We drove out to Roy today to visit Sam and her family. August slept until 8:30, and we were headed down the driveway about 9:30. That’s pretty quick for us, but August had time to walk around the house, playing with two of the stacking cups from the bath.
We got to their house right at 11. We made it there without watching any videos on the iPad. We were greeted by Sam in the yard and the two kids sitting on rocking chairs on the front porch. August was instantly excited by the rocking chairs, and his excitement would continue through the entire visit. In particular he loved the chickens, which he found scary up close, but managed to touch once before saying ‘all done, all done’, a hammer, which he instantly recognized as a hammer and used to pound on the concrete, and a small red chair, which we took over by and inside the house, and which he kept practicing sitting in. He also ate well: he liked the tuna sandwich, and tried some of the homemade venison sausage.
And Madison and Tony entertained him and us by showing us their work site, Madison’s garden, and a bunch of their toys. I was particularly amused when Madison showed me the tomato plants and told me she had to find and eat all of the ripe tomatoes so that her mom couldn’t get any.
An added bonus was Sam’s parents showing up for much of the visit, and her husband Pete showing up for the last few minutes.
At 1 it was time for all the kids to take a nap. Tony and August in particular were getting ramped up and starting to feed on one another. In the car, August and I started watching the “Take Me to Church” video, and by the third viewing he was asleep.
We stopped in Rainier at the cookie shop and bought 3 cookies. August slept through that, and kept sleeping for a little over an hour. Carly took a slightly longer way home because of it, and he slept until she stopped in the driveway. As soon as the car stopped moving, but with the motor still on, his eyes popped open.
At the house, we took some time to play while Carly got things ready to mail. He wanted to sit on the bench guarding the big flower plant, and he wanted Cherie to sit in the chair next to him. He kept talking about the flower plant and generally playing around on the bench. That lasted quite a while, then we went outside, where we smelled both the mint (which we’ve smelled before) and the lemon balm (which Cherie just showed us).
We left and tried to go to the post office in Galvin, but realized too late that it closes at 4. So we then went to the hospital, where we visited Steve, Carly’s grandfather. We were happy to see him doing well, and hopefully we will be able to visit them back at their house tomorrow. While Carly was talking to her grandparents, August and I went out in the hall for a few minutes, where he was fascinated by the industrial fan being used to dry the carpet after they were done cleaning them. He was afraid of it at first, but was eventually touching the case.
From there, we drove to Safeway and went to the shipping store next to it (where August spent his time smelling the fake flowers on the pens, and made me smell them as well), then went to Safeway to get a few things we wanted to take back to Korea. I also grabbed a container of raspberries, as those were the one berry that August was really eating yesterday and we were out of them back at the house.
We went back to the house and ate dinner: salad, beets and greens, and tamales that Cherie had picked up at the Centralia farmer’s market. August had eaten 6 raspberries in the car on the way home, and he now ate several beets and a good amount of tamale.
After dinner, August ‘helped’ Chuck wash his car. He loved the spraying of the car, and liked putting his hands in the sudsy water and playing with the suds.
We then all went for a walk down the road. August was excited about the backpack, in theory, but hated getting in it. He warmed up after a few minutes as Cherie started singing him songs. We walked down the road, past the nature area (Carly doesn’t want me in any nature areas right before our flights, given my history), and back. Cherie sang him “The Ants Go Marching…” I’ve sung it to him, but months ago. Now, he was picking up the words as she was singing. On the way back, we stopped and picked a few blackberries along the side of the road. August ate a few.
Back at the house, Cherie and Chuck stayed outside with me and August and we did some sidewalk chalk, working together to make a nice picture of a house, thunderstorm, dog, tree, and river. August, of course, helped out. Cherie went in, and we let August play with the hose. He liked getting our feet wet. Chuck then had a screwdriver and hit it against the basketball hoop pole to make a noise. August liked this, and liked holding the screwdriver.
Back inside, August ate a little apple crisp (mainly he liked using his finger to get the ice cream in my empty bowl). He then started walking forwards and backwards on his own, saying ‘forwards’ and ‘backwards’. These joined three other new words for the day: ‘hammer’ (when he recognized the hammer on the ground at Sam’s), ‘necklace’ (referring to Cherie’s necklace), and ‘danger’ (which Carly and Cherie have been teaching him).
Before he went to sleep, Carly was singing him the “Momma loves August” song. In it, you can replace ‘momma’ with other people. Today, August started calling out who should come next. He named pretty much all of the family members.
Back in Centralia:
Admiring the fan at Centralia Hospital:
Smelling the fake flowers:
Carwash:
On a walk:
Back from a walk:
