He was up at 6:08. Spent time with Carly, then wanted a video of a rocket. We launched a couple, then Carly was ready to go. August wanted to go with her, so they nursed a couple more minutes and he was okay. He wanted to find out how the ear works, so we looked up videos and watched a couple of those. He was hungry so I got oatmeal for him. He ate that and we watched videos of the marble machine and how it was built. He then decided he wanted to do Hangeul on the iPad. Just a couple minutes of that and he said “Let’s write some syllables.” We went into the parlor and were looking for paper he could write on. I offered a page that was half full and he said “That’s a full one…Let’s go ahead and do the little one.”
He did some Cookie Monster, then tried Artie’s World. I remembered I’d found a Puffin Rock music app. Sadly, there isn’t much to it and we were done with it after about 5 minutes. We tried playing checkers, but also abandoned that after a couple minutes. We did some exercise, then I was about to put an end to iPad time, but he wanted to compose music in Notion, so I let him do that.
Went in to the bed to make the friends breakfast. But then he was jumping around and being too loud. I eventually left because he couldn’t stay quiet and he followed. A minute later he wanted to go back. When we got to the room he said “Don’t think I’m going to be quiet.” But then he was better when jumping on the bed.
I took a shower while he watched marble machine and symphony videos. He brushed his teeth, then did days of the week with Duplos. This time, he gave Carly a much nicer work schedule. We talked about giving Carly her chocolate this evening. He said “Why mama want some chocolate to eat? A smidgen of a smudgen of a smidgen.” A phrase he’s gotten from her. He went to the bathroom, and when done washed his hands and turned off the lights on his own. He came out saying: “Two things proud…Zinnie proud of himself.”
Had an apple slice, then we got going around noon. Put him in the backpack at the station and walked to the botanical garden building and ate lunch upstairs. As we started to eat, he pointed to the plants and said “I’m not going to grab those leaves..and I not going to pull those.” Great, but later he realized he could stomp on a branch of ivy and so there was that. He started talking about nursing and he said “I like to nurse all the time.” When I suggested he start snuggling with mama sometimes instead of nursing, he said “I don’t want to do that.”
He said a few times that he wanted to go down to the fish and banana tree area, and he even walked down the stairs all on his own. But downstairs he said he was too tired for that and he wanted to get going. We walked by the playground, but the swings were inundated by a school group. Went up and went to the bathroom, then went and sat on the bleachers. At first though he reenacted where he tripped, and ran up and down the drainage line. He then asked “Is this a wheel chair seat?” because of the symbols on the ground. He then did his “What if you sit here…not move?” line of questioning, which he does several times a day. When I say ‘I don’t know’ or ‘I don’t want to find out’ he will often extend it himself to the police coming. Today he was also asking what would happen if we didn’t pay our heating bill, and suggested we hide in a tree if the police came.
Anyway, we sat in the sun and also counted the people in the stadium for awhile (it was 6 at first, but people came and went), then got going for a walk. He was fighting a nap though, even though he was up early and clearly tired. We walked awhile, but then he said he was hungry. When I said he had just eaten lunch he broke out crying. Stopped at a bench, and gave him crackers, but he was still sad and would just hold them. Had to get him out and hold him awhile. He calmed down and walked around eating crackers for awhile, then we tried again. Still took another 15+ minutes. Right before he dozed off he chuckled about something a couple times.
He was asleep 2:24 to 3:57 in the upstairs coffee shop. Tried waking him up around 3:40 but he was sound asleep. Woke him up at the end. He woke up and said he wanted to get food at the coffee shop. I told him not today. Between the children’s museum and the playground he chose the playground, so we headed that way. But as we walked into the playground he said he was too tired and just wanted to go home. At some point, can’t remember if it was now or earlier, he also had me pick him up and he covered his eyes and put his head on my chest. I asked if he was sad (I think he had mentioned mama before that) but he said “No. Just resting.”
But I took him all the way to the swings, and when he saw the empty swing he changed his mind. Went on for a few minutes. At one point I asked Did you say something? He said no, and bluntly “You were wrong.” Off there, he talked about going home, but it was a slow going home. He played around, stepping on the white bricks, then wanted a snack so we stopped at a bench. Ate more crackers, then he had fun stepping and jumping on the bricks, hitting a bush, and doing hopscotch. He was then teaching me different variations of hopscotch by the garbage cans, and had me do them wrong a few times: “Dada can’t do hopscotch…dada hasn’t practiced”
Stopped at the bathroom by the exit, then to the train. He was doing some interesting singing on the way in. On the train he did some art (he’s going through a single color canvas stage, where he just fills a canvas with green, then does a new canvas and fills it with pink, etc.) and Cookie Monster. All was smooth until I picked him up to get off and we had some difficulty with yelling.
We got home at 5:40. August got the chocolate and handed it to her and said “Happy Valentine’s Day”. They then shared some. We ate dinner, and he watched some orchestra (he’d been talking about watching orchestra since we headed home) and marble machine videos. I notice he is watching part of the videos, then repeating the beginning several times. I think he is learning the music.
He and I made banana bread. I had gotten all the ingredients out while they nursed, then asked him what he thought we were making. He looked over the ingredients and got really excited, but was hesitant to guess, but finally did with a lot of encouragement.
When it was in the cooker, he played piano. I taught him the last bass note change for his two handed version of Are You Sleeping. He got that down, and has the song pretty smooth. Very proud of himself. I asked what song next, and he wants Yankee Doodle. So we spent maybe 15 minutes starting to learn that. They nursed, then there was an announcement at 8. My job of covering up the speaker has worked; we still heard it, but the extreme volume and shrillness are gone. August still wasn’t too fond. He got up and wanted to go to the bedroom, saying it was sleepy time. Instead, they went and read Three Questions in the parlor. I got his bath ready. But they took a long time in the parlor and had to add some hot water back in.
They had a fun time in the bath. When he came out we had some banana bread. He made a really good yummy face, so I asked him to make his yummy face again for a photo and he did. He wanted to take photos, and I let him take one photo with my camera. He and Carly headed to bed at 9:30 or a little after and were soon asleep.
Photos. Hangeul syllables:
Pregnant spot:
Wheelchair seat:
Squares:
Snack spot:
Train orchestra:
Yummy face for banana bread:
