I woke up not feeling well. My hands and feet were swollen, but not really itchy. And my throat was bothering me. I would rest through the morning though and feel good enough to go outside for awhile in the afternoon.
Carly woke him up at 6:35. He was asking how to spell ‘switch’ which led to discussing words and silent E words. He didn’t think ‘mope’ was a word, so I was acting like Eeyore as my voice fit, and August said “Oh, Dada.” Carly headed to work, and we watched some printing press videos that Cherie had sent us, then August switched to puzzles in the Eric Carle app and did those until 8:05. He was making progress on them, and actually discussing the borders a bit by the end. He ate the last piece of French toast, then we had Cheerios for breakfast. He played some Simple Machines until he needed to go to the bathroom. After that, he was the book factory video while I showered. He came and looked in, but closed the door. When I got out I heard him humming Pirates of the Caribbean and playing with Duplos. When I went out with him he said “I’m building a book factory.” I rested on the reading area and he kept building. Used most of the Duplos. He watched Pirates of the Caribbean and kept asking about the tempo. Then Prince of Egypt and a couple others, while continued to rest.
I then got up and made a salmon sandwich for lunch. We ate that and watched videos on making sausages, pianos, and toilets. He then played GarageBand, before playing with the My First Orchestra app and then an app that lets you play tabla that he hadn’t played before.
I tried on the yellow ‘Turn up the bass’ shirt I bought for him a long time ago. Still big, but he liked it and wanted to keep it on. He then started a game, filling his shirt with Duplos, then dumping them out. We joked he had a baby in there. He then wanted to fill my shirt (previously, we’d put the animals down my shirt and pretended they bit, pooped, tickled, etc.) Did that, then I was trying to get us to go, but he said “I want to do it one more time.”
I told him we needed to brush his teeth, but he objected, saying “That’s not one of things on my list…I was Toad.” From Frog and Toad, when Toad says he can’t chase after his list because that wasn’t on his list. I made him brush his teeth anyway. Finally, he was listening to songs on the iPad and asking about tempos. There were some Judas Priest songs that he liked.
We left at 2. As we left the building he said he wanted to go to Mama Juice and get tomato juice. I was surprised, but said we could go and try it. He said “No, I don’t really want juice. I was just making a joke. How many jokes there are?” As we walked he was saying made up words, then said “Those funny words rhyme with ‘be’. The word ‘be’…like ‘Be an astronaut.”
We got to the Four Swings Playground. He sat at the top of the slide for quite awhile and we talked about rhymes. I was talking liked Dr. Seuss, rhyming every line, and he liked that and a couple times told me to be Dr. Seuss again. A boy came and sat on the swings, and was coughing, and they appeared to be fake coughs. August started to fake cough, then went down the slide and went over to the boy and did more coughing. August then got on a swing and spent the rest of his time there. At one point he was looking at his shirt and said “This shirt fits.” He worked on his pumping, and would tell me not to push him. He compared his tempo to the other kids swinging, and said “I don’t look the same tempo than those kids.” We left at 2:50 and he ate some of the last Sesame Street letter cookies as we walked to the Bye Fuzzy playground. He sat on the bike as he finished those off.
Then he went and played on the play structure. First he was hitting the blue poles as instruments, and he kept asking what a seemingly little and useless piece of fencing was for. He went down the spiral slide several times and had me follow or go first a few
Times.
He was then jumping all around the ground on two feet, and talking about who else could jump on two feet…Vivian, Logan, etc.
Then he started jumping on one foot, which was very cool as he just thought of it on his own. And he looks so cute doing it, with arms and legs going every which direction. Then, two kids left their scooters near him and he tried them out, pushing himself several feet on both. At one point, for a second or two, he had both feet on it and he was coasting.
We headed home 4ish and when we got home we had some early dinner then he was using my phone to use the chord/scale/metronome app, then switched to the Sesame Street Play app. We played three games based on its suggestions. In the first, I would cover him up and tell him to be something, like the letter C or a dog, then when I pulled the blanket off he would be that thing. He then did it to me as well, having me mainly be a jellyfish – then I would sting him and catch him like a little fish. When he didn’t want me to catch him he would feed me a pillow instead.
After that game, we tried one where you blow a wad of paper on the ground. August tried really hard, but we just couldn’t get him to move the paper. So we moved on to another game.
This one was sock bocce, and we threw a pair of his underwear as a target, then threw balled up socks and tried to get them close. Did that for a few rounds, then the next game was similar, but with skeeball, using a belt and a couple cords to make circles to throw the socks into. He was really into this one, and really practicing when Carly got home a little after 5. In fact, he did it for a few minutes more before deciding he wanted to nurse.
We did some cleaning and straightening before the shipping company representative showed up, then I lay down for a bit. Carly gave him a bath and they watched Beethoven’s Ninth. The guy came just as they had finished with the bath. We have him a tour of the stuff. August was wary of him, but did okay.
After he left, August was making a mountain of pillows and friends on the bed. He and Carly talked about moving and he said he was sad he is leaving Korea. I suggested he show Carly how he could jump on one foot and he did that. I asked “What gave you the idea to jump on one foot?” He replied “Vivian” we had a little pillow fight, then they tried for sleep.
No luck, and he ran out wanting to read. We shared some soup and crackers. I suggested paper books, but he wanted “Glass books”, which is something he just totally made up on his own to describe iPad books. We read Dinosaurs Love Underpants on the iPad, and the paper book of Jill Murphy Stories “Five Minutes of Peace” and “All in One Piece”. Carly made hummus. We looked at the Musical Instruments book, and read A Violin for Elva. August wanted to watch Eine Kleine Nachtmusik and Beethoven’s Ninth, then went in to sleep at 8:20.
Photos. Book factory:
Four swing playground:
Bye Fuzzy playground:
Home:
Sesame Street games. Trying to blow paper:
Pillow and friends mountain:
Still awake:
