Strange night. Carly couldn’t sleep so got up at 12:30 and ended up falling asleep in the reading area. August woke up at 5 and they came back to bed. He fell aslee, but she got back up. He then woke up again at 5:40, after which they both fell back to sleep in the reading area. I was confused when I woke up at 6:50 as last I knew they had been in need. I heard them stirring a little before 8, so came out then.
He was very clingy to Carly and the nursing. But when I put on A Hawk and a Hawksaw and he heard instruments like dulcimer and violin and accordion he came and sat in the chair in front of my iPad and pretended to play the instruments.
We then started to make banana bread. Got partway and realized we were out of eggs. So I ran downstairs and got eggs and milk then came back and August and I finished making banana bread. He licked the spatula, then tried to go wipe his face off on the blanket in the reading area. Forced him to wash his face. He did Park Math, and Carly started to make soup. He was hungry, so had some cereal, then I took a shower. When I came out, he and Carly were drawing a picture of a guitar. He had added a “Lot of frets”. They were using the mechanical pencil and eraser, which was a new experience for him and the lead kept breaking. We had an empty paper towel roll and he played around with that.
We then skyped with my parents for a long time. August played mandolin at first, and at one point climbed into the mandolin case. He then did math, and used the calculator on the iPad and took requests for math problems from my parents. We then got the electric piano and was playing that. And Carly got the gummi bears that Glecy had sent as part of his gift but he hadn’t had yet, and he had some of those. Finally, he was playing his pretend instruments on both his brush/comb and also the marker case. Hung up after close to an hour, at 12:45.
He then wanted to watch Cherie’s hand surgery, so he did that. And we tried the new almond soy milk together. He offered it to Carly, of course. He and Carly did math. She wrote a ‘14’ but wrote an open 4. He said “No, I normally do a closed one.” We then read Hop on Pop, and he wanted to write big words on paper, so I wrote Gargantuan, Constantinople, and Timbuktu on paper for him. He then rewrote the two cities (which are in Hop on Pop) a couple times, and added all sorts of lines to the letters – very creative, and I think inspired by On Beyond Zebra. Carly came in and they did more writing together: Even Yehuda and Israel and guitar, and she drew him a picture of a guitar and a hamburger. Finally, he looked at the Musical Instruments book.
We were meeting Megan for ice cream at 2 at Baskin Robbins. A few times he asked if he had to be silent, remembering when he and Carly delivered the flower and message to her yesterday: “Is it a surprise? You don’t have to be silent?”
We went down and found a busy Baskin Robbins. We looked at the flavors, and August and I decided to share Milk and Strawberries. He also got to taste Megan’s very chocolatey one, and Carly’s mint chocolate chip. He hopped on his bike and we all walked over and around the park, and settled on sitting on the edge around the tree in the center (basically where we had sat with Chuck and Cherie to watch the concert, when August started dancing). We ate our ice cream, then Megan suggested he get his shovel from the bike. They played in the sand/dirt together, making a little mountain and exploring the pieces of bark and garbage that they found – and taking a little bark off the tree. August played in there for quite awhile, and said “I like playing in this fresh sand…I love digging.”
Then he heard music from across the park and went to investigate. It was two Korean men, one playing accordion and the other singing. August stood and watched them for quite awhile. There were a lot of older men around. One gave August a couple of hard candies. August got a bit sad when I wouldn’t let him have any, but soon recovered. The men liked August. One liked that he was dancing to the music, and at one point the harmonica player came over and started playing to August. August had to go to the bathroom, so I took him over and did that. Then he took off running back to the music. They stopped a few minutes later, and August was ready to go.
We all walked back to Brownstone, and said goodbye to Megan. Then we walked to the pink building and did a little grocery shopping. August was wanting to drum again, which would have been fine, but he wanted to run around the store. Luckily, he settled for being carried by Carly.
Back home, he looked at the Musical Instruments book, then shared soup with me for dinner. We played GarageBand and keyboard, then he wanted to watch Cherie’s surgery again. He sat at the desk watching it and said “I like Oma’s hand surgery.” At some point we read a couple Frog and Toad stories. We started reading Kipper’s A to Z but he needed to go to the bathroom. In the bathroom he requested watching more of Oma’s hand surgery while he sat there. When he came back he went to his iPad and did math problems on the calculator.
He ate some banana bread and played the piano. I asked him something about the banana bread, and he looked at me and said “Why you talking to the banana bread?”
I gave him his bath. He watched Pirates of the Caribbean three times. To bed soon after that, and he was asleep by 7:45.
Photos. Playing along to the music:
Banana bread:
Guitar:
Paper towel roll:
Surgery:
Ice cream:
Playing:
Harmonica:
Timbuktu (and a silent E):
Timbuktu and Constantinople:
