I think, when he was a month old. We did some exercise together, then I went to take a shower.
He was hungry so I got crackers and cheese for him. He was eating that and watching orchestra videos when I went for my shower, and was still there when I came out. He wanted Bluie to do the rabbit dance so we went and did that and recorded the reenactment, as he was pretending to be a baby. While playing on the bed he was talking about things in the ocean and I mentioned sea anemones, which despite our many visits to aquariums he has never seen. So we watched some videos, including one of an anemone that swims. Crazy.
August then pretended to poop on my pillow. He wanted me to be sad so he could comfort me and snuggle.
We skyped with my parents. Got to see the other cat, Cindy, and the crazy amount of snow outside. August was playing piano for them, then leaned on it and it fell over, kind of pinching his fingers against the wall. He recovered though.
After skyping we got ready to go, put the piano keys back in the piano one more time, and headed to Home Plus for class. Got there a few minutes early for once. As we rode up the walkway August pretended to hit every window, etc. with a hammer and break it, repeating “hammer break” over and over.
As I piled all our coats on the bike, August went into class. He apparently went up to the teacher and gave him a high five, but was also pretending to cut open his arm: “I cut the arm open for funsies.” During the annyang song he waved to everyone. Then, during the forward roll time he thought about it, then went and did one forward roll with the teacher. He was very excited and proud about that. Then, when the teacher and kids carried the inflatable walkway to put it away, August helped out for the first time, then came sprinting back to me. He was very proud about doing that as well. I hadn’t realized that he’d been scared about doing that – I just thought he never wanted to. But he kept talking about how he did a forward roll and helped carry it.
Class was all about being barbarians, starting with a barbarian outfit that August wanted to put on. Then they did activities involving spears and fire. He was totally into each activity today; there was no trying something once then deciding he was done. At the end of class they got these Teuni Octopus toys. The teacher did a demo, and pulled one of the octopus legs, making a loud noise in front of August. August was startled and asked “What you did?” Before we left I told August to go say goodbye and bow. August did so, exaggerating his bow as usual. It turned into putting his head on the floor, then doing his flip forward roll, where he stands on his head for a second before rolling over.
We went downstairs for lunch, and decided on the soup counter next to the pizza place in Home Plus. We ordered the udon soup (어묵우동). August played with the skinny chairs while we waited, then really enjoyed all the lunch, even eating a few bites of radish. By the time we left we had planned out our next few Thursday lunches there.
We did some grocery shopping, then headed home, getting there at 3. We colored and read the Doc coloring book, and put together the octopus toy. He ate some dried cherries and watched orchestra videos, then had to go to the bathroom. From the bathroom we heard a cat meowing, but then it stopped, much to his dismay. Back to the dried cherries, he started doing math problems on his own with them: “I’m doing math problems.”
I had explained that we were home early, but he was missing mama a bit more than usual today; he hadn’t nursed at all last night/this morning, so that probably added to it. At one point he asked why mama was late today, and at another point he said “I just want you to have nursing.”
At some point we decided to head back out on his bike. We went to Chrysanthemum Park. But it was rather windy and cloudy along the way. We considered going back at one point. We got to the park and he wanted to go on the swings. But as he got off the bike I said something about hoping that the wind didn’t pick up. He asked what that meant, and I explained. He then got upset and was afraid of the wind. He wanted to be picked up, and he covered his eyes and hid his face against my chest and wanted to go home. I talked to him a couple minutes, and reminded him of how good he had felt after he got over his forward roll/helping carry fears at Teuni Teuni. He then agreed to go on the swing. He closed his eyes for awhile, but then said he wasn’t afraid of the wind anymore. He was happy with himself, and I said something about being proud about himself. He then asked “What if you’re not proud?” We discussed ’embarrassed’ and ‘ashamed’ after that.
It was cold though, so we didn’t stay for a long time. we headed home and were home at 4:40 or so. He was talking about meeting mama today, so about 5:20 we headed out and got on his bike. As we left he said “My hands are not cold. I can nurse.” We rode around the hall a bit, then went downstairs and were riding around, doing wheelies, and met Carly by Pink Burger at 5:35.
They nursed, then he had dinner with me. We were running out of the sauce stuff that Carly had made, so I added some teriyaki sauce. I told August to let me know if it needed more, and the moment the first bite touched his tongue he declared “More teriyaki sauce.” We read part of Berenstain Bears No Girls Allowed, then he played with the Montessorium Numbers app. Carly gave him a bath and washed his hair. It went well, as he decided to like the drips on his face. When he was done he ran out and told me “I like the drips.” Also said he liked brushing his hair. Quite the growth mindset today. He spent some time looking at the skeleton app, then headed to bed and was asleep by 7:45.
Oh, and at some point earlier today I tried to put some music on the iPad (the new Flaming Lips). He asked if it was orchestra music. He let it play for a few songs before insisting we switch to orchestra music.
He was holding a pillow on his head and then started to sneeze. I took a photo just as his hands came down but before the pillow fell off:
Barbarian:
Spear:
Our lunch:
Squinting at the wind:
Because you can’t have enough swing photos:
