He was up at 5:30 but Carly told him it was early and he fell back to sleep until 7. They talked to Oma and Opa and Scrambled egg, fried egg, and Cheerios for breakfast. When I got Cheerios, I asked if it was okay to use his blue bowl, as the other bowls were dirty. He said yes, but when he saw it he started to protest, but he settled for his blue bowl. Played Human Body, then he sang “Yankee Doodle” to Ode for Joy. He played in the sink for quite awhile.
After going to the bathroom, he ended up with his pajamas and underwear hanging from one foot. He called it “Foot hand…foot foot” And said “It’s funny!” He then moved things from cupboard to cupboard in the kitchen. I took a shower. I came out to find they had made a “cool fort” in the parlor out of the chairs, bathtub, and a blanket. They nursed. Again.
We read One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish, much of The Cat on the Mat is Flat, and The Hole in the King’s Sock.
We went out for a walk at 11:40. Actually, Carly took him out, and I waited for laundry to finish, hung it up, then went and found them playing on the little hill by the dinosaur playground. He had found another big Y stick and asked “Why’s no one playing with it?” He said “There’s birds on it.” and called it an extendo arm: “I can touch poop with the extendo arm. Because poop is messy.” He even demonstrated how he couldn’t reach the leaves above with just his arm, but with his extendo arm he could.
Carly went to read. He played for a couple more minutes, then realized she was gone. He put the stick down, then made his way out of the bushes area. I was marveling at how he could make his way down the hill and step down the rocks to the ground. He then said “I’m going up the ramp!” He was going to see mama. But then on his way down the other side he tripped on the very uneven boards. He fell and scraped his knee and bumped his nose. His first real fall since scraping his knee in Centralia, and first real injury since the chin incident back in winter. And his first bloody nose. Carly held him a few minutes, then we headed home.
When he felt better, we read Gustav, the Goldfish and The Strange Shirt Spot and we played with a new little alphabet app that lets you photograph your face onto something representing the letter – hot dog for H, queen for Q, etc.
A little after 2 Megan came over for mimosa and pancakes. Her breakfast. August hadn’t been keen on the idea of her coming over, and when she showed up he went in the parlor and locked the door. He kept opening it though, and was eventually coaxed out. She had brought him a memo pad of polar bear stickers. He wrote on them, then he wanted to measure the marker he was writing with, so I got the tape measure. That led to him measuring things like the table with MEgan, then she measured his head and arms. From there it turned into a fishing pole with a drum stick as the pole, and fish made out of the memo pad pages.
Meanwhile, Carly made pancakes and we ate those with strawberries and, when August realized Megan had syrup, syrup. August and Megan played with the piano a little, and then he wanted the keyboard attached to his iPad and he showed her the sounds and the sampler. He then recorded some of his singing while she hit the table with a drumstick.
She put a tissue over the end of the drumstick and it was a ghost. He didn’t like it and kept saying “Take it off!” But then he said “now I do it.”
About 4:30 or so he was getting a bit wild and Carly asked if he wanted to go outside. He basically ran out the door. We walked out with Megan, and separated by the elevator. As we walked out I asked “Did you have fun with Megan?” He replied “Not so much.” But then he said he liked the measuring and fishing pole and music.
We walked up the stream to the lantern festival thing. Of course, it was still day, so no lights. He got off and walked a bit. We tried to head back but he wanted to keep walking. We continued on to the next bridge, then back the other side. We came to a metal pumpkin thing with a table and bench in it. He wanted down and wanted to get in it. In the pumpkin he said “I want to wait until it’s dark.” so he could see all the lights on it light up. He wanted to keep playing, so Carly continued on to the store. We sat in the pumpkin together for a minute, then a guy walking by wanted his daughter to get in. I said she could come on in, plenty of space. But it turned out he wanted us to get out. Seriously. It wasn’t a photo spot or anything. I wish I had said no (but I was at least pretty sarcastic with the guy), but I did get out, and August was pretty upset when I made him get out.
After they left he didn’t want to get back in. Instead, he played with a stick and looked at the flowers and threw small sticks around. Stayed for another 15 minutes or so. He kept wanting to go up the stairs but I reminded him the bike was down there.
Eventually, he wanted to go to a park. So we walked south on the stream until we came to a bridge, then we went back up the other side to Chrysanthemum Park. He wanted to climb up on the structure, so he did the loop. He did it, but was whinier than usual – a lot of “Dada! Dada!” and I would help him up the climbing wall, across the rope bridge, etc. Perhaps a result of his fall earlier. I had to climb up to help him down to the shaky platform at the end. There, we sat and he wanted a Smurf story after I told him we had played Smurfs there once. I made up a story about the Smurfs hiking to have a big picnic but then just as they start to eat it gets windy and starts to blow. All their food away. There’s a storm and they shelter in a cave for the night.
We went down the slide together, then he was just pointing, and it turned out he wanted to go to a bench and have a snack. Let him have a couple crackers, then we headed home for dinner.
We were home at 6:15. He ate the rice/pasta/veggies dish that Carly had made, then I gave him a bath at 6:50. We watched Pirates of the Caribbean and Beethoven’s Ninth. I took him in on the bed to get him dressed and he saw Baby Q and said “I don’t like babies. I like that one, but I don’t like real babies. I like toy and pretend babies, but I don’t like real babies.” No idea where that came from. He then made a poop vacuum with his towel and pants. There was poop on Baby Qs eyes. He was asleep at 7:45.
Photos. Fort:
Zinnie hotdog:
With Megan. Fishing:
Getting measured:
Lantern walk:
Park:
