Category: Uncategorized

August was up at 7:40, and Thatcher came down a few minutes later. Thatcher tried tickling August, who didn’t want to be tickled. August backed away, saying “No, no, no” and then pointed to me and said “Tickle dada”. Thanks, son. We played up in the playroom, and Thatcher was doing his ninja moves, jumping and rolling around on the floor. August was trying to do moves like Thatcher. I was downstairs a bit later and everyone else had gone upstairs. Kayla woke up in her stroller, and I held her on my lap for a couple minutes while I finished typing. A bit later I was out front watching Thatcher and August while I held Kayla. Chuck and Cherie were then up, and we were all up in the playroom for awhile, then back out front. By the kitchen, Augustw as afraid of Eddy, but then was stomping to the rhythm of Eddy’s tail thumping on the floor. Cherie started singing “Chim-chim-aree” from Mary Poppins and August liked it. He asked  “What is song called?” I then pulled up the lyrics on my phone, and we watched the video from the movie. Finally, Cherie taught August to hop on his hands and feet like a frog and bunny.

We left at 11:20, Carly driving, and August surprised us by falling asleep at 11:35. We got to Dee and Grant’s house at 12, and Carly stayed in the car with him until he woke up about 12:35. He was hesitant about going inside, and I hung outside with him, playing with the wind chimes and looking at things in the yard. He was wondering what the things on a quail’s head are called, and I couldn’t Google a good answer at the moment. He kept requesting “More wind chimes” and then we were knocking on the little window above the couch. He could see my dad, and I told him to yell “Hi grampa!” Eventually, he was comfortable being inside, and sat on the rocking horse for a minute. He got off it, and then put Marshy on. We were looking at the pizza menu, and August had opinions about which pizza he wanted, even if he didn’t know what was on each:  “Want mad dog” “What kind you want?” “I was think about 5.” My mom gave him a hug, and he wanted “more” hug, then surprised her by saying “How have you been?” He was curious about the tower fan they have, and said “Some kind of fan in there.”

After the soccer match was over (France beat Iceland handily), we headed up to MOD Pizza for a late lunch. August ate a lot of olives and mushrooms and crust, and some sun-dried tomato. We had a good lunch, then headed back to the couch. August and Carly nursed in the back room again, then we went out on a walk with my mom and Dee and Paul. August asked about flowers, and directed our walk though a church parking lot a bit. I then got Bluie out and August made a name of throwing him from the stroller. At first, there was a bit of a script where August would kiss the part of Bluie that had hit the ground, then throw him again. We got back and hung out at the house. Carly and August were out in the yard at some point. In the house, August watched his Korean videos, then some Kipper and Pororo. He was then doing some singing, and throwing Bluie around to my dad and Carly. He did a good job saying bye bye to everyone. I was most sorry to see him say bye to Paul, as it will be the last time he sees him this summer. He had had fun with Paul, requesting Paul sit with him both ways in the car for lunch.

We drove from there to Central Market in Shoreline, by where we went to the farmer’s market. We got some salad bar stuff for dinner. Carly looked around first, and I stayed with August, who enjoyed pushing a little cart around. He and I went and got milk and half and half and picked out bread. I then went and got some food.

We got back to the house and ate dinner at the kitchen island, then I gave him a bath and washed his hair while Carly did some cleanup in the kitchen. Andrea had made macaroons, so we got to eat those. August managed to stay up until a little past 9:30.

 

Dee and Grant’s: 

On a walk: 

Pizza: 

Back at the house: 

Shopping: 

I was up first and got to visit with Andrea and Kayla. August was up at 8:40, and they came down around 9. Andrea made delicious crepes for breakfast. I was then with August and Thatcher outside. They were standing on the retaining wall stones together, then Thatcher went to the corner of the yard. August asked “what thatcher looking at?” He then put his finger to his lips and said “Hmmm” a few times. A bit later we were back inside, and Thatcher was jumping off the bed, so August had to jump like that as well.

We all headed to Carkeek Park. We went down on the beach, and August hated the seaweed at first. But then Derek was showing him crabs and August wanted to find more. Eventually, he was tromping over the seaweed and wading through the water like it was nothing. The next big find was a starfish, which August got to touch after dipping his finger in water. Chuck and Cherie showed up, and August was first exploring with Oma, then holding hands with Opa as they explored with Thatcher. August was getting a little obsessed, saying “more crabs! More crabs!” And at the end, after we had seen a baby octopus, he was requesting more crabs and starfish, and anemones.

We went back to the house, then all went up to the Shoreline Farmer’s Market. Thatcher and August both held Cherie’s hands and sucked their thumbs as they walked through the parking lot. Not sure who was copying whom there. Carly went to look around, then August and I walked around a few minutes later to find her. We bought a veggie quesadilla and a chicken Mo pocket for lunch, and a cold drip coffee from one Cup. Ate those standing up, and looked down to see Thatcher and August lying across the chairs, again copying each other.

We headed home, and Carly took him up for a nap. He would nurse, but was just too excited. He would pop up and say “Go see Thatcher!” So they played a bit, then we headed down to Carkeek to meet up with Anneka. Carly hurried across the field to Anneka by the playground. I told August she was going over to her friend, and August asked “What is the friend’s name?” We practiced saying “Hi, Anneka” but when we got there he was too shy to say it. He wandered around the playground a bit, then was contented with eating tortilla chips. He wanted to nurse and was falling asleep. We got him back awake and I then tried to take him around the bathroom building to the salmon hill/climbing area. August saw it and started running, said something about climbing, then fell and scraped his knees. He ended up back nursing with Carly, threatening to fall asleep again.

Luckily, we got him up again and I got him over to the salmon area and he loved it. Spent the next 45 minutes or an hour there. He climbed the rubberized hill side a few times. Made it entirely on his own the first time. Carrying the spray bottle each time. He starts to make a distressed sound when it gets too steep, but keeps going. The second time I had to go help him. The next couple times I went up with him but he did it on his own. We went down the slide together once, and we got out Bluie and he threw him around. (August has officially decided to use ‘he’ when referring to Bluie – I’d been neutral, or mixing it up.) He also spent a lot of time looking at and climbing on the little hills with starfish and shells on them. He walked over to one thing and said “I show you this.” And he was asking what something was in the rocks and said “I don’t know.”

Finally, I took him over to the swings and he went in the little kid swing and stayed there for a long time. He was first throwing Bluie and I would pick him up. But then he was just swinging, holding Bluie. He talked about going up to the sky like the badger (remembering the Korean book again) and bent his head back, looking up at the trees and sky. There were big kids playing on the swings next to him, and he watched them. But most of the time he just was peacefully swinging. He finally got out when he saw a big kid jump off the bigger swing and he wanted to do it. He wanted to be able to swing on the big swing and drag his feet in the wood chips, but of course is not tall enough.

We went back to the house to find a full party in session. Glecy was there, as was Hank. Judith and Ethan and Andrea’s parents showed up a bit later. Carly and I took turns eating and watching August and Thatcher outside the front door. August didn’t eat much of the actual dinner, aside from some salmon, but he really liked the peas and pea pods from the bush outside. He also had a lot of fun sitting with Oma at the table and hitting a beer bottle with a knife. Ethan was sitting next to them and started drumming on the table, and August was drumming on the table like him.

I took August up for his bath. We were up there playing for awhile, then Carly switched with me. I came back up a bit later to find Thatcher had joined August in the bath. They were having a lot of fun. I took over again. All was fine until August splashed Thatcher a little in the face. Thatcher got quite upset and was crying. As I got August out and got him dressed he kept asking why Thatcher was crying and saying things like “Want understand.” Carly took over and he was asleep a little after 8:30.

New words/phrases: anemone, I don’t know, understand

Hmm. What is Thatcher looking at?:

House: 

Farmer’s market. Notice how Thatcher and August are copying each other in both photos: 

Back to Carkeek: 

In the car: 

Party and evening: 

It was hard to leave Chelan. Our time there definitely flew by. But actually getting out the door was aided by August sleeping until a bit past 9. He was then slow to want to get up; perhaps he sense something was happening. My mom did get to help feed him spaghetti in the morning though, and then we took our traditional family photos near the front of the house before leaving a little after 11.

Carly drove most of the way, from Chelan to the McDonalds east of Monroe. August had a bit of trouble with this, especially when in sunk in that we were going to a new house. I got him to cuddle with Peter Rabbit and Marshy though, and then we read some Wheels on the Bus and a few others, then watched a lot of Kipper and videos from class on the iPad. And he ate most of the strawberries and liked the one short little tunnel by Skykomish. We stopped at McDonald’s and got chicken sandwiches and a room temperature iced latte – there was literally no ice in it. They nursed in the car, then I took over driving, and he fell asleep a bit after that, from around 2:45 to 3:15 when we got to Derek and Andrea’s new house.

It was at first overwhelming for him. Carly took him up to the bedroom and nursed. He made it out into the hallway for a couple minutes with Thatcher, then needed to retreat to the bedroom again. A little before 4 we got him out again, and he went downstairs with me and then outside the front door. There, he started to play with Thatcher, mainly with the sidewalk chalk and a paving stone that Thatcher had made at school that included bits of pottery, glass, keys, and other objects in it. Later in the evening August strung together a sentence something like “Had fun play with Thatcher pieces of glass out”, referring to Thatcher picking out loose pieces of dull glass from it. August also really liked a wind chime hanging on the wall by the door that had plastic beads on it.

Thatcher then led us to the backyard, where the two of them had a lot of fun playing in the big drainage hole, which is a little kid’s dream play area. Derek turned on the hose and let it pore down the side. August was fascinated by this and was enthralled watching a stream form down the hill. It then snuck around him and started to pool at his feet. August was unaware of it until Thatcher pointed it out and August quickly stepped out of it. August did well climbing out of the hole once, then tried walking back down. He slid down, landed on his butt, and slid the rest of the way down the hill.

We ate dinner on cushions and a little table in the yard. Derek had made delicious pesto pasta and veggies. August mainly ate the pasta, and enjoyed using Thatchers forks to eat it. After dinner, Thatcher started showing off his tricks using his red wagon. August wanted to do all of them as well, so Carly and Thatcher would help him balance on the wagon like Thatcher had. Thatcher then jumped out of the wagon, and I was holding August’s hands while he did the same. August was doing a surprisingly good job of jumping up and over the edge of the wagon all on his own – my hands were just there to keep him from falling.

After that, we went in and Carly was preparing dishes for the dishwasher. August has continued to ask “What is the messy?” Every chance he gets, and had done it a couple times to Derek when he was preparing the vegetables. He asked Carly, then answered his own question with “Doing dishes to wash the tomato off.”  We went out front and we’re doing sidewalk chalk. And writing some letters. I had noticed that August was pronouncing Thatcher’s slightly off, and then I saw him draw an F and say “F for Fatcher”. August then put on his own sunglasses for awhile. He put them on and said “Like a gnome” (the one on my parents’ back porch.

We all went for a walk, with August in the backpack. He started a “Wiggle, wiggle” song to start with, then we were using the phone to look up all the flowers and some of the trees we came across. We are all going to know our flowers soon enough. He easily identified lavender and maple trees on the walk; I think cedars are going to be next. We did a lot of spinning in the backpack, and the poking mama/I’m not a tree game. August started chanting “I’m not a tree, I’m a person” and drumming on my back. Near the end, I said we were going home, and he had to clarify what that meant. He asked “What house called?” We settled on ‘Thatchers house’.

Back at the house, I took him in on Thatcher’s bed while Andrea read them a dinosaur book. Thatcher was then going to bed, and August would be up for another hour or two, so the three of us got in the car and went to QFC to get some snacks and other supplies. In the car August asked “What store we going to?” There, August really liked the bottles of vitamins and wanted to know the names of all of them. He was pretty hyper, but it worked for us. I was doing the self checkout and realized the hummus didn’t have a barcode. I called the attendant over and she said “Merry Christmas” – in part I think because she saw Carly trying to handle August close by.

We drove back and Carly gave him a quick bath while I caught up on this stuff. He went to sleep a little past 10.

New words/phrases: glass,

Last morning with gramma and grampa: 

The drive: 

Thatcher throwing a ball at me: 

Doing tricks on the wagon: 

Going for a walk: 

He was awake around 8, but Carly didn’t coax him upstairs until close to 9, and even then it was with considerable reluctance. Eventually he warmed up, and they played outside while I did some work. I was then outside with him, and he sort of did some weeding with my dad in the flower bed in the deck. Although that mainly meant my dad weeding, and August throwing the weeds around. He was then playing with the spray bottle and spraying both gramma and grampa when he wasn’t drinking from it. Inside, we did flopping, first on the green chair, but then on the bears: both the big one (Chester), and the little one (Teddy). He and I then ended up in the kitchen, me supporting him as he stood on the counter, and we smelled all of the spices in the cupboard. A couple times. He was very interested in their names and describing their smells: something he applied colors to, saying that one smelled purple and green, another green and white, etc.

Around 12:30 we got in the Jag and drove into town. Too hot to drive. We went to BC Macdonald’s and had ice cream. A very impressive selection of flavors, with a lot of berry ones. Carly of course got bubble gum, and that was also August’s favorite, which meant there was more huckleberry cheesecake for me. Although he also liked my dad’s bright red boysenberry ice cream. We ate a little in the shop, and talked to the owner a bit, then went behind the building to the park and sat on the grass. There, we were doing the “Jack was jumping, jumping…turn around and sit back down” song, but we couldn’t remember the beginning. August was having fun though and kept requesting it, making the ‘more’ sign.

My mom went to get the mail and walk home; the rest of us drove. We went downstairs and he wanted to read Skippyjohn Jones and then fell asleep, from 1:50 to about 3:15. Carly and I (mainly Carly) had been doing a lot of cleaning and packing. After he was up, he was hanging out in the bathroom as Carly cleaned, and he was looking at himself in the mirror and performing for himself. He was then upstairs playing with my mom and the rocks: “Ooh, oh, ooh. I like this one. Stripes in there. Orange in there.” He was then throwing around Celeste’s little pillow, mainly backwards over his head.

About 5:30, he and grampa headed outside and planted a little Japanese maple together, between the log and the street. That was very cool to see. August helped with the digging and planting and watering, then got up on top of the big log and was playing there: doing a “Doo da doo da doo” dance, looking for walnut shells from the squirrels (he called the broken pieces “Semi-walnut”, as they were part of a shell, like a ‘semicircle’ is part of a circle), and spinning the ornament thing.

At 6 we all walked up to Quick Wok for dinner. The first time any of us had been there. August once again was an adventurous eater, and liked the noodles. He loved the baby corn, and after eating all of our baby corn, he moved on to Carly’s tofu, my water chestnuts, and our mushrooms. My mom had gotten a spicier dish, and he did his thing again where he would eat a spicy bite, react to it and request water, and then eat another bite. Got it on film this time. Then, he grabbed Carly’s fork and just started stabbing pieces of tofu and eating it, as if he’d spent a bunch of time with a fork. But to now he hasn’t expressed much interest in using a fork or feeding himself with one.

We came home, first walking to the end of Robinson in search of a noisy wind ornament my parents had heard. We didn’t find it, but we got a good look at the river. We then sat outside and were entertained by August, who was first doing a silly walk in circles around the deck and patio, and then running. Carly gave him a bath, then he came out for one last “Night, night” with gramma and grampa. He had seen Celeste as well, so he and Carly waved off in the yard in the direction she had gone and said “Night, night”. She then took him down and he was asleep about 10:15.

New words/phrases: bubblegum, huckleberry, Skippyjohn Jones

Throwing weeds: 

Ice cream. Signing ‘more’ for Jack is Jumping: 

Back home: 

Planting a tree: 

Quick Wok for dinner: 

Entertaining at home: 

August and I went to Wenatchee with my parents today, leaving Carly to have some alone time to work on her classes, He was up at 7:45, and spent about 45 minutes nursing and reading with Carly. Since I was taking him later, she played with him in the morning while I did some work. They played outside a lot and did sand castles. Back inside, I found out that August knew exactly how to move the cursor to choose and send emoticons in Skype, sending them to Vivi. They then skyped with Cherie. Carly fed him some spaghetti before we left, and he again requested pepper in it. Finally, he requested that Carly blow bubbles in the milk. Don’t know if I’ve mentioned that, but they’ve been doing it for several days.

We headed to Wenatchee at 12:30. I sat with him on the way down. He got upset once on the entire trip, and it was as we were reading the Richard Scarry counting book and there was a picture of firefighters spraying water; I mentioned it was like the hose he watered flowers with, and he instantly got sad because he wanted to spray water and knew he couldn’t. He ended up cuddling with my teddy bear, which he had brought with him.

We made it to Wenatchee and to the clinic where my dad had an appointment. There was a toy area and he started playing with my mom with the train. He hasn’t really played with a train at all, and really liked it. He particularly liked pushing it through the tunnels. At 2 my parents went in to the appointment, and we played a little longer. I got him away from the train as he was overdue for a nap. We found a book of colors in Spanish and went out to the couches and read it a couple times. He was rolling around and lying on the couch, and said “Sorry dada for pinching”, which happened yesterday morning. I took him in to the bathroom to change him, and he wanted to see the faucet on. I turned it on, then started to set him down and he said “See lavender soap.” That surprised me, as I hadn’t even noticed the soap. Not sure it if was the picture on the bottle or the word that he noticed. Later I asked and he said picture.

We went back out and got in the backpack and started walking in the 100 degree heat for a nap. Tried to stay in the shadows. After about 10 minutes I thought we were good and went in Hastings, ready for the AC. But August’s head came up. Walked in the shade of the building for another 5 and went back in only to find that they have permanently closed the coffee shop. I consulted Google, and found a pottery/coffee shop a block away called Inspirations. Went there and got an iced latte and sat down and listened  to Christian music for the next hour+. My parents showed up and got drinks and we waited for August. He had fallen asleep at 2:30 and woke up at 3:18 but then fell back to sleep. At 3:45 I started to try to wake him up, and at 3:50 he started to slowly wake. It took awhile, and he clung to me. He especially didn’t want to get in the car, which he was afraid would be hot. Eventually we got in and drove over to drop of batteries for recycling, then headed down to the park by the river.

Got out and started walking. August walked on the gravel on the side and in the bark in the flower beds. He was fascinated with the flowers and learning their names from my parents: begonias, petunias, geraniums, and especially snapdragons. My dad showed him how snapdragons work, and August wanted all of the flowers to snap. Eventually he understood it was just the snapdragons. We kept walking and found a place in the shade with some river access. Got out the picnic mat and ate our peanut butter sandwich and strawberries. He wrote ‘lavender’ and other words and letters in the sand with my mom, and he sat on a log in the air that we could shake. I had taken some photos, and he wanted to look at them. He would look, then turn the phone so my parents could see. He would say “Do you see this?” and “Oh my goodness.”

We walked a bit further to find the stream by the boathouse. He saw a dog coming the other way and had me pick him up: “Uh-oh a doggie…might tickle it…it’s okay…not barking.” At the stream, he sat on the railing and we watched a mama duck and 4 ducklings. We then went down and he threw little rocks in the stream. On the path he had also hidden from a family walking the other way and said “Hiding from kids.” As we were leaving, there were people by the kayaks and you could tell that he was deciding whether he should hide or not as he had his hands at the ready.

We walked back to where the car was and he liked the sculpture of a frog and pointed out its body parts. I changed him, then he went with my mom to see a tortoise sculpture. We then left, although not taking the red or blue cars like he wanted.

We drove to Pybus Market and went in to look at restaurants choices. Something about the place – the big room, the people, the woman singing on a stage – was overwhelming for him and he kept saying “Go outside.” So we settled on a place called South, right at the end by the car, as he could see there were windows and outside seating. We sat outside. At first, August was concerned about closing the door to inside, but we convinced him it was okay. He sat on a regular chair and did just fine. The sever gave him this little bendable sting-like toys, and we had fun making shapes and letters and things out of those. He shared fish tacos with me, and ate the rice, beans, fish, and tortilla. He got a few spicy bites or rice, but he just grimaced and requested water, and then would eat more rice. Really starting to handle some spice.

We was fine walking through the market after that. Then headed home, sometime after 7, He sat in the back with gramma this time, although at first he didn’t want her to read the books and wanted me to read them instead. On the way down we had read the Wheels on the Bus pop-up book several times and he wanted that again. Got out the water writing thing for him and he was fine after that. He had also really liked the tunnel on the way down, and remembered it as we got close and my dad asked him what we’d be going through. He was also really trying to figure out place names and what they were, particularly ‘Wenatchee’ and ‘Chelan’, asking “What Chelan look like?”

At home, he was most interested in following Celeste in the yard, but was thrilled when Carly came out. They nursed, then I gave him a bath. He surprised me again by this time pointing out the coconut soap on the counter. I mentioned this to Carly later, and she said he had done it the other day, although neither of us remember pointing out what it was. I gave him a bath and washed his hair, which went well. He was studying the shampoo bottle and asked where the penis was on the girl on the bottle, even though you could just see her head anyway.

Got him ready for bed, then he was learning to stick his tongue out with Carly. I then took him up to say goodnight to gramma and grampa. He showed them how he could stick out his tongue. He also wanted to say goodnight to Uncle Paul, but we reminded him that Uncle Paul was gone. Took him back down, and he was asleep about 10.

New words/phrases: snapdragons, coconut

Asleep on the floor: 

My glasses again: 

Sad with Teddy: 

At the clinic: 

Awake in the coffee shop with a mark on his forehead: 

The park: 

Up the hill with grampa: 

Playing at dinner: 

Headed home: 

He was up at 8:35. When they came up I was finishing up a piece of toast, so I gave him the rest of it. Soon after, he was between gramma and grampa on the couch, looking for Celeste out the window. Carly filled up the wading pool so it would be ready in the heat of the afternoon. I took a shower, and came out to find him watering flowers with gramma. He seemed to be tiring of that though, as he kept requesting more watering, but wouldn’t do it. I went to talk to him, and he got more and more upset – screeching and pinching. I took him to the couch and made him sit with me. He ended up sitting at my feet, cuddling with Bluie for several minutes. I took him downstairs to change him and we ended up singing “A ah apple” a couple times while sitting on the bed. We went back upstairs. He has taken to closing the doors if he hears a loud truck or other noise he doesn’t like. There was someone using a chainsaw across the alley and he started to close the door, but I suggested we look to see what it was. That worked, as I held him out on the porch and we watched him trimming his bushes for several minutes. He didn’t seem bothered by it after that.

Carly had made spinach pancakes, so he ate those for breakfast. He was then playing with the mixing bowls, and my mom was nice enough to let him drop them on the porch. He kept doing this, and humming along with the bowls when they hit the ground. Meanwhile, I had found my old teddy bear in a box, and introduced him to August. We went inside and read some Mother Goose together, then he and Carly nursed. We were then getting ready to head out to a park in Manson. It was just going to be the three of us this time. He was playing with the lid to the big decorative milk jug and trying to put it back on. I helped him, and he surprised us with ‘otherwise’: “Otherwise fall into the empty.”

We left soon after, and drove out to Willow Point Park in Manson.. We first played at the playground, where he went down the slide with Carly once. He also played with Bluie a bit and was dropping sand on Bluie, then shaking it off. He saw Carly looking down at the water and asked what she was doing. I told him she was checking out the beach area. He replied with “checking if cold or deep”. We went down to the beach, but August wasn’t too excited about either the sand or getting in the water. Carly went and changed, blew up the inner tube, and went floating. He and I made one sandcastle, but then did some climbing on the rocks before going up to the playground again. He ate some strawberries and climbed on the ladder a bit. He was looking through the backpack and said “What else in there?” He was interested in the berries that had come from some tree, and I was explaining how some berries can make you sick, so we couldn’t eat them. He started talking about “like Children’s Grand Park…” and someone eating berries there. Not sure what he was referring to; perhaps I had given him the same talk about something there. He saw Carly out on the water and eventually decided he wanted to float with her. So I changed him into his swimsuit and he floated with her several minutes. Kind of different from yesterday with the big waves from boats. He did fine with it, but wanted to face the shore; he started saying “No, no, no, no” when she rotated to face him out.

It was time for a nap, so we started to get going. They sat under a tree and nursed for awhile, then we drove into town and parked and put him in the backpack. We walked east, and he fell asleep at 2:20 and headed for a coffee shop only to find it would close at 3. So we went to the sub shop and shared a Chelan Cheesesteak. Then got ice cream. Carly was sitting outside when he woke up at 3:11. He saw my ice cream and the first thing he said was “What dada got?” So he ate my cookies n cream blizzard thing, repeatedly pointing in it and saying “See bluish cookie.” Carly came in and he saw the cup from our lunch. I told him it was Pepsi and he said “Mama needs Pepsi.”

Put him back in the backpack and walked through town. Looked at the shops in the old Eagles building. At one point he said “What’s going on in there?” We then walked through Allisons and looked at art. He of course most liked the fountain in the middle.

We then headed home and got back in time to say goodbye to Paul, who left a bit later. Referring to fridge or something, he used ‘needs to’, saying “Mama needs to open it.”  They went out an played in the wading pool. For quite awhile he would just stand in it, but then Carly got in her bathing suit and got in. A minute later he suddenly sat down for a few seconds. After that he was kneeling, and letting water out of the pool by pushing down the side. We ate dinner of the spaghetti that Carly had made and zucchini and green pepper from the garden. After dinner we were putting stuff away and August was looking at stuff in the fridge. He got out the container of salad stuff and asked what it was. I named off some of the things in it, then he repeated his “What else is in there?” question.

In the evening, mom went walking with us up to the cemetery again. On the way up, a cat with a short black tail came over to us and was friendly. We stopped and petted it, but August was too afraid to pet it, although he kept saying “Here kitty, kitty, kitty.” We finished our walk and came back down and the cat came running up to us. We are pretty sure it is the same cat that he petted last year from the carrier, although I haven’t gone back to the photos to check. Anyway, this time August was still afraid of it, pulling back his legs when it came close. But eventually he overcame it, and started touching the cat. I then got him to actually work on petting the cat and not just poking.

We came home and Carly gave him a bath. They went straight down to bed and he was asleep at 9:45.

New words/phrases: otherwise, what else, what’s going on in there?, needs to

 

Cuddling with Bluie at my feet: 

Peek-a-boo: 

Willow Point Park: 

Hiding from the bug on my hand: 

Eating my ice cream: 

Wearing my glasses on the ride home: 

Wading pool: 

Evening walk: 

He was up at 8, and nursed for quite awhile. Once Carly got him up, she went and took a shower, and he hung out in the bedroom with me. He was watching his Korean videos and singing and dancing along. We then went outside, and his focus was on finding Celeste. We walked around the yard a couple times, but no luck. We went in, and I made toast. He apparently wanted some, as he took my piece of toast and walked off with it and ended up eating all of it: “Want the toast?” “Uh no…want more toast! Want 14 toasteds!” At some point, he wanted grampa to go outside with him and told him “Grampa get up!”

Carly played with him outside as I got sandwiches ready for our trip to Alta Lake State Park. We left a bit after 10. Up at the park, August initially decided he wanted to play at a spot on the path down to the beach. Convinced him to head farther down and we set up in the shade. Carly went down and started floating, and he and I ate some cherries. But then he put a big piece in his mouth and spit it out, and after that only wanted chips. When I put the chips away he got upset. Once he calmed down, we went down to the water. Put his swimsuit on. But then he got in the floating ring thing with Carly, and stayed there for a long, long time. While I was down there with them August started splashing people, starting with grampa, then he was singing what we called his boating song – a new tune of his own making, as far as I could tell. I went up and read and they kept floating. They got out of the water and were making sand castles when I came back down later. Carly went up and August and I did some more sand castling – we were building one and destroying it over and over in the same spot – then did some more wading. I thought his right arm was starting to look a little red, so we headed up to get some food. Carly went on the swings for awhile, then came back and tried to put him to sleep. He was mellow, but not falling asleep. I hadn’t brought the big backpack, so that wasn’t an option. So we got the keys from my mom, and headed home.

He fell asleep in the car at 3:18, and slept until 4:30 when Carly started waking him up. Took awhile to get him up, We then headed out to the Alpenhorn for dinner, taking Paul in our car this time. August was excited about going out to eat. He thought he might want a chicken burger. Carly got a chicken burger, and I had a hamburger. We shared a raspberry shake. August drank much of our shake, and mainly ate Carly’s chicken, and French fries. Carly and I then went and played mini golf (I won) and August stayed with the three of them and ate French fries and drank my mom’s milkshake. My mom then brought him over and Carly was teaching him out to golf. He had fun hitting the ball with her, and liked picking it up and rolling it and putting it in the hole. Apparently he had predicted that I would win when my mom asked him who would win. Also, while we were golfing he needed to have his diaper changed and asked gramma to do it. She said “I can’t get in your car.” And he responded with “Gramma’s too big.” At some point he confused us by saying something that sounded like “What do people do when they sit in the sticks? They’re frozen.”

We went home and Carly went to the store. He wanted to go outside and water with gramma; as they went out he heard grampa turning on the water. He got excited and was trying to look through the towels hanging on the railing, then rushed down to the stairs and looked through the bars there. They watered for awhile, then I took him in and gave him a bath.  Carly got home as we were getting out of the bath. A bit later he and I went out and were reading Garfield on the deck. When it was getting too dark we went to go inside.  I suggested he say goodnight to gramma and grampa who were sitting in chairs on the deck, and he went and got a kiss from gramma. He then said “From grampa” and went and got a kiss from him. He then said “Want a squeeze” and got a hug from grampa, then wanted one from gramma. Then one from me. We had also looked for Celeste a couple more times through the day, and as we went in he said something about saying goodnight to Celeste. We had heard her outside, but not seen her, so I suggested he could say goodnight to her and she would hear it. He said “Night night Celeste” and we went in. He also wanted to say goodnight to Paul, but didn’t want a squeeze. He and I spent 20 minutes or so reading Garfield and then our old fairy tales book, then he was ready for Carly. So we used my phone on speakerphone and called her, upstairs. I had him say “Come down, mama.” She came down and he was asleep about 10:15

New words/phrases: golf,

Morning:

Alta Lake: 

Alpenhorn: 

Home.  The new gnome’s spot:

A trim: 

He was up around 8:30. After a lot of nursing, he wanted to go to see the motor home. They visited out there for awhile, then we were inside and ended up playing catch with Marshy, and throwing him back and forth to Cherie and a little to gramma and grampa. At some point he said “Want to see the motor home again.” And when Cherie was holding Marshy said “Oma is hugging him.” Carly made blueberry pancakes and my dad did bacon for breakfast. So we had a nice, big breakfast. But August’s favorite part was the plain yoghurt. And at first he said he didn’t like the blueberries in the pancakes, but ended up eating it. They then nursed, and played outside while I took a shower. I think they did sand castles.

I went out, and Carly went in to start doing some work. He and I picked Oregon grapes, and spit them out. He enjoyed putting them in my mouth, generally doing two at a time, then telling me which direction I should spit them in. He dropped one and said something like “Can’t do patooie with that one” and then rejected another, saying “Not the spider web ones.”

Back inside, we ate a bunch of cherries with grampa. He used ‘I’ll’ for the first time when he said  “I’ll put the pit in there.” I was trying to tell him just one more cherry, and he kept pointing out that there were more in the container. When I told him I was putting the rest away, he got upset, and then didn’t actually eat the last one I had given him. He went back down and nursed again.

Back up, Carly was doing more work and I was going to take him to Long Park down at Chelan Falls. We were getting ready, and he started playing with Chester, the big bear, and said “Want to throw Chester (to) uncle Paul.”

Me, Paul, and mom took August down to the park. Waded in the water a little, then headed down to the buoy thing to play with it. Got distracted by a sand castle, and used a plastic cup on the sand and our shovel to make sand castles. There was another little boy, Mason, who was slightly bigger and made sand castles with us. He was using the spray bottle to spray them, and August was telling him which one to squirt next. When they fell down, we quoted Kipper: “Crumbled at the corner.” We eventually made it over to the buoy line and he stood on it, or tried to, holding my hands. All was fine until we saw a couple kids with blue boogie board sorts of things. I said that was something he could play with when he was older and could swim, and he got upset that he couldn’t play with them now. Screeching and crying. Ended up sitting down up where Paul and mom were in the shade, and he calmed down. But he wanted to “Head back to gramma and grampa’s to see mama.”  On the walk back to the car, he was singing and joking around, and I asked him what he liked to be called. He decided on ‘Zinnius’, then finally came up with “Call me Zinnius Salta.”

He was very quiet on the way home, but made it. He took a nap from 2:40 to 3:40. When he woke up and Carly brought him upstairs, he saw gramma napping on the couch. He said “Want to sit on sleeping gramma.” There was some more playing outside, and reading of Garfield downstairs, then Carly and I took him out for a walk. We went and got iced coffees at the Riverwalk Inn, then intended to play in the bench area at the park. August and I were racing around the paths with the stroller, and quickly discovered that all the shaded areas were full of gnats. So we reversed course and walked the path back to the ball fields and finally went to the little playground there. He climbed the structure with Carly, and sat on her lap on top. I got out Bluie and we were playing with him/her. August was then throwing Bluie of the structure and seeing how dirty Bluie got.

We headed home about 6:15 and had sausages and rice for dinner. More playing outside with Carly, then he was sitting on grampa’s lap and playing solitaire on the computer. August really liked the mouse wheel – something he hasn’t experienced before with our trackpads on our laptops.

We went for a little evening walk, heading up the hill to where you can see the Chelan River. August did more singing on the way up, then was quiet on the way back. At the top, Carly took our photo as we looked at the river. She took our photo in the same spot last year, and they turned out good again this year.

We came home and I then gave him a bath. He didn’t want to play, just wanted to get washed and then go see mama. He was opposed to washing his hair, but we went really slow to try to keep water out of his eyes, and he made it without crying. He went down with Carly, and was asleep at 10 again.

New words/phrases: i’ll, pit, Oregon grape, Chester, yoghurt, abuelo grampa,

Backing it out: 

Long Park: 

Walk and play structure: 

Home: 

Above the Chelan River: 

Wearing my glasses: 

When I woke up around 7, I heard August clearly say in his sleep “Talking bout zookeepers”. He woke up around 8:25 and Carly dragged him upstairs at 8:45 after a lot of nursing. I made him toast, and he hung out with gramma and grampa, looking out the window for birds and Celeste again. When he saw Cherie walking up the stairs a bit later with a bag with writing on it, he said “It’s cursive!” We all sat outside on the deck and August was playing with water. There was bird poop on the deck, and Cherie couldn’t scrape it off, so August had the idea of spraying it with water and making it messy so she could clean it. He then wanted to go in and get the iPad. I saw him and Carly heading downstairs and I told her it was actually upstairs. She told him, but he didn’t believe her and kept going down – probably because that is where it was last time. My mom made some French toast, and he sat in the high chair and ate it. I put some syrup on his plate – his first time having syrup, as he had rejected it before – and he dipped both the toast and pickle in it and ate them. Carly ate a sandwich, and he called it that – he hasn’t used ‘sandoo’ in a few days. A bit later, I gave him his vitamins, and he came up with this fun bit of nonsense: “Want vitamins where Celeste poops!” Where does she poop? “In the wading pool!”

At noon, all of us except my mom and Paul went for a walk downtown. Along the way he would notice that the two of them were missing and ask about them. We got to Riverwalk Park and he saw the benches and said “Want to jump on those benches.” So we stopped and got him out. He was jumping on them, mainly with Carly. Then he saw a boat pulling away from the shore and said “Go in the boat!” He then got sad  and upset when he couldn’t, despite having never been in a boat himself.  Tried putting him in the backpack and he was not happy about that. Carly couldn’t handle it, and gave in, so we got him back out and she sat on the grass and nursed him. The rest of us all wandered around. We went and checked out the flavors at the ice cream place – lots of good flavors, but they indeed have gone back to not allowing free samples – then I went and checked out Riverwalk Books. Kind of forgotten how nice small book stores are – and how expensive the books. While I was gone, after he had nursed, he had seen another boat and said “There’s another one!”

Everyone came back – my dad with cherries from the farmer’s market – and we walked on to Don Morse Park. Along the way August got really interested in all the flowers, and Cherie was doing her best to name them all. Chuck and Cherie then turned back to get something to eat, and the rest of us continued on to the playground. I took the pits out of cherries and August ate them – another first food for him. He went on the swings, then Carly went and read and he and I played on the playground. He was very interested in a dad who was teaching his son how to use the monkeybar thing. My dad left a bit later, and we stayed awhile longer. Finally, we headed out – for lunch and to get home for a nap for him. We planned to stop at the drive-in for garden burgers, but there was a long line. We continued on, and for several minutes August sang loudly in the backpack. We took a look in the new sub shop, but didn’t get anything, and August got upset because he was hungry.  We gave him the option of stopping to get popcorn across the street or going straight to gramma and grampa’s, and he chose the latter.

We got home, and he took a nap from about 2:30 to 4 again.  After that, me and my mom went to Safeway to get a few more things for dinner and other groceries. While we were gone, Carly cut up all the veggies and prepared the salad. We had to also go to Red Apple to get ginger. We came back and Carly did the marinade, then my dad and I started up the grill and grilled the veggies, then the veggie burgers and steaks. August went with gramma to do the bird feed again, and when he poured some on his foot, she said “They’re going to eat off your foot.” He found that very funny. We ended up with a ton of food. August, it turns out, really liked the steak (dipped in ketchup). He also ate some asparagus.

After dinner, he wanted to see the Oregon grapes again, so I was holding him and we were looking at that. He tried one, but didn’t like it, then fed them to me. I then started spitting them out and doing “Patooie!” He really liked that, but then got upset when I wanted to stop. He then was kind of just walking around and being screechy, saying “Nurse, nurse, nurse…” They went down and nursed for awhile, then he was playing with gramma and Cherie by the motor home. I went out and saw the entire motor home for the first time. He needed to be changed, so he headed in with me, and we stopped to say hi to the gnomes.

I went to change him, and he heard Paul listening to something. I took him in and he saw Paul, then he started to hide from him. I took him back out, and he continued to hide from Paul on the changing pad. Paul came by a couple times, but didn’t really do anything, but August kept hiding from Paul, and sort of freaked himself out, and started repeating “Don’t like uncle Paul, don’t like uncle Paul, don’t like uncle Paul…” Which really means ‘don’t like what he’s doing’, but he wasn’t doing anything, so it was kind of odd. Also, he was still sort of laughing, while also sounding very stressed out.

We were outside again, and said “Want Oma find more pokey ones” in the grass – apparently sticks and something they had done earlier. Cherie came back with chocolates, and I shared mine with August. He was pretty obsessed with it. A little later we had actual dessert – the chocolate pie we had gotten at Safeway. As we got it out, August actually opened the garbage and was checking the wrapper from my earlier chocolate to see if there was any more. I shared my pie with him. I said we would go out to the dessert place, and he said “by the gnome”. He knows his routines. We shared the pie, but he was only really interested in the chocolate flakes on top.

Carly gave him a bath, then I took him out on the porch to sadly good night to all four grandparents. Should have had Carly film that one, as it is the last night all 4 are together, and it was pretty adorable. He kept waving and saying “night, night” and had to go to each of them individually, and back to my mom for a second kiss. He then said “Night, night honey bun” to Paul after I told him to say it. This was just after 9. We went down and he and I read some more Garfield, then Carly nursed him and he was asleep at 10 again.

Repeat of last night:

Walk into town: 

Dessert spot by the gnome: 

Sleeping under the bed: 

Slept until 8:30. He played around the house in the morning. He wanted up on the back of the couch again, with my help, and laid down there looking out the window. He was then sitting between gramma and grampa on the couch and they were pointing to the owls on his pajamas. He said that the brown ones were poop.

Carly and I then took him to Safeway on a pretty monster grocery shopping trip – getting food for dinner and beverages and whatnot. Definitely much larger than out usual car-less trips.

After we got home, August decided he wanted to slither like a snake. Don’t know what the inspiration was for that one. He wanted me to get down and do it with him. We slithered together, then he climbed on my back as I slithered on the ground.

A bit later, Chuck and Cherie showed up in the motor home. We got it to fit in, eventually, and it just fit. August enjoyed the spectacle, and liked watching grampa cut branches of the tree with the saw and chainsaw. At the end, we were picking up the branches and leaves, and August helped pick up leaves – although his real solution was to cover them up with sand.

We were then all sitting out back on the porch, and August was playing in the sand and with the water. Cherie brought out a box for my parents and August. It was a garden gnome that reminder her of August. Eventually, he requested a nap, and was asleep form 2:50 to around 4. We had to wake him again. When he woke up he wanted to find everyone, Oma and Opa included. He found Paul first, and squealed and said “Right there!” and pointed.

We then found everyone else. The plan had been to do barbecuing on the grill today, but it was really windy earlier, so we decided to switch and go to the restaurant today. We went in two cars, with Paul riding with us. We went to the restaurant at Howard’s on the River – next to where we had stopped for ice cream yesterday. As we got out of the car August said something like “Ristorante a comer”. They first sat us inside, where it was very air conditioned. We requested to go outside and made the move. It was much nicer. August poured out the crayons they had given him, and I asked him to clean them up. He did a bit, but was then playing around and said  “That’s not helping. That’s not a clean up.” He did well during dinner, just sitting in a booster seat. He ate a little of just about everything, from everyone. From my fish and chips, to fish and sweet potato fries from Cherie, and other things. He liked dipping the fries in the tartar sauce. Oh, and he really liked my clam chowder, which he ate almost all of.

After dinner, we went down to the path and walked under the bridges to the boat launch. We spotted a marmot on the way. Where we stopped Cherie taught him the “Jack is jumping” song and did it with him a couple times.  On our walk back he was touching everyone and they would say  “I’m not a tree, I’m a person.” We started it with my brother, then he did everyone else. We did Chuck last and he said “I’m a tree.” August got a kick out of that one. He wanted to go down on the dock, but Carly told him he had to be picked up for that. He initially asked grampa to pick him up, but when he didn’t move fast enough towards the dock (he didn’t realize why he was picking up August), August asked to be transferred to Oma.

We returned home, and he played outside with the water. We then had dessert. He first ate a cookie with Carly and wanted to go eat it out on the porch on the bench – that’s where they had eaten dessert the other day, so it is now his dessert spot. A bit later gramma agreed to give him some ice cream, and he took her out to the same spot.  When he came back in I said “Tell the truth. How many bites of ice cream did gramma give you?” His reply: “15!16!”

I took him downstairs to change him. He was shaking his head and doing the “silly thing to do” line. He then changed it. To “That’s a silly thing to do…that’s a silly thing to say.” We went and read Garfield together for awhile, then started reading the Skippyjohn Jones book that he had really liked the other night. He was asleep just after 10.

Poking owls: 

Like a snake: 

Trimming the tree: 

Gnome: 

Dinner: 

Quick walk: 

Back home: 

Rocking with Opa: