When I went to bed last night I had my headphones on, and looked over a few minutes later to see August missing. He had gotten up and gone to Carly. They were then up before 5. August was wondering where I was, so she opened the door so he could see me, and he yelled. I went back to sleep. At some point Carly was able to doze while he was up. I got up and Carly made oatmeal and they painted another pig mask for Colin and Vivian. He then played sink or float, after which Carly started an Indian kid’s video about why things float or sink. When he wanted to watch a second one Carly went to rest and he came and watched with me and ate banana bread. We then did sink or swim, finding boat-like things that both floated and sank. We then went in the parlor and played pretend go and checkers. That got silly, then we had a pillow fight. He decided he didn’t like that, and moved to counting the cardboard blocks, counting by two. He said he needed to go to the bathroom, but then was just walking around, counting by twos. He can get to 18 or 20 on his own.
Nursed and read Little House. He came out with the Kleenex box, counting the flowers on it and the petals on them. That sort of led to math with magnets on the door. I asked if he remembered going to mama last night. He didn’t reply. Then said “I’m busy. Too busy to answer.” Carly was cutting vegetables in the kitchen and he asked what she was doing and I joked she was making zucchini coffee. He liked that and kept asking “Why you making zucchini coffee?”
The math on the door (addition, counting by fives) then led to playing piano. I got the Wee Sing Dionsaurs book and we worked on learning “If I was a Dinosaur”. He then wanted to play mandolin, so we took that in the parlor and played for a long time. Carly was making fried rice. He had me doing chords from the mandolin book and he was strumming them. He then played on his own, trying to see how high he could play (pushing with his thumb, as that is easiest for him) and making up chords.
He needed to go to the bathroom, but once again took several minutes to get there. He was walking around the apartment, pretending to play instruments: “I’m playing hard rock guitar…I’m playing chords…I’ve got a pipa…F chord…G chord…D chord…”
He spent a long time sitting on the toilet, and that turned into singing Yankee Doodle and asking about the words. He then went and made up songs on the piano and I went to take a shower.
They had fried rice and we played mandolin when I came out. We brushed our teeth, then read Willy’s Stories. They nursed, then we left a little before noon.
We went to Juicy Juice. Carly got fresh strawberry, August had strawberry banana, and I had mixed fruit. While we waited he was jumping, and I asked if he could jump backwards. He thought about this, then managed to jump backwards with two feet. That was a little exciting. He was then jumping over my jumps, like in checkers (which we played a little a few days ago).
We got walking along the stream and he was singing his Mani song. We stopped where there is a seating area to go in circles on the bike on a circle on the ground. Carly was sitting on the stairs/seats and he said “I’m gonna get mama.” Spent a good amount of time in the sun. He was a cat. We added to the Juicy Juice song: “Oh juicy Juice store, where is the bathroom door? I drank so much juice at the juice juice store?” He also wanted poop songs, requesting Elmo (we did Cookie Monster before). At one point he tripped and fell and almost whacked his head on a seat. Just missed, and. He was okay.
We went up to the park, which is the Poli Safety Park. He liked seeing the characters this time, since he knows them. Spent most of his time climbing up on the play structure, then going down the slides. He went down a bumpy one and liked it. He’s never liked the bumpy ones for the longest time. I remember going down one at the water park across from APIS (when it wasn’t a water park) and he didn’t like it. Since then he’s always been skeptical of any slide that looks like it curves, and I have to assure him they aren’t bumpy. This one was, but he didn’t care, and went down a few times.
There was a girl going down the slide, and a few times he timed it so he would go down the one next to her at the same time, like when he goes down with me or Carly (which we also did). August and Carly explored the play structure a bit more, then went to the bathroom and we we walked home along the streets. He made a diamond with his fingers then made letters by moving his fingers: “diamond turns to W turns to M”
At home he did letter math: “T minus Q equals negative X”. Carly did some work and we watched English horn and bugle videos, then played mandolin. I got some peanuts out, which we never had, and he ate a few.
Eventually I suggested we go outside, and we left, giving Carly some peace, at about 3. We walked to the ‘Four Swing Playground’. Spent our whole time on the swings. At some point he added the words “Swimming goggles on” to a song – Yankee Doodle, I think. The big thing was that he figured out how to stand up, then kneel or sit down on the swings all on his own. He did it several times after I spotted him the first time.
On the way home we stopped at Tous les Jours for bread and spent a few minutes looking at cakes, discussing what we should get for my birthday. We were home at 4:15. They nursed and read Little House. He played piano, then we did TodoMath. I asked if he wanted to do it alone or with me, and he wanted me there. We then did the Green Eggs and Ham app and he was getting sleepy. Had fried rice for dinner, then Carly gave him a bath. They talked a lot about temperatures and Celsius versus Fahrenheit. He got through his bath just fine – a nice surprise as he was so sleepy. To keep him up a bit more I had promised some hot chocolate after his bath. So we had that, then he and Carly played with play dough for awhile. He decided his favorite color is currently turquoise and wanted to spell it. I explained it, and we discussed how crazy the ‘quiose’ part is, with 3 vowels, a ‘s’ that makes a ‘z’ sound and a silent ‘e’. He liked that. We let him go to sleep about a quarter to 7.
Photos. Counting by fives:
Juicy Juice:
Stream and heron:
Copying mama:
Kneeling on the swing:
Cakes:
Hot cocoa:
