A very nice day (for December): sunny and hitting the low 50s. He woke up at 7:37. A few “miss mama”s, but then he saw his new books from class and wanted to look at those. He keeps wanting to do the stickers in the book, but I have to remind him that the teacher keeps the stickers and we do them in class.
Oatmeal for breakfast this morning. He demonstrated that he knew more of the Endless monsters’ names. He also played with his dump truck and backhoe. We used the dump truck to haul magnets, and then used it for Duplo animals. We then played Duplos for quite awhile before we left. We expanded the farm and rebuilt the zoo, with individual cages this time. Although August chose which animals went in which cage. I feel a little bad for the camel he put in with the tiger.
We left about 10:30. When we got to the CGP station he chose to go to the children’s museum, which meant I didn’t have to put him in the backpack, since the museum is right by the entrance. We went in there and played 45 to 60 minutes down on the first floor. Inundated with school groups, so he was surrounded by big kids, but it didn’t seem to phase him. He bounced around the floor a lot – there are a ton of things to do, and a constant stream of sensory input. He spent the most time (5 minutes, top) at a nature sounds corner, where you could push buttons to hear things like frogs, cicadas, and bees. He also found the puppet theater area at the end, but it was overrun by bigger kids. He seemed really interested in the puppets though, and I’m sure we’ll be back.
By this point it was about noon and I was wondering if he was hungry. But instead he wanted to go to the “little kids area.” We went and played there for about 20 minutes. His favorite thing was a new stuffed triangle and square. He would grab the triangle and do a little dance with it, waving it in front of him. He also liked putting them away and picking up the stuffed worms and putting them away back in their holes in the big apple.
It was approaching 12:30 and he was getting both hungry and tired. We put our shoes on and went up to the eating area. Ate lunch and then put him in the backpack. Took less than 10 minutes of walking to put him to sleep. Went to the first floor Peace Cafe for his nap, but he only slept 1:09 to 1:36. I held him and walked him around until 2. He was silent, lying on my shoulder, but wouldn’t fall asleep. Finally, he wanted up. He also then pooped. He’s still dealing with the stomach thing that is bothering him, so that may have been what woke him up.
We played in the cafe for a little while on the iPad and typed a message to Carly. Then we left and went to the zoo. Spent most of our time with the pumas and bears. He was getting more into talking about the animals, trying to say how many animals there were (“There’s one (monkey)”, for example), what they are doing (sleeping, eating – this led us to doing some basic math: “one jaguar lying down plus one jaguar walking equals two jaguars”), and if they were all there (at first we only saw two asian bears, when usually there are four. So he said “missing, missing”).
From there we looped past the jaguars, leopards, tigers, and lions and watched the primates a bit more. He thought he wanted to see the water birds, but changed his mind once we went inside. We then went in to see the lizards for a few minutes. Back outside we pondered what to do. One thing he didn’t want was the playground – I offered it to him about a dozen times during the day and he didn’t want to go. We sat on a bench by the primates for a break, and he decided he wanted in the backpack. From there I let him direct us. He pondered things, then decided on heading home.
So we headed home, getting here about a quarter to 5. Carly wasn’t going to be home until 5:30ish as she was helping a student with an application, so I prepped August a lot on the way home. At the subway I explained it to him and asked what he wanted to do until mama got home. He said “Duplos.” We reviewed at the elevators, but then it started to sink in that she wasn’t home. I think it all worked, however, as when we did get home there was some initial sadness, but no crying. He played with magnets and we did some coloring and stickers, then Carly got home.
We ate soup for dinner, then gave him a quick bath. There was some fun time where I was sliding him back and forth on his back on the floor between me and Carly. After his bath, about 7, he started to nurse and was asleep around 7:15.
His big accomplishment today was singing the entire ABC song, all 26 letters and pretty much to the rhythm/tune. He has really been working on the M-N-O-P-Q section the last few days.
New words/phrases: loading, Dapper Dan, Scampi, Rocky, in slipper, takes care of animals, gorilla fall out truck, GS25, sign, little kids area, sausage, another one, pine needle, there’s one (six), cougar, missing
Children’s museum:
Eating a gummi bear:
After his nap, Qing the O:
Watching the pumas:
Climbing on the leopard photo zone:
Headed home:
Carly got this for helping a student:
