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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: 

He was up at 6:20, but Carly got him to nurse. At 7 I thought he was getting up for good and I started to get up, but Carly got him to lie back down, and he slept until 8:20. He came out and climbed up into one of the big chairs. He then got grampa to look at sticks with him:  “Another stick!” He saw Paul, and kind of walked to the other side of the chair next to him and said “Hi uncle Paul.”

While Carly went and showered, the rest of us took August to the playground. He started to climb the plastic thing again, but grampa was helping him, and August got a static shock. After that, he was done with that. Instead, he wanted to climb the big metal ladder part that he’d done part of before. This time, with first gramma and then Paul spotting, he made it all the way to the top – 7 feet or so.

We were packing up, and he was in the tent with Carly. He kept walking back and forth and hiding in one of the interior flaps, and was nonsense singing the entire time. Back out, I got the iPad out for him and introduced him to the new Marco Polo weather app, which he really liked. At one point he fed an animal carrots, and then I asked what the animal was. He replied “I didn’t see…walked away.” After that, he ran across the pavement and fell, scraping his elbow a little bit – his worst fall of the trip. As we were about done packing up, he invented one last game, using his water bottle, with the lid off, to create puddles in the dirt next to the concrete platform. As we were ready to leave at 11:30 I told him he needed to finish up dumping the water. He dumped one more, then handed me the water bottle and said  “want it full of water to drink…the cold.”

We drove to the dam to go on the tour. They are in full security mode, taking our IDs, checking the trunks and hoods, etc. We then had to wait by the entrance until the ranger came and drove us down to the visitor center in a cart. August did really well, and we enjoyed the tour. Our tour guide, Sydney Hudson, was a bit of a character and had grown up in Australia. At the end we learned that he travels a lot with his father, and they recently did a cruise to Antarctica. August liked the noise in the dam. I carried him down the little stairway to the lower floor, where we got to see the parts of the generator that is being replaced. We also got to walk right in by a turbine, which seemed a bit crazy. There the noise was a bit much and he wanted to leave. There were also a lot of dials and lights and buttons, and he got really sad when he couldn’t touch those.

From there we headed home, stopping in Pateros at the quick stop sort of place for lunch and ice cream. He fell asleep as we got into town. As Carly took him into bed, he took his shoes off while half asleep. He slept from 2:23 until Carly woke him up at 4. They then read Max’s Dragon Shirt twice forwards and once backwards.

After he woke up, he spent time out back with gramma, watering the steps and the sand below with the watering can.  After we played in back for awhile, I took him down to change him and he was singing a song. Suddenly he started putting in the names of subway stops “Junggye…Hagye…” We went back outside and did more watering. Eventually, he was making sand castles with Carly. He was having fun knocking them down, but then wouldn’t even let her finish one first. He got upset when I stopped him from destroying her sand castle.

We ate dinner outside on the deck, spaghetti and green beans. He liked both, and liked the green beans dipped in the spaghetti sauce. He also ate all of Paul’s mushrooms.

Carly and I took him out for a walk in the evening, down to the river and then through Riverwalk Park, with him singing in the stroller. As we walked down the hill to the river, he was doing a loud “Noona neena” chant at the dogs in the yard across the street, and I realized he was basing it on the “Neener neener” thing I taught him when we first got out of the car so he wouldn’t be afraid of the barking dogs.

We walked over to the old bridge, then came back. August wanted to find a playground, but at the benches area he started playing on the benches and jumping. I would hold his hands and he would call a number (“11!”) and he would then do that many jumps. He was also jumping off the benches and onto the ground. I was holding his hands, but he was doing most of the jumping – I was just making sure he wouldn’t fall over when he landed.

At home, he took a bath, then before going to bed he went up and said good night to everyone, and to Celeste. Celeste was sitting in the window sill, and August was able to get up really close to her for a few seconds before she jumped down. He went back down and fell asleep at 9:30.

Morning:

Playground: 

Getting ready to leave: 

Home. Watering the ground: 

Evening walk: 

When he woke up at 6:52 we heard him say “Took the socks off” and looked over to see that he had. After we got up, I took him over to the playground while Carly went to take a shower. He climbed the plastic rock climbing wall 3 times, and spent some time throwing wood chips down the slide. My mom then came over. He was just sitting at the top of the climbing thing. We saw robins close by, so was able to point those out to him. He started to take a shoe off and said to himself “Don’t take your shoes off.”  When gramma said it He would then say “That’s funny!” and laugh. We went back about 8:15 to get some breakfast.

For breakfast he ate some of Carly’s sandwich, and I shared some Cheerios. We somehow managed to spill some milk on both of us. We then all went on a walk over past the group campground area. He chose the stroller, but we should have done backpack as we ended up going on a dirt road. We heard and saw killdeer. Gramma gave him a shiny rock, so he kept wanting more shiny rocks, which he would then throw from the stroller. On the way back we stopped and he was throwing rocks into the big puddle in the middle of the road. Paul helped out in supplying him rocks.

Back at the campsite, I went to take a shower and August and Carly played in the tent with his water writing book. He was also asking for a lot of math problems. I heard him asking ”17 plus 17 equal?” but he was doing the doubling thing – after she would answer with 34 he would then ask “34 plus 34 equals?” They apparently got up to the 200s.

We then got in the cars and drove to the playground down by the dam on our side of the river. Played on the structure for awhile, walking across the shaky bridge with mama then going down the slide together, then walked out to a little vie area and looked at the signs and the dam.  He seemed to be sleepy so we headed back.

Carly tried putting him to sleep but he wasn’t doing it, so I offered the backpack, and he accepted. He put his head down on Smokey. We walked past the swim area and then saw a marmot, so we paused napping to watch it. He then said “There’s another one.” and indeed there was. We watched them for a couple minutes, then I heard him whisper “fall asleep in a coffee shop.” We started walking again and he fell asleep quickly. Set the backpack by the picnic table at the campsite and he slept from 2:12 to 3:24. We all read and napped.

After his nap he was eating popcorn with grampa. He waved at Paul, then climbed into the stroller and used it as a chair as grampa gave him popcorn. He heard an air pump noise from another campsite and matched the pitch..

At the. Playground there had been a mom with her 4-year-old son. She told us about the wading area at the park downtown. So after his nap we went there. We found the wading area, but he only touched the water a bit: the main focus was sandcastle building. First it was with grampa, and they built a few together, with grampa teaching him how to pat down the sand and then hit the bucket to get the sand not to stick.. Carly then took over and they built about 20 of them. With my dad August had started to put a rock on each of them, and continued that. At some point he decided to spray each rock with the spray bottle to make it clean. My dad also found a little squirt gun in the sand, so they got to play with that. As we walked back to the cars, I was carrying him and he had the squirt bottle. He squirted grampa in the shorts, then said “Squirted the shorts…just a little bit.”

We drove to the grocery store that sold ice cream, which we had seen on the way there. We all got ice cream and ate it on benches out front. We then drove the few blocks to the start of the wooden sculptures carved out of the old trees. August really liked these and liked identifying the animals and things on them. I took some photos, so then he took some, and took some of Paul and Carly as well.

Carly and I drove past the other park in town on our way back. Has an outdoor pool and a big metal play structure out of the 80s. If we were staying another day we could have gone there.

Back at the campsite we ate ravioli so for dinner. After dinner he was playing by. The tent with gramma and laughing as he dropped sand on her feet. But then he was throwing sand on the tent and wouldn’t stop.  He started screaming when I picked him up. He went with  Carly into the tent for awhile, then came out and read the stinky sock book with gramma a few times.

We did marshmallows again. This time, however, he only wanted the crispy part of the marshmallows, so I worked to make extra crispy parts for him. We then shared our s’mores again.

I then took him to the playground, where there were four bigger kids playing. And hyper. He climbed the plastic thing, and was repeating what he heard the other kids yelling, like “I’m not playing”. They kept screeching and yelling, and he was concerned that they were sad. He had wanted “Dada Zinnie go down the slide” on the way over there, but when we went up to the slide, there were kids coming up it and running by August found this exciting, and even didn’t mind when they bumped into him, and would laugh and do his shaking arms thing. But he didn’t want to go down the slide. He did want up, and I picked him up and he just watched for awhile. Then he said  “want to do the hanging one…like mama” and raised his arms in the air. So we went and I helped him with the monkey bars a couple times. Pretty quickly after that he decided he was done, and he whispered “want to see the campsite”.

Back at the campsite he said good night to everyone, then went in the tent with Carly and fell asleep right away, at 10.

New words/phrases: s’mores, marshmallow, campsite, fire, What’s this one called?

 

 

Our walk: 

Park by the river: 

Asleep in the backpack: 

Sitting with grampa: 

Park in Bridgeport: 

Eating ice cream: 

Sculpture walk: 

August’s photo of Paul: 

Reading with gramma: 

Wearing his sunglasses: 

With gramma again. Watching grampa roast a marshmallow, I think: 

He was up at 8:27. In the morning he was perched on the back of the couch watching the birds and squirrels eat the seeds that he and gramma had put out yesterday. She was beside him, and he asked her to help him look for Celeste: “Want gramma show you how to look for the cat.” After that, he was on the back porch sitting next to Carly on the bench, drinking milk. Then gramma made him an egg for breakfast.

We were all doing a lot of packing to get ready for the trip, and he was handling it pretty well. Carly cut up one of the mangos and he was eating that. He was then singing the “Cada Semilla” song, and when Carly sings it she doesn’t know all the words. So now he was singing “Something, something, something.” And requesting “More something, something, something”. He did get upset when he was trying to climb on the coffee table and I wasn’t letting him, and he bumped his knee and then did some screeching. Carly twice tried to put him down for a nap, but he wasn’t agreeing to that. After the second time, he came up after I had eaten the last of the banana bread and saw my plate. He wasn’t content with “bread” as an answer and asked “What kind bread?” He was content with Cheez-Its as a substitute though.

We left right about 1:30. Carly drove and I sat with him. Drive went smoothly. At the camp site we got things set up, and he sat in the little blue chairs when we got them out. Carly and I then drove into Bridgeport to the “supermarket” to get some groceries, and August was falling asleep in the car, but he made it.

Back at the campsite we went to the playground. He climbed the fake rock wall thing twice, walked around on top, and was throwing wood chips down the slide. Back at the campsite, he went for a little walk in the stroller with gramma and grampa and had fun. We grilled hot dogs for dinner, and he particularly liked the “squishy” buns. I got one out for a second hotdog, and he stole it from me, so I settled his that he had already gnawed on.

After that, we walked down to the swim area on the Columbia. He waded in a bit and threw rocks. A boat went by and there were waves, which he didn’t like, so he walked up on the sand and then started dropping sand on the goose poop, then was dropping it on the water. My parents and Paul then came over and hung out at the water for awhile before we walked back to the campsite.

Back at camp my dad made the fire. I was keeping him well away from the fire, and August tried to do a spin move around my arm and fell on the pavement. But once the fire was ready grampa roasted two marshmallows for August and showed him how to eat them. He was very happy about that. He then shared s’mores with both me and Carly as we made them.

We went in the tend and he and I read the What Game Should We Play? book twice, and he started to talk about falling off of a changing pad in Centralia – something which has never happened, since we change him on the floor there. Carly read to him (the Richard Scarry counting book) and nursed, then when he wasn’t yet falling asleep gramma came in and read One Fish Two Fish with him while Carly drank some tea. He was doing most of the reading. Carly came back in and he was asleep at 9.

After everyone else was in bed, Carly and I did some stargazing. Saturn, Mars, and Jupiter were all nicely visible, and when the moon came up it made a nice moonbeam across the grass. Thanks to the Star Walk app, we were also able to identify pieces of space junk and several stars.

New words/phrases:  too many,

Campsite: 

Playground: 

River: 

S’mores:

Bedtime: 

It was another odd morning. He leaked a little before 5. While he was up, Carly got him to start blowing his nose a bit. They then got up and were up until about 6:40. They skyped, ate, went outside, and played with the polished rocks: “Orange in there. In the poop one. In the snot one.” They went back to sleep, and were up again about 8. He was nursing a lot, then trying to open the door. Carly called me on my cell phone to come and help him open the door, but he had locked it. Once the door was open, August didn’t want to leave without mama. He was very clingy to her this morning. Eventually, we got him upstairs and he wanted to look for Celeste. He decided: “Grampa show you how to get Celeste.”

We were upstairs without Carly for awhile, but then he realized she was gone. So he went downstairs, and started running a few feet before the door. He tripped and fell face first into the door. Luckily, he only grazed the frame with his cheek. He had a red spot on his cheek later, but that was it.

In the late morning, Carly and I took him to Don Morse park in the stroller. On the way, I got him out of the stroller so he could push the crosswalk buttons. While waiting in the bakery for our drinks, he figured out how to do 6, 7, 8, and 9 fingers with his two hands. This was a big deal, and he was very happy about it. To this point he couldn’t really do one number with the right hand and another number with the left. He got upset leaving the coffee shop, as he wanted to keep doing fingers.

At the park we went directly to the swings. He was in a swing at the end and there was a little boy – 15 months, I think – swinging next to him who waved and August waved back. I left to go get my hair cut, and as I left they were playing on a bouncy swing thing, with August jumping on it. When I came back, they had been playing in the water. He spent a lot of time just crouching in the water, feeling the sand in the water. They were coming up to eat sushi, so we sat on the grass and ate lunch. He really liked the sushi, and also the ginger. He liked trying on my sunglasses, then sat on my lap for quite awhile and ate some pizza. On the walk home I started doing wheelies with the stroller, and he would say “1, 2, 3” and then “Down”.

At home, he took a nap from 2:15 to about 4. He woke up and nursed in there, but fell back to sleep. We thought about waking him up, but he was really asleep. When Carly did wake him up, it was still a long, slow wake up.

Once he was awake he ended up outside with gramma, filling the bird feeders and spreading bird seed, watering the flowers, and then playing in the sand. Eventually he wanted to go inside, and I asked if he was checking on mama. He replied: “What to check on mama?” “Check on mama. See if she’s awake or asleep.” A bit later my mom gave him his backpack. He was very happy about that, in particular liking the flashlight.

He saw a picture of corn and watermelon on one of the books, and wanted to eat them. So he sat in his chair and ate some corn and watermelon. I got a hard-boiled egg and said I’d share it with him, but he ate almost all of it. With the bite remaining I put pepper on it to eat and he spotted that and was curious.  He liked the pepper, and wanted more. He ate the last of the egg.

A bit later, as we dished up for dinner, he kept saying “Want some uncle Paul’s.”  He also kept talking about couscous and mushrooms, although we didn’t have any left; same with the jello and peaches which he has requested a couple the last couple of days.

When he was going to go to sleep, I said good night, then he turned to the door and waved and said “Night night gramma and grampa.” So then I took him up to actually say goodnight. As we left the room he said “And Uncle Paul.” So we said good night upstairs, then went into Paul’s room and he said  “Bye”. He was asleep at 9:45.

New words/phrases: forehead, sushi, sprinkler, pemang, wasabi, flashlight, couscous

 

Watching grampa: 

Park: 

With gramma: 

Backpack: 

Dinner: 

Jumping: 

Sleeping with a blanket: 

An odd morning. He was up at 4:50. Nursing on and off until 5:20. He was also saying “Nuzzle noses…cheek rub” to Carly. After that I got him up on the bed with me and we read Garfield for awhile. August particularly likes the ones where Garfield or Odie end up messy, which is a surprising number of them. We then went out on the couch until 7. He watched some Kipper and Korean videos, and we ate Cheerios with blackberries and blueberries, both of which he liked. He then went back in with Carly and slept until close to 9.

He was then outside and wanted to put sand in Celeste’s water: “Celeste can eat sand in the water.” He became obsessed with the wire sculptures that my dad made and the beads that go on them, and started taking them off. One was dropped and lost in the rocks. Carly told him this would make grampa sad, but then August was finding it funny to “break beads…make grampa sad.” So that backfired.

I was playing with him, and we went into the garage and looked around. Back down on the first floor, August wanted the car to beep. Not sure how he thought of/knew about that, but my dad got the keys out and let August push the ‘lock’ and ‘unlock’ buttons to make it beep.

Carly fed him lunch, and I cooked zucchini and mushrooms. He then ate a second lunch, but only ate the mushrooms and skipped the zucchini, which he has generally liked. My mom then gave August a flannel shirt that matches one that my dad has. August was very happy about it and immediately wanted it on. I put it on and he exclaimed “You like it!”

Carly tried to put him to sleep for a nap a couple times, but no success. So we were back outside and, once again, playing with the beads: “Want to break the beads and make grampa sad…this one has no beads.” “Work on the climbing rocks.” He was also counting how many beads each sculpture had. Finally, Carly started hiding a bead in her hands and he was excited to choose a hand and see if it was there. He would only choose the hand where it last appeared.

In the afternoon we all got in the car and went to Lakeside Park. Made our way down to the beach and he threw rocks in the water. Other kids had left a bunch of beach toys around and he wanted to “Hold the green one.” He then spent quite awhile standing with me and throwing rocks at/in the plastic toys. He saw all the bigger kids playing out in the water and decided he wanted to swim: “Want to go out there…want to learn to swim like a fish.” The fish reference was entirely of his own choosing. I told him to learn to swim he had to go one step at a time, the first being getting used to getting deeper in the water. He walked out deeper with me a couple times, getting water up to his thighs. It was really wavy though and he’d start saying “Don’t like it.” The shirt was long, so we took it off and he went around shirtless as he played on the beach and wrote in the sand. He saw some ants and wanted to touch them with something and my mom reminded him of something her dad used to say: “We’re outside and it’s their house.” He did some more writing and walking along the shore with gramma, then found a “shiny bolt” and gave it to grampa.

We then went up to the playground, where he managed to climb the five foot ladder thing on his own 3 or 4 times, with us spotting him. He went down the slide with Carly and me, then next to us, then wanted to do it on his own. He tried several times, and did counting in all 3 languages, but couldn’t do it. Finally, as I was standing up top he went down on his own.

Back home, he wanted to see the gnomes out front. So he and I looked at those. Carly was sneaking off to the store, but when she started the car it startled him and he realized what was happening. He was okay though. Back in the house, my mom and me started to do “Whee” at his requested, and we started swinging him, me holding his hands and her his feet. He really liked that and wanted more and more and more and more. He got upset when we stopped and started screeching. I took him down to the bed for a rest and he calmed down and cuddled with me after awhile. He got quite and was sitting against my shoulder, looking out the window. I took a photo, then realized his eyes were closing. It was only five, so way too early. Managed to wake him up, then get Carly down when she got here. Then, Paul had shown up, so we took him up to see Paul.

We were planning to go to Westside Pizza for dinner, but were unsure how August was going to do. Eventually we decided to go for it, and walked there with him in the stroller. Went in and ordered pizza, then Carly took him out on the street to walk around. She skyped with me and I stepped outside and realized a minute later that they were calling from right down on the corner. He was looking at the flowers and wanting to know what they were. There wasn’t room to eat pizza in the restaurant anyway, so we had decided to head home. So Carly headed home with him.

We followed a few minutes later. At home we ate out on the deck. Carly had tried to get him to eat some vegetables before we got there, but he knew that pizza was coming. Sometime after dinner, I took August down into Paul’s room to talk to him about books. August was playing with the door and enjoying locking us all in. He’s really working on turning the round handles, but generally can’t do them yet. I changed him, and he wanted pajamas on: “Where did the pajamas go? The Owls are dirty. The yellow pants are too warm.” Finally, he was sitting down on the bed with my mom, going through all the Garfield books and finding the numbers on them. He fell asleep a bit before 9 again.

Park: 

Playground: