He woke up a little after 6. He listened intently to Cherie talk to Derek via Skype, even though it was only a voice call, no video. He made a smoothie with me, then we skyped with my parents.
Chuck stayed here to work, and before his class Cherie, August, and I made a quick grocery trip through Home Plus for diapers and a few other things. We then went up to his class. Today’s class was all about the leaves and weather changing for fall. In addition to the usual songs, bubbles, and sticker work at the end, there were three activities: a felt board with leaves and trees to attach to them, big trees on the wall where they got to hang leaves, and then a big bucket of paper leaves that she poured on the kids, and then they got to pour on themselves and each other. August really loved the last two of these activities, and really liked helping pick up the leaves at the end.
After his class we came home. August ate a bunch of apple and the rest of the peanut butter sandwich Carly had made for him this morning. He was tired, but too excited with Oma and Opa in the house (even though they were trying to calm him down), so I took him out for a nap in the park. I developed a nice figure eight walk around the lower half of the park and the community center that allowed me to stay away from the playground (which would just distract him more). Two circuits of the figure eight and he was asleep.
We sat on the bench nearest Carly’s bus stop and he slept for just under 50 minutes (awake at 1:53). After he woke up, we went to the rocky fake stream area and played with the rocks – stacking them (like at the folk museum) and throwing them. He was all about “big rock”s. Eventually he decided he was done with that and he climbed out of that area and was walking around the pigeon area happily clutching a “big rock”.
From there I gave him the choice of going home or to the art museum. He excitedly chose art museum. So we went there, but I first changed him inside. The changing room is next to the little play area in the museum, so after changing him he wanted to play. He crawled in and out of the structure for the first time, and when he got on the trampoline he got a little air under his feet for the first time. I think that kind of startled him as he did try it any more after that.
When he decided he was done, we put on shoes. He then wanted to “go see art”. I didn’t get that on video, but when I would ask him what he wanted to do next he would keep repeating “art”. We first walked through one of the small rooms, then over the walkway to the main gallery. As we went over the walkway, he pointed down to the children’s art area and said “art” and “down there”.
We spent most of our time in the first floor main gallery. His favorite pieces were the sharks, a shovel, and fish on the wall. I didn’t know he knew the word shark until he said “shark, shark” as we approached them. Several times we started going up the stairs, but he would stop at the landing to wave at the docents down below and then say “more shark” or “more (fish sound)” and we would go back down.
Eventually, we went through upstairs and then downstairs to the children’s art area. He spent a fair amount of time on the Alice in Wonderland piece (although they’ve put clear plexiglass over the holes, meaning you can’t put your head into the mirror area anymore – which kind reduces the effect, and sucks when you smash your face into it, having put your head in a dozen times before).
We went to the mask exhibit in the community gallery, but he wanted to go outside. Somehow he had the idea that there was a waterfall outside (perhaps we had beed there when it was raining and there was water dripping from the tree sculpture outside?)
He climbed on the wooden benches near the lizards and drank his water. It was empty so we went back in the art museum to fill it. We ended up back in the play area. He saw a pair of small shoes and said “kid shoes”. I said the kid was in the play area and he should go say hi. August went in, saw the boy and waved, and kept saying “Hi, kid.”
This time when we left we went home. But Chuck and Cherie were gone (they had gone on a walk up the stream and to the Buddhist temple Chuck had visited before). So after August ate an entire banana, more apple slices, and two pieces of crab, we headed back out. He wanted to go to the dinosaurs, so that’s what we did. He played around them and the playground, waving to a lot of people (dozens throughout the day). We ended up over on the fountain, where a bunch of kids had collected crab apples and were playing with them. August joined in, throwing and kicking them.
It was now about 5:30 and we tried to go find Carly. We walked down past the pink building and waited a few minutes but she didn’t come by. Could have waited by the building longer, but smokers had taken over the sitting area. Went home and she wasn’t there. Thought about turning around and going back to the elevators, as August usually gets upset if she’s not home, but he saw Oma and Opa in their room, spotted a phone, and exclaimed “Google!” Carly was home a few minutes later, and he was reluctant to leave Google behind.
He ate a little more for dinner (mainly a couple crackers) and had fun playing with Carly with his cars and climbing on Opa, first in a chair and later on the couch. I gave him a bath and brushed his teeth and Carly put him to bed sometime around 8.
Twice today he put Duplos away. At one point he found the owl out in the hall. I asked him if he could take the owl in and put it with its animal friends. He did. The last time we left the house, he was carrying a few Duplos. He made it a few steps out the door. I held the door open and asked if he could take the Duplos back inside. He turned around and went back in. As he got to the little step I told him he could just set them there and get them later and he set them on the step and came back out the door.
New words/phrases: excuse me, cave, yoga, Loopy (Pororo character – on the wallpaper in the changing room), shark, bagel (spotted in museum cafe), kid shoe, police car
Class:
Awake from his nap:
Rocks:
Art museum:
His favorites of the day, the sharks:
Back home:
Back out to the park:
Asleep:
