He went to Carly at 3 something, then was up at 4 something. He nursed and entertained himself with the iPad, mainly, and Carly dozed until they got up at 7. I heard them then and got up a few minutes later. We had gotten the estimate for shipping our stuff and it was high – $4000. So Carly started going through boxes and getting rid of more stuff. August ‘helped’ with this, putting stuff back in boxes, and trying to pull his clothes out of drawers and put them in the boxes. I went and got stuff out and we made banana bread instead. He also played with his “extendo arm” quite a bit – a plastic cord cover we were going to recycle yesterday but he wanted to play with.
We went back to work on boxes, and I went through all the books again and organized them better as well. He was moving books from one box to another. When banana bread was done I got him some, then went and took a shower. Carly and August did a lot of nursing and resting. He and I played xylophone- he playfully took the sticks and wouldn’t share them. I started to make lunch (chicken sandwich, soup) and Carly tried to go to the store, but he wouldn’t let her. Instead, they nursed and he fell asleep just as I had food ready for him. He was asleep 11:45 to to 12:50. Nursed and fell back to sleep. Carly napped as well. She went and woke him up 1:50ish. When she went to wake him, he was sleeping with his bottom in the air.
They nursed, and then he watched a little Puffin Rock – the story where Bernie needs a new shell. Been weeks and weeks since he has watched a show, but he still refers to the characters. In fact, yesterday as we were walking to the Arts Center, he saw a red light turn on for a parking garage and said “Baba light is on.” And sometime today or yesterday I said something and he said I sounded like Baba or Oona.
He ate his now cold lunch. I played some Shel Silverstein from iTunes. August was intrigued, and started pretending to write in the air. He said “I’m writing the words in cursive.” I think it sounded like Dr. Seuss to him, as he then wanted to read some Dr. Seuss and we read Daisy Head Mayzie. He then nursed again, after again not letting Carly leave on her own to the store, and we all headed to the store about 3.
We took the bike down into the store. August and I found a couple things on the list, then we paid and started to walk out. August was pointing at things and saying “I don’t need that fan for home…I don’t need that coffee…I don’t need to go in there (down to the movie theater area).” He also said “I don’t like black and white, or grey.” When I asked what colors he does like, he said “Green, yellow, orange, purple.”
We went home and dropped off groceries. He played with the front door, turning the handle on one side, but then looking at the other side and joking about how it was turning. But he was also asking about how it works. He was fine going back out with me now and leaving Carly at home while she cooked a rice and tofu and veggie dish.
We walked over to the stream. He said “I don’t see bike fixing.” as we passed the usual place for that. As we walked up past the Bye Fuzzy playground he was singing “Stream, stream, stream, stream… He said it was a “Stream instrument”. Then he saw the flowers and sang “Flower, flower, flower, flower…” and I asked what it was and he said “electric flower violin”. As we got up by Madeul he plugged his ears and I asked why. He said “I’m plugging my ears because the flowers are yelling…for food.” He then said “I’m plugging my ears because things are yelling. Those stairs are yelling. Also those trees are yelling.”
We got to the Spiderweb Playground at 3:45. We went and played in the sand, making an island. He then took his shoe off and we filled that. Some other kids had some plastic toy things out and August went over and played with those. They had been sitting there for several minutes. One of the boys seemed concerned about them though and started picking them up, so I got August to help pick them up. There was also a big, very bent, hula hoop there, and August played with that for awhile. He said he wanted to buy a hula hoop and said it would be 16 dollars. We left close to 4:20.
We walked up and through Madeul park. He saw the answer and question signs and said “A…Q. That not how the alphabet works.” As we walked home he started to sing his name as a song “August Zinn Althauser Nimand…I added a D at the end!” And one time he sang it and skipped ‘Althauser’ and joked “Who needs Althauser?” I knew Carly wouldn’t approve of that one and had to tell her later.
We got back to Brownstone and kept walking, across and around the park. He noted no one was playing Korean chess and wanted to get off and play pretend Korean chess: “I captured all your pieces.” We got home at 5 and nursed. Carly had cooked veggies and rice and tofu. I scooped up a bunch of veggies for him and he ate a bunch of them.
He played Human Body and spent a lot of time on the tooth part – feeding it food and brushing the teeth. Earlier we had dropped off a suitcase and a couple of speaker systems at the recycling area downstairs. I had thought we didn’t have to pay if stuff was in good condition. They caught us and called, and I went down to pay, but the guy came up to the apartment. We met again at the elevators and went down and he gave me change. He was nice about it, and I explained the mix up, but he was mainly excited to show me all the CCTV cameras where they can track people.
Back upstairs, August and I read much of If I Ran the Zoo, Gustav the Goldfish, and half of Horton Hatches an Egg. I gave him a bath at 7. We watched Beethoven’s Ninth, the fourth movement. He wanted the piccolo flute part. Took awhile to get there, and he was very excited when we got to it. We watched all of the fourth movement. Carly brought his food into him and he overheard her talking about how she would prefer plain rice. He said “No, I don’t like this one. I want plain.”
We finished the fourth movement, then headed out to the parlor. He had naked time, and we read more books: Picasso’s Trousers, Help the Earth, Double Dare, and Hole in the King’s Socks.
Then, a guy rang the doorbell. Apparently, there was leaking into the bathroom below during Carly’s shower. Two guys came in and worked on it, running water down the drain. Carly put August to sleep in the reading area, he was asleep by, and the men left several minutes later. They couldn’t fix it, so APIS will have to deal with it tomorrow. No using that shower for the time being.
Photos. Helping with boxes:
A nap:
Playground:
Tasting the wind:
Pretend Korean chess:
Obsessed with the tooth:
