Category: Uncategorized

Peter and I had some time to visit in the morning and eat breakfast, then we headed, with Kasiah, up to the Lynnwood pool to pick up Micah from his swim lesson. They then drove me down to the train station in Edmonds. We got out to take a selfie, then said goodbye. I had about half an hour to wait, so I walked over to Waterfront Coffee, got a coffee, and walked along the waterfront for a couple minutes and then to the station. Started listening to the new Invisibilia season. Train came, and I got a window seat on the left. The train was sold out, but I didn’t have a neighbor until Olympia.

Got in to Centralia just after 1 and walked to Chuck’s office. He gave me a ride home. August was asleep, having fallen asleep about 1:15. Cassie and Cherie took Vivian, Thatcher, and Colin to the water park. August woke up at 3:30. After he was awake, he and I played on the bed. He stood on the edge of the mattresses, feet on the box spring, and we talked about the fabric hanging on the wall. On his own he started saying “I also like this one.” That lasted quite awhile, then I changed him. Carly had started vacuuming, so he wanted to do it. He and I vacuumed the laundry room, then he went out on the porch and shucked corn with Carly. I followed him and we wandered around outside and inside, then ended up at the wading pool. Carly and I had just started standing in it when the others got back. Vivian and Thatcher hadn’t had enough and came into the pool as well. August wanted to play with Vivian’s pink shoes and got really sad when she said no. Carly took him and nursed. Back playing, I was holding Kayla. Her eye looked a bit runny, and August said “She has soap in her eye.” Vivian and Thatcher started spraying Carly with water balloons and squirt guns, and August got involved, chasing her around the driveway.

Cherie had ordered pizza, and Chuck picked it up on his way home, arriving around 5:30. We ate dinner out on the porch. Thatcher and August wandered off, and I told them they couldn’t go in the bedroom yet. A minute later, August had gone around through the house and climbed on the bed. He saw me through the window, and, in his Dad voice, said “Auuuguuust!” Got him and Vivian and Thatcher out of there, then a bit later Cherie took Vivian and Thatcher up to the motor home. August had been wanting to go up there since I got home, but now that he had the opportunity he kept getting distracted on the way up; he walked along the boards at the edge of the driveway, working on his balance. Eventually, we made it up and in the motor home. They played with the glass ornament while Cherie held it, tried on everyone’s shoes, including mine and Cherie’s slippers, and played with the dials and switches and air vents – or as much of them as I would allow. We left, and August saw Uncle DD drive the truck down to the lower driveway. So we went down there to him. August played with the stuff around the sand area, and we started singing “Yellow Submarine”. We were talking about them leaving in the truck, and August made the joke “Kayla will drive the car”. He found the container to one of the bubble wands and asked me what it was and I told him. He then told on Thatcher, saying “Thatcher dumped it out.” He kept asking about where they were going, and Thatcher’s house, and I was reminding him about playing in the mud with Thatcher. He showed he remembered that by saying “Thatcher says ‘Watch out August!’”

They left a bit later, and August did a good job saying goodbye to everyone. He got caught in a group hug for Kayla and wasn’t too fond of that. Later, Vivian went up for her bath and wanted August to come along. He played up there, then afterwards smelled dozens of items in the drawers with Cherie, then took a bath with Carly. The two of them read with Carly, then I was with August as he walked up and down the ramp to the bed and did some random counting and singing as he did so. He was then nursing and I dozed off on the bed. But he got back up, and was really thinking about Thatcher et al., particularly their shoes: “Where’s Thatcher’s shoes? Where’s Vivian’s shoes? Where’s uncle DD’s shoes? Where Colin’s shoes?” He was also talking about what makes mama happy: “It makes mama happy if you nuzzle noses.” He nursed again, and was asleep around 10.

New words/phrases: shucking corn, chainsaw

Saying goodbye to Peter and the kids: 

Skyping on the train

Kayla trying to get his corn: 

Eating with Thatcher: 

Wearing my sandals: 

Smelling things with Oma: 

So last Friday to Sunday I headed up to Edmonds to stay with my friend Peter. Visited different friends and got errands done Friday and Saturday, and on Saturday I saw a Chuck Close exhibit up in Everett and visited the old Strand Hotel where my grandpa’s cousin worked during World War II. And on Sunday I visited my cousin Darrin, then my parents and aunt and uncle dropped by to visit, and I ended the day by dropping our car off in Woodinville, where it will stay until next summer, and my friend Peter picked me up and took me back for my last night in Edmonds. While I was gone:

Friday:

I skyped with Carly and August around 8:30. I had been moving fast today, but when I saw little kids at Third Place Books I really started to miss him. August was excited to see me as well, and was immediately asking where I was and wanted me to come home. He wanted to read a book, but when I got home. Carly told him to tell me what he did today and he said “Play” Asked what he played with and he said “Toys”. When asked what toys, he said started talking about coins and spinning them. Carly confirmed that they played with coins again, but hadn’t spun them; August was also remembering spinning coins with me. Monique had also come over with her two boys and they played. And at some point Carly took August and Vivian down to the blackberry area in the trails and picked blackberries. When I hung up with them about 9, August was talking about going to sleep, but Carly thought it would be awhile. He had woken from a 90 minute nap around 3:30. I saw him give forehead kisses to Oma and Opa, then he leaned in for a kiss from me and said “Love you”.

Saturday:

Down in Centralia, Christy and her son, just a few months older than August, came down on the train and visited for 6 hours. August seemed a bit stressed through the visit and wanted to nurse a lot, particularly near the end when Cassie and Vivian took them back to the train, but they did walk to the forest area, and August and the other boy started singing loudly together. August also had some good Opa time: August really wanted to see the generator on the RV, but Chuck couldn’t get the cover open. Chuck was also cleaning and replacing bricks in the garden and August helped with that, and got to use a hammer in putting the bricks back down. He and Carly did letters on the big paper, and when he was in the RV he read ‘reading’ and ‘off’. We haven’t been doing a ton of reading this summer, but I’m sure he’s been soaking up words. Carly had called me just as I left Everett because he wanted to Skype, and I skyped with him just a minute before he took a nap, then we Skyped again around 8. He only took about an hour nap, waking around 3:15, so Carly was hoping he’d get to sleep a little earlier than after 10, like yesterday.

Sunday: 

Got home after 8:30 and skyped with Carly and August.

Learned that things had been pretty crazy there as Thatcher was back in town. A full house. Chuck and Cherie had taken at least some of them (Vivian, Colin, and August?) down to Borst Park for awhile. Still a little hitting, but not too bad. Carly was concerned it might extend to Kayla, but no trouble in that regard. His big scare today was when he was eating and sitting in the high chair. He pushed off with his feet and fell backwards. Carly had him sot his food out as he was in no mood for following. He was pointing to his mouth as if he had bitten his tongue, but when she asked if it hurt he said no.

Friday: 

Saturday: 

 

Sunday:  

He was sleeping in this morning, and at 7:50 Colin got upset about something and started crying. I ran to the door of our bedroom and, sure enough, a second later I hear August asking “What is he crying about?” Morning was mostly about getting ready to go to the beach. I did spend some time with him, looking at the San Diego Zoo books. He really liked looking at all of the animals, and decided he wanted to tickle them. The best was him saying “Want to tickle the snake in the exhibit.”

We left at 9:40. I was sitting in the back, next to August. Carly was driving and Cassie was up front with her, with the two other kids in the middle. Chuck and Cherie drove the other car. We sang some songs along the way, and Colin fell asleep. August wanted to see, but he couldn’t really see Colin, so I took a photo. August wanted to take photos then, and took a decent one of his legs. Vivian was needing a break from the drive, so in Aberdeen we planned to go to the Scoops ice cream and coffee place. I asked what flavor of ice cream August wanted, and he really thought about it: “What flavor in the ice cream you want?…blackberry…want the strawberry one.” Once there, he was most drawn to the bright ones, like sherbet and bubble gum, but really he was open to a lot of them. Carly got bubble gum for her, and I talked August into blackberry revel, which we shared, and I got a latte.

As we continued our drive, we sang more songs, and August started making up songs. He sang about all of the people in the car, and Mama and Tia Cassie being his favorite, etc. Around 12:30 we made it to the cabins at Iron Springs. We went in and said hi to everyone, then all walked down to the beach. Claremay came down with us for awhile, then headed back up. Colin basically threw himself down in the sand and started playing. Cassie stayed with him and the rest of us went down closer to the water. Carly and August started making a sandcastle. Vivian got the bucket and took it down and brought up some buckets of water to pour out. Then she started collecting jellyfish in it. August walked over to the water with Cherie. He didn’t really get wet or anything, but suddenly he started hugging her legs, and stood on her feet. She didn’t know what had happened, but would take the cuddles. Very, very cute. Cassie did bring Colin down for awhile and he was playing with a shovel on the sandcastle, but eventually just decided he wanted to run out into the ocean and got upset when he was told no, so they went back up and I believe nursed and took a nap.

August and Vivian spent a long time in full jellyfish collecting mode. August appears to have really learned ‘yucky’ and ‘ooh’ from Cherie as she responded to this activity, but it didn’t deter him and Vivian from picking up the slimy jellyfish bodies and putting them in the bucket. We had one ‘rogue’ wave that sent us all running back. Cherie had picked up August and run backwards with him. As I ran, I realized it would have been an awesome video, alas did not catch that.

I wanted to try to get August to take a little nap, so I put him back in the backpack and we walked through the entire resort area, and saw all the cabins and viewpoints. Chuck and Cherie and Vivian had headed up with us, leaving Cassie, Colin, and Carly down at the beach. Carly was finishing up her complex of 3 connected sand castles. There were berries along the walk through the forest (which August really liked) and we looked at those a bit, but couldn’t look them up. Anyway, he fell asleep at 3:15 and I put him in the bedroom of the cabin. They had prepared a full meal, so we ate and were stuffed.

He woke up at 4:10. They were about to sing happy birthday to Claremay in the other cabin, so Carly missed that as she was nursing August. When he was up for it Carly brought him over and he had a spicy ginger cookie, which he liked except for one spicy bite, and dipped it in the frosting of the carrot cake I was eating (but he wasn’t too impressed with the cake).

In front of the cabin, August hit Colin again. Vivian is trying to take care of it, and sternly said to August “Go home August. Go to Korea.” Which was frankly very funny.

We drove back the same route. Vivian had heard August playing the Cookie Monster/Elmo letter/word game on the iPad on the way there, so on the return we let her play on our iPad, and August and I watched an episode of Daniel Tiger on hers. Cassie and Carly switched seats in Aberdeen. We were almost home when first August started to get upset. That set Colin off as well, I pulled out the animal crackers again, and August was fine, but Colin could not be placated. He was pretty upset for the last 3 or 4 minutes.

While we got stuff out of the car, August stayed in, playing around in it. Carly got in and put on my sweatshirt and hat. She asked August who she was, and he said “A triangle”. He was wondering what the buttons in the car do and started speculating, but couldn’t decide “Maybe, maybe for if want to move but…woof woof woof.” Like he couldn’t think of anything, so decided to just bark instead.

Inside, he hit Colin again and I took him into the bedroom for an ‘actual’ timeout; ‘actual’ because August actually got upset about it and didn’t find it fun, and had to be upset for awhile when I wouldn’t let him out of the room until he agreed to say sorry to Colin and Cassie and say he wouldn’t hit Colin again. Unfortunately, it still didn’t have a huge impact as he did still more hitting later. Cherie had suggested giving the attention to Colin instead of August; not sure how that will work though, as August seems to be doing it as a game (Colin has yet to get upset) and not out of spite, etc.

Anyway, Vivian had a bath and August watched/played but wouldn’t get in today, then Carly gave him a bath. About 9:30 Carly realized that August hadn’t eaten in quite awhile, so he and Vivian both had cereal while sitting at the island. He was asleep by 10.

On our way:

Ice cream: 

The beach: 

At the cabin: 

Home. Not getting out of the car: 

Evening cereal: 

When August got up at 7:30 Carly was holding Colin, so August also climbed on Carly’s nap and shared her for a minute. She was then able to go in and they nursed. They came back out, and then Carly was setting some things down, cleaning out the car, and the green spray bottle was on top. It fell off and hit August in the eye. August was hurt and felt betrayed: “Hurts!” Calmed down, he then was helping feed Colin. But then he hit Colin on the head, and said “We hit.” The start of a new problem, as he kept hitting Colin throughout the day. Not hard (Colin has never complained), but not acceptable either. August was playing with the spray bottle and I told him he could only spray people with permission, so he was doing a good job of asking, going up to Cassie and saying “Can I spray you?” Cherie was gone, doing errands, so he asked “What does errands look like?” He said he wanted to dip something in my coffee, then said “Dip it…just kidding”. But then also “Want some coffee.” Oh, and Carly has been doing a thing with him when he wants to smell something that she is afraid he might spill or touch where she has him put his hands on his head before smelling. Pretty funny to see.

I had made some toast for breakfast, and August was giving pieces to Colin. Carly was busy getting stuff ready to go, but he wanted to go to her. I said, “Mama can’t do everything.” To which he responded “Mama CAN do everything.” Next, he was sitting next to Carly, sort of between chairs, and I was holding him up, my hand under him, so he wouldn’t fall through. He said “Holding up you (me) so don’t get an ouwie.” I changed him, and got him out of his pajama pants, putting on his black and yellow shorts. He kept on his bee shirt though, and noticed himself that they matched: “Match the shorts and bumblebee.” He was then looking through the refrigerator and smelling things. He wanted to eat a pickle, so I made Carly get it out for him and he ate it. I went and took a shower, then he and I did some art on paper, focusing on W words. We heard Colin crying, and he started speculating on why: “What he crying about? Maybe he wants the snail cup. But Tia Cassie says ‘No’.” There was a series of them. He was holding a package and asked “What is this dada?” Notable because he doesn’t usually call me ‘dada’.

He then ate some Cheerios, in the Abby Cadabby bowl, and made up a little Abby Cadabby song. He and Vivian played on the iPad together for a little while, then we went out and played with water balloons, played in the car, spilled a little Pepsi in there, then excitedly greeted Cherie when she got home.

Carly and I then turned around and took August on an errands run. We went to Chehalis and to the library, then walked to the used kids store and got August a couple of clothing items. He was looking at toys, then Carly said he had 5 more seconds. She counted down, and at one he reached out and touched one more item, then jumped into her arms. This strategy turned out to work pretty effectively though the day. We drove back to Centralia and to Safeway. Carly went in to start shopping, and August and I dropped a package off at Mailstop, then stopped to identify a few flowers before going in and finding Carly. We ended up in the soap and deodorant section, with August smelling everything. Carly went up to pay, and August grabbed a lavender soap and followed her a bit, saying “Pay this, pay this” before changing his mind and going back to smell more things.

We went home, and Carly took him in for a nap. I drove into the outlet stores and bought a few things for August at Gymboree, then a bunch of shirts for myself at Eddie Bauer. Came home, and August was waking up. But Carly nursed him and he slept a bit longer.

After that, we were playing around and August remembered the Wheels on the Bus Book. We hadn’t read it for awhile. We went out and found it in the car and took it inside and sang/read it several times. When we were outside we saw Chuck pull up. August spotted him and yelled, then screamed and ran to him when he got out the car. Good greetings today.

Twice or thrice in the afternoon I tried talking to August after he hit Colin. He was very open to these talks on the bed. But one time as I took him in he said  “Let’s talk about the rules” And another time he gave himself a talk before I could say anything: “Auugust. You need to follow the rules.” Shows he is thinking of it as a game.

We had veggie burgers and vegetable skewers for dinner. He mainly shared with me, and used a fork for some of his veggies and pieces of the burger.

He watched Colin take a bath, but didn’t get in. After that, all 3 kids were in playing on the bed. No hitting by August, and he had a nice ‘be be bi be ba’ chant.

Vivian had helped back the cake with Cherie earlier in the day, and did the frosting after dinner. I had taught August to say “Happy Birthday, Mama!” and “Happy Birthday, Tia!” and then had him say it several times through the day. We had eaten dinner outside (warm enough!) and after singing ‘Happy Birthday’ we also ate our cake outside.

In the evening we took all the kids for a walk while Cassie stayed home. Just along the road, past the trails. August was in the backpack, Vivian in the stroller. Off to a rocky start, as Vivian fell and scraped her knees again before even getting in the stroller to leave. We made it though, Carly pushing Colin in front, then me with August in the backpack, then Chuck and Cherie with Vivian. August wanted to identify several plants along the way, and we stopped to pick blackberries on the way back, from the bushes up on the main road. August ate a couple of red ones, after declaring the purple ones “Too sour” but eventually declared the red ones the same.

Back at home, I read Horton Hears a Who with him and Vivian. August took a bath close to 9, with Vivian. Carly started, then I took over after Vivian was out. He was singing about Vivian’s towel, and ended with something like “Vivian’s towel…My towel is 17 minutes…” He was up late again, not going to sleep until just after 11. They had started a bit after 9, and were really quiet, so I thought they were asleep. Then Carly came out at 9:45 or so, and I was surprised when he walked out a little later. He was up for another half hour or so, then we all went in, and I sang a few songs and he was asleep.

New words/phrases: errands, unlocked, just kidding,

 

Errands: 

Back home: 

Birthday time: 

Walk: 

He was up at 7:30. While changing him he started working on his pronouns, saying “you like it…I like it.” Until now he has used the second person when referring to himself, which gets confusing, but today he started using ‘I’ multiple times. Spent a lot of time playing outside, and wanted to go everywhere with Oma, including saying he wanted to hold Oma’s hand as we left to go to Olympia. Sadly, she was staying behind to paint the garage, so he couldn’t do that. As we got in the car, August was beeping along to the beeping that occurred with the key in the ignition. We left at 10.

We made it to Olympia and first played in the stream area. We had the stream entirely to ourselves at first. All the kids enjoyed playing in it. Although August slipped after several minutes and got upset and went and nursed for awhile, then played with a bush with berries on it for several minutes before returning to the stream. Colin bent over and put his face in the water several times and seemed to like it. Vivian liked when other people showed up and talked to them. Last year, we had a yellow rubber ball (which August and I lost sometime this spring) that we were throwing in the stream and letting float down. This year, I tried to play with the orange shovel in a similar manner. But neither Vivian nor August seemed to get it. In fact, I took it to the stream 5 times: 3 times, Vivian simply grabbed it, wandered around with it for a bit, then returned it to the area with our stuff. August did this twice. Strange kids.

We played there for about an hour, roughly 11 to 12, then walked over to the playground a few blocks west. Along the way we checked on the water museum, which is free, and decided we might stop there on the way back. Right after that, Vivian was running on the sidewalk and tripped and scraped her knees. Got her bandages up though and we were able to keep going. At the playground, Carly left to drop videos and slides off at Don’s Cameras to be transferred to digital, then she walked to a new coffee shop and got the 3 of us drinks. I pushed Colin and August in the swings for a long, long time, and Cassie stayed with Vivian, who was doing a lot of climbing. There was an interesting man walking around talking to himself/maybe reciting poetry. After awhile August asked about Bluie and we got him out and threw him from the swing, then Colin held Bluie for the rest of the time.

A bit after 1 we got going again, walking down to first see the big tree mural, then walking back around to the water museum. Played there for about half an hour. August liked flushing the pretend toilet, cooking in the kitchen area (pretending to pour things in pots, and stirring the pots), and pretending to wash and scrub the big dog. Carly had forgotten one videotape in her backpack, so I had run back to the camera place to drop it off.

We left Olympia about 2:15. In the car, I started singing songs and did some of the songs I haven’t sung much recently. I sang “Imaginary Bars” and August asked me what a bunch of the words “looks like?”, like “made a splash onto the sky” and especially “morning”.

We got home and played outside. They play around outside and got into the coolers from the party, which still have cans of soda and beer in them. And ice. August kept bringing Carly cans and saying “Save it for dinner.” Then had the delicious tofu and corn on the cob for dinner. August again was working on his first versus second person pronouns, trying to distinguish between “my plate” and “your place”. He have been doing the same earlier when talking about Vivian’s bed.

He took a bath with Vivian. Carly hung out with them while they were playing, then I took over and washed him and washed his hair. He is still playing the milkshake game.

After his bath, he was jumping on the bed and once again working on pronouns, correcting himself:  “You like jumping…I like jumping…it’s fun.” We made some reference to ‘family’ and he asked what is family. I explained by telling him people in his family, and asking if he could name any more. He thought and said “Uncle DD is your family!” He then turned it into a joke: “train is your family…dragon is your family.” He actually requested that I sing songs when he went to sleep, and told me to choose them. I sang three songs, like Puff the Magic Dragon. He continued to ask “Looks like?” questions. He was asleep about 9:30.

Stream:

Playground: 

Water museum: 

Outside at the house: 

Evening: 

Photos: 

He was first up at 6:30, hearing Colin. “What’s he doing? What’s Colin doing?” Carly nursed him back to sleep, but he was back up a couple minutes later. As he walked out of the room he said “You like Tia Cassie.” A little later he tried to get close to Colin, who had a toy on the floor. Colin thought he was going after his toy though and grabbed at August’s face. Don’t think August was all that hurt, but he felt betrayed and got quite upset. A little later we were in on the bed, doing “5 little monkeys”. We started doing different numbers of monkeys each time: “Q monkeys….806 monkeys…107 blue monkeys…” I looked at my watch and August saw me doing it and he asked “What is it? The time?” We did stickers and read some Garfield with Vivian on the floor in our room, and they cuddled a bit. She has regularly asked about his knee, and he now occasionally says “How is your knee today?” to himself. So he inspected his knee, and also how Vivian’s nail polish continues to come off.

Carly was still doing some work, and I took the two of them outside and up to Oma’s car to play in it. They played with the door a bit, August getting excited every time it opened to reveal Vivian. Vivian eventually went back down to the house and Cassie was making water balloons. She brought one up to us. I let August have it, and he seemed to think he got away with grabbing something, and he carefully pieced together this sentence: “It’s okay if you grab something like Colin does when you grab a balloon for Colin.” We spent quite awhile playing with water balloons.

Back inside, they both then ended up in the bedroom with Carly. August nursed as Vivian and Carly prepared photos for scanning, taking them out of albums. the two of them sat with Cherie in the kitchen and smelled things like barbecue sauce and helped put away some groceries. Cherie made scrambled eggs for them, and August tried to cut his with a fork. He looked at them and said “Princess!” I didn’t see it, but then he enjoyed joking about eating the princess. I was holding August as he stood on the stool, and Vivian asked why. I said something about keeping him safe, and August said “Make sure he doesn’t scrape his knee again.” Carly came out and had a salad, and August went and studied it.

Carly then took over, and she went and played with the two of them down in the sand, and then ended up reading in Vivian’s room until he was ready for a nap. She took him down and he slept from 1:20 to 2:43. At some point in there I was down in the sitting area and Colin was eating in the booster chair and we started waving and saying “Hi” to each other.

After playing around for awhile in the afternoon, we decided to take the kids to a park before dinner. However, Colin didn’t want to get in his seat and time was running short before his nap. So Cassie stayed behind and we took Vivian with us again like yesterday. We decided to go to Alexander Park. There, we went on the swings, Vivian went down the slide several times, and I pushed her on the merry-go-round for quite awhile. We then went to change August in the grass, and Vivian was walking ahead of us. August and Carly raced after, saying “Ready, set, go” and running a bit, then doing it again. We changed him, then went walking, looking for blackberries (August had said he wanted to find blackberries on the drive down). A woman told us there were blackberries and raspberries at the end of the park, so we walked down and found several blackberries. We walked back to the car, petting a dog and smelling some lavender on the way. On the way back, I had to stop for some deer in the road, which August spotted right away “Deer!” He was then calling to the deer, saying “Come close to the car deer!”

We came home and ate a dinner of delicious nutty noodles – as Cherie pointed out, it is one of the few dishes that everyone really likes. In the early evening, Carly went in to do a little work. Vivian, August and I played with the bag of quarters on the floor. I would spin them and they would slap them to stop them. August decided to use me as a chair and sat on my stomach for several minutes. August got upset when I wouldn’t let him make a mess stirring my coffee, and wanted mama. I bribed him with animal crackers at one point, and also got him downstairs to watch a movie. We turned on Vivian’s Centerstage movie, but after a few seconds he got really sad. When he was sad, any question I asked him was “No!” But when he calmed down and I asked him what made him sad he said “Movie”. I got him to cheer up by suggesting he go down and ask Vivian to take a bath. I took him down and he loudly asked “Vivian get in the bath?” Took them up and they took a long bath together. Carly and Cassie then hung out with the kids up in Vivian’s room and read The Sneetches. Carly took him down and he went to bed much more smoothly today, and was asleep by 9:30.

At some point during the day Carly replied “No savamos” to one of his questions. He then said “No savamos…that means we don’t know.”

Up at 7:30. He only slept eight and a half hours. He then played with Kayla and wanted to “Tickle Opa!” Everyone except Vivian was up and playing in the sitting area by the kitchen. At some point I mentioned Glecy and August said “Want Auntie Glecy teach you how to play…” Later, when playing with Colin, Colin said “tru tru” and August looked across the room, went and grabbed a truck on the floor that Colin seemed to be looking at, and said “Truck please” as he brought it back and gave it to Colin, as if telling him how to ask for the truck. I took Kayla for awhile and carried her around for about a half hour. She did a good job slobbering on my shoulder as we watched August, Vivian, and Thatcher play with water balloons. Glecy was up, and making delicious flan, and August wanted to get in her car. We got the keys from her, and Carly and I played with Vivian, August, and Kayla in her car.

Derek and Andrea and their kids left for their week down on the coast. Vivian got upset as they left, and I was holding August on the deck as we watched them drive away from the lower driveway. August got his really sad face and had to go to Carly. Back inside, about 11, Carly got out her old eraser collection and August and Vivian looked through erasers with Glecy and Cassie and Cherie.

Close to noon my parents arrived and we played with them for the next couple of hours, including with more water balloons. August played with and sang to Colin as he sat on Cassie’s lap, and then sat with Colin on the step and they did a forehead kiss. It was then time to say goodbye to my parents, which involved a lot of high fives. I walked them out and said goodbye.

Cassie then skyped with Jeff in Eastern Europe and August said hi to him and played peekaboo with him from the side of the screen. Glecy was the next to leave, and the last of the goodbyes for the day. After that, Carly tried to get him to take a nap, but he was too wired. So I put him in the backpack, and he fell asleep after just a few minutes. I walked through the new set of lots down the road and finished listening to a Planet Money podcast before coming home. He slept from 2:10 to 3:15. Carly nursed him back to sleep, but he was back awake at 3:40 when he heard Colin crying and we heard him say  “what he crying about?” Carly then took him up to see Colin. I ended up with Vivian and August and we were smelling the shampoos and conditioners in the shower, then Vivian put a couple of bandaids on me.

Cherie had made her yummy green soup, and August had some for an early dinner. He decided he wanted to put pepper and salt in it, and hilarity ensued as he kept wanting to put more and more in. He ate it when it was amazingly peppery, but I dumped it out when he managed to grab the salt and dump a bunch in. Cherie filled a shaker with rice so he could pretend, and he kept at it.

In the evening Carly and I took August and Vivian down to Borst Park. Carly started out following Vivian, and I had August. August was in the swing for a long time, and Vivian came over and pushed him. He started chanting  “beetle” for no apparent reason and other people nearby joined in. I pushed him pretty high, then Carly helped him hang from a short bar by his hands a few times. We then went over to arched climbing structure. Vivian went up a couple times, but got stuck on the top and was a bit scared. But then I suggested she needed to figure out how to turn around and then she could go down the other side. I spotted her once and she did it, then she climbed the entire way by herself 3 or 4 times. Meanwhile, August wanted to do the same, but Carly couldn’t reach him when he got above the 4th bar. So she made the rule he could only go to the 4th. But then he kept trying to climb higher. Carly took Vivian to the bathroom, and I took over. I was explaining why he couldn’t climb to the top yet, but he argued  “you’re ready to go to the top.” We went over to one of the play structures and August went down the slide on Carly’s lap. We then went and pushed Vivian on the swings together. Finally, a little after 7 we headed home. August had really put up a fight getting in the car seat to come over, but did a better job on the way back and had fun sitting next to Vivian.

At home, Carly and Cassie played a little horse with the basketball, then we headed inside. August and Vivian took a long bath together. Vivian was very nice to August today, and when she heard that he didn’t like bubbles or toys in the water she agreed to do her bath that way. Once they were in, she started to slowly add toys in and he ended up having a lot of fun. Carly then read some stories to the two of them, and Vivian headed to bed. She started crying, and August could hear her and kept asking “What she crying about?” Cherie had suggested acting these sorts of things out with dolls, after August’s difficulty getting to sleep last night. So Carly used her old teddy bear and acted out Vivian being sad, rocking her to make her feel better, and then Vivian going to sleep, then getting up and playing in the morning. August really liked this, and would have the bear cry, rock it, then put it down to sleep. I left about 9:30 when August started nursing and was cuddling with the teddy bear. He was asleep about 9:40.

 Morning:

Eraers:

In the backpack for a nap:

Putting on a bandaid: 

Playing on the bed: 

Green soup and pepper: 

Headed home: 

Horse: 

Reading: 

August was up just past 7, and started the day eating Cheerios with Thatcher and Vivian. When I started watching him, he was playing with a ball, and kind of asking what he could throw it at or over: the window, the rocking cow, etc. He got out the crayons, and we got out the Peppa Pig workbooks and did them with Vivian. Carly had gone to get some work done, and he was fine until he noticed she was gone. Went from totally fine to upset in about 10 seconds. I took him downstairs, and distracted him with the DVD player – he was intrigued as soon as I turned it on. The Last Unicorn and The Secret of Nimh were sitting there, and he initially chose The Last Unicorn. But then he saw me struggling to open it, and he helpfully changed his mind. We started watching it, and Derek came by and asked “Isn’t this a scary movie?” I said yes, but I didn’t think August would watch a lot of it. We fast forwarded to a mouse part and indeed, August watched about 2 minutes then was done.

Back upstairs, Carly came out. There were some bags of kids clothes being talked over, and August was smelling them. Carly had Colin, and put him in the Ergo. He was totally chill in there for the next 45 minutes or so. August wanted a piggy back ride at some point – the first time he’s offered that. August smelled my coffee, then I was offering him the different kinds of ground coffee to smell, and he wanted to smell the compost.

Andrea was taking Thatcher, Vivian, and Colin on a walk, and Carly and I took August and Colin (still in the Ergo) along. We walked as far as the entrance to the trail, then turned back and Andrea kept going. August was really waving at cars as they went by.

Back at the house, my parents showed up. We hung out with them, and my mom helped prepare for the party. August fell asleep for a nap around 1:30 and just kept sleeping. The party was in full swing for quite awhile by the time we woke him up at 4.  At one point I had been talking to Chris and planning an Althauser/Niman brewery tour of southern Germany, where both the families are supposedly from. August didn’t want to wake up, but finally perked up when we offered him a cookie. Got him outside, and eventually he sat on my mom’s lap and ate some watermelon. Eventually, I took August downstairs and he spotted Kayla at the other end of the patio area. August then sat down on a blanket and did some hammering with a toy hammer (He said “Kayla was playing with this.” although I don’t know what he based that on). He ended up with Carly or my mom, and I went around and took some photos of the party. When I had started walking around with him he had spotted the foods, specifically the desserts, and had a bite of chocolate brownie. He wanted more, but it turned out it was gone. However, my dad had a brownie, and August got a bite of that. He then played around the driveway area in and around all the kids and grown ups doing water balloons and spraying each other. August did some singing, then eventually wanted to head back in because he wanted a “cupcake with star” sprinkles in an ice cream cone. We had first seen them when visiting with Cadance and Hattie, then he was reminded of them when a couple of the older boys came out with them. We got him a cupcake, then I set him down on the couch between Carly and Glecy to eat it.

After that, there was a big photo of most of the kids out in the driveway; he made it through the first round of that, but then took off and wouldn’t go back for the redo once Thatcher showed up. Back inside, he was letting Colin try to drink from his water bottle. He drank from it himself and ended up coughing. And coughing. Then it became clear that he was fake coughing. So he and Glecy were fake coughing together, then moved to fake sneezing. Thatcher had been looking for snakes with his grandpa, and they cornered one, so we went and saw the snake. We then did some cousin photos down by the bushes down below. Back inside, we said goodbye to my parents, who went back to their hotel and now past 7 August and Colin and Kayla hung out with Oma. We then did a cousins photo on the couch. Kind of a circus getting them to agree to it, and many cookies were handed out across the course of the cousins photos.

August then hung out with Vivian and Thatcher as they took a long, long bath. August wouldn’t get in with them, but played from outside the tub. When I went up they were making milkshakes using cups and bubbles. They finally got out, and I almost got August in – we had to remove all the toys and drain the water of bubbles before he considered it – but then he really, really wanted to see Vivian and Thatcher. So we followed them around, bouncing between checking in on Thatcher and up to Vivian who didn’t want to see anyone at the time. Eventually, Carly got August in the bath, and Andrea and Glecy read the Frida book to Vivian and Thatcher. August came down from his bath, and did some left/right up/down stomping and dancing with Glecy. Then the three older cousins sat with Andrea as she read Skippyjohn Jones.

Vivian and Thatcher headed off to sleep at 9, and it took the next two hours to put August to sleep. We spent a lot of time smelling the soaps from the shower. August would go in and get one, bring it out, smell it, then put it back. He said to himself “You can smell another one when you put it away.” He heard Vivian crying upstairs and decided “She’s sad because she doesn’t want to go to sleep.” He and Carly nursed for awhile, then he came out and walked straight to the window and looked out for awhile. Then Derek came up, and August got excited and ‘stung’ him for awhile. They went back in and tried again, but he kept popping up and talking about Vivian crying (“Maybe she said because…Mama…Colin…want to see Thatcher…), trying to work out different reasons she might be crying, and saying “Where’s Thatcher?” He was back out again one more time at 10:30. I took him back in the bedroom and sang a couple songs as Carly slept and he chewed on the plastic whale he was holding. He got up and we went into the shower and smelled the shampoos and conditioners again (he said the conditioner smells like apple). Finally, just before 11 he wanted to nurse again. I left and heard a little more talking after that, and he was asleep at or a little past 11.

New words/phrases: conditioner, cupcake

Morning: 

Walk. Waving at cars:

Home: 

Party: 

After the party: 

Milkshakes in the bath: 

Reading Frida: 

Reading Skippyjohn Jones: 

August was up a little before 7. Spent some time on the big paper drawing with Oma. He had her write the alphabet, then he spent quite awhile tracing all the letters she had written; he’s getting pretty good with the tracing. He remembered the cars from last night, and had me push the buttons this time. They were then out on the deck, and I saw them through the window; August and I did a forehead kiss through the window, then he moved to the doorway and we did one there. Back and forth a few times. There had been a discussion of the butterfly being an outside toy, and something else in inside toy. So a few minutes later, he picked up the doll that someone had left outside, brought it in, and said “This is an inside toy”. He then ended up upstairs with Cherie and Vivian, looking through a big bag of coins.

Derek, Andrea, Cassie, Carly and I then took all the kids to the Penny Playground in Chehalis. Colin and August were in the swings together, with Carly pushing them. Carly then took Colin to Cassie, and he swam in the rocks, as he is wont to do. I kept pushing August, and he sang his other hand song again, made up another little ditty, and started to do a noise with his tongue that he would keep doing throughout the day. Eventually he wanted out and we climbed through the play structure once, then went to the big swings where Vivian and Thatcher were swinging. August got on and I pushed him. He was swinging fine for awhile, then went to shift his hands and fell off backwards. Luckily a low swing, but the swing swinging back and hitting him in the head added insult to injury. Carly took him off to nurse, but they never did, as he got distracted by a puppy. He got to pet the puppy, and Vivian held the leash a bit. We then headed out, and came back to the house.

He napped from 1:20 to 2:20. Carly and the kids played in the sand and made a big sandcastle. We then went with the kids on another walk to the forest. August was in the stroller and got out to walk in the forest. We spent most of the time behind Vivian and Thatcher, as August was going at his exploring Seoul pace. Picked some berries and ate a couple of green/red ones (“don’t like the dark ones…this one ready…you picked the green one.”), then carried a tiny green one most of the time. We caught up with them (August holding Carly’s hand as we walked down the hill) and threw rocks in the pond area for 10 or 15 minutes. But Colin kept wanting to crawl into it, and August wanted to stand on the rocks and go down to the water. Not the easiest place to play.

We walked home, and August started to wave at all the cars that went by. At the house, he and I watched Chuck hammer some boards into the pathway to the motor home. August liked that, but he really wanted to do some hammering himself. We went down below and looked at the fruit trees. He picked a hard little peach and wanted to eat it; we went back in and I cut it up and he ate a good chunk of it and liked it. We then went back outside, just the two of us, and rocked on the rocks and smelled and tasted the mint. When he first smelled the mint he said “Smells like lavender!” He saw some bees on a nearby bush and lightly touched one of them with a mint leaf and his finger. I wouldn’t let him touch any more.

He went back in and nursed with Carly for awhile, then we drove into town to meet my parents at Bank of America just after 6. He was very excited to see them, and we walked to the Irish place a few blocks away for dinner. Carly entertained him while we waited for food, then he sat in a booster chair between us and ate a bunch, particularly liking the clam chowder and French fries, and having a lot of fun dropping grapes in the chowder and then eating them. He knocked over a cup of water, but wasn’t too damaging, as it only got gramma a little bit, most of it ending up on the table and floor. On the walk back, we stopped and smelled and identified some flowers. He then saw a centipede on the ground and was looking at it with my parents. He then stepped on it, and I picked him up and gave him the talk about hurting animals and asked him to say sorry for hurting the centipede. He wouldn’t say it to me, but then said “Say it to mama” and said it to her instead.

A guy at the restaurant had told us that the blimp we had seen flying over the last couple days was parked at the airport. August wanted to see it (at the end of dinner, as we waited to pay, Carly had taken him out for a minute. He came back in and said “Want to see the blimp, please.”), so we drove down and around the airport. Couldn’t get too close, and turned around at the entrance of the airport. August was excited to wave out the open window at gramma and grampa in the other car, and as we left he said “Want another gramma and grampa…14 grampas…there’s another gramma and grampa.” as he pointed at another car going past. We drove home past Walmart, and I saw another little road we hadn’t tried. Drove down it and got our best view of the blimp, then headed out again. As we drove, we talked to August and for some reason asked him where we live. His answer? “Seoul Tower”. Not sure where he came up with the ‘tower’ part. A minute later he said “Holy guacamole”, which is from the Skippyjohn Jones book. We realized we needed to buy coffee, so went to Fuller’s and I ran in. We then went home. He took a long time getting out of the car, then stood and watched the deer and waved and said  “Bye bye deer” several times.

when we took him in to sleep he looked at the lights above the bed and said “Turn on the lanterns.” Not sure where that one came from either. He was asleep by 10:30. 

Morning:

Outside: 

Penny Playground: 

Walk in the woods: 

Back at the house: 

Morning: 

Tracing: 

Water balloon art: 

August’s photo of Colin crying: 

Vivian’s photo of August: 

Park:  

Home: 

Evening walk: 

Dinner with my parents: 

Blimp: 

The house as a whole was pretty much up by 6:30 (except for Thatcher who kept sleeping and sleeping). August woke up once, but Carly nursed him back to sleep, then he was up again a little after 7. Carly played with them down in the sand area, then she went to take a shower. Chuck was down by the sand area, but August also wanted to go see Oma, and he sand a little “Oma, Oma, Oma…” song. We walked up into the house and saw Eddy, then went into the bedroom and brushed his teeth. We heard someone crying and each guessed who it was – I said Kayla and he said Kayla. We were both wrong as it was Colin. But it was kind of our first guessing game. August and Colin ate a snack together on the floor, then everyone ended up out in the driveway and played there a lot through the morning, using the water guns, scooter, butterfly thing on a stick, etc. We went inside, and he played with the noisy ball thing on his own for awhile. We ended up playing outside again, and August touched a moth and it flew away. We spent several minutes finding moths and flies and butterflies on the side of the house and studying them and touching them.

He took a nice long two hour nap in the afternoon, waking up around 2. There was more playing outside, then he sat at the booster chair and ate some pisole (sp?) and did a lot of talking about it. Everyone was then on the deck, playing, and they got to taste Cherie’s yogurt, which he also liked. He nursed, then we took the kids for a walk in the forest.

August took the play syringe with us, so he was giving me shots in the neck and shoulders as we walked. Also, Derek and Andrea had brought our pink water bottle down from Seattle, where we left it, so we used that again, much to August’s joy. We stopped to pick blackberries, and August was focused on that, so we did that for several minutes. We caught up with everyone else and walked back with them, stopping at the big pile of gravel so that Vivian, Thatcher, and August could climb and run down it several times (August holding my hand). We were then walking back along the road, August holding my hand, when we saw Andrea walking towards us, with Kayla. August got really excited, but then was looking at them and stepped on the edge of the pavement and fell, scraping his left knee. Bled pretty well, and I carried him back to the house and we washed it off in the sink. Carly nursed him while I dried it off, and she was able to get a bandage on it later. While he was in the bedroom, Vivian and Thatcher ran around cleaning up and decorating and put together a couple plates of snacks for a surprise party for August to make him feel better.

He came out, they surprised him, then I got him soy milk. Vivian wanted the same cup with emoji faces and got upset when she couldn’t happen. But later, sitting at the table, we were acting out and defining the different faces on it. I fed him som pisole, then we were playing out on the deck, and Vivian once again got upset when August was using the butterfly.

We ate dinner, after which I changed him, and we started talking like robots. August liked that, and has a pretty good robot voice. Out in the hallway, August started pushing the buttons on the big toy cars that then drive back and forth rather randomly. He stood up on the step of the living room, saying “Don’t like it, don’t like it, don’t like it…You DO like it.” Vivian and Thatcher were sitting on stools at the island, eating veggies, so August wanted up too. Got him a chair and he climbed up next to them and actually ate a couple of pieces of carrot – he’s getting more into crunchier foods. Cherie noticed the rocking chairs outside rocking on their own and joked that it was ghosts. August first asked what ghosts were, then thought it was really funny to watch them and kept wanting to see the ghosts.

He was then upstairs and watched Vivian and Colin take a bath. Out in the hallway, he sat on Colin’s lap, which was funny and Colin didn’t seem to mind. A bit later August and I started to fill the bath, but then he was off, following Vivian and Thatcher. Eventually, Carly got him back upstairs and gave him a bath. I came up at the end and rinsed his hair. In his bumblebee pajamas, he then pretended to sting Uncle DD and Eddy, using one of Vivian’s shoes as a stinger. He was asleep somewhat earlier this evening, around 9:30.

 

Snack with Colin: 

Squirt guns: 

Kayla with the banana: 

Sideways: 

Giving me shots: 

Green blackberry: 

Walking: 

Scraped knee: 

Sitting together at the island: