Carly wasn’t feeling well, and as she is wont to do when not feeling well, she went and slept in a different room, this time out on the reading area mat. August got up three times during the night and went out to her to nurse. The last time was a little after 7, and he fell back to sleep pn the mat until close to 9. I woke up around 7:30, but just stayed in bed reading, etc. until they were both up. So start of a lazy Sunday.
He started his day by playing on a blanket piled on the floor and inventing a new chant: “mama dada zeta wawawa” Carly spent the morning resting, and August and I spent much of that time drawing.
I got a message from Derek saying that he was headed to the kids play area in the pink building, so I took August over there, from a little before 1 to 2. He enjoyed seeing Logan and Chloe there, but mainly played by himself. He wouldn’t let me put him on the octopus, but we made a game of hitting the arms of the octopus as they went around – and he thought they looked like Ss. He first went to the food, and also spent a lot of time in the ball area. Got him to climb up to the back of the trampoline area once, but he slid down before going in the upper place space, and he also climbed up the round stairs once, but slid right back down. But his favorite toy was one of the push cars. He sat in that and played with the attached cell phone and opening and closing the door. I then pushed him around a bunch. He kind of rode side saddle most of the time, with the door open and one or two feet out the door.
At 1:50 he was ready to go, but as he stood at the door to go I asked if he was sure and ran through the list of things that were there. One of the things was blocks, and he said “Blocks. More blocks.” So we spent another 10 minutes playing with the blocks, then he was ready to go.
We went home and he took his nap. I ran back to the pink building and went to the store to get pho and Sprite for Carly.
After he woke up, I took him out for a walk. It was 30 and getting dark and colder, so I didn’t think it would last long. Left about 4:30. We walked by the stream, to the women’s business center, then took a right and walked main streets to the art museum. As we walked he waffled between wanting to go to the play area in the art museum and wanting to go home to mama. He started sing the “A is for…” song and that cheered him up. He had a bunch of new lines, both serious and jokes: Q is for quiet, b is for wawa, d is for zoo, p is for play area etc.
At the art museum he spent probably 20 minutes in the play area. Really wanted to climb through more of it, and did just a little bit, crawling into the round tube in back. But he wanted me to go with him, which isn’t possible. He kept saying “More dada fit.” But I would just scoot partway into the opening.
He kept saying “miss mama” and decided to go. But he got distracted by the “There’s no place like home” video sculpture. He would watch it for several seconds, then look down at the art area below (the place where he wants to climb, but can’t) and listen to the audio (the speaker is in the back of the sculpture), then watch it for awhile, then look down, etc. Eventually he left it and was exploring the lobby, but stopped across the lobby and crouched on the ground and watched it for awhile longer.
Finally, about 6:20 we went outside. He liked feeling the edge of the revolving door, but that meant the door just kept turning, so I picked him up to get him away from there. We walked around the park a bit, then he started asking fore “More shop.” It took me awhile to realize that was what he was saying, as he has never requested shopping before. But then he started saying “crackers and markers” as that was what he wanted to shop for. But then he wanted to do ABCDs and I convinced him we already had markers at home, so then he wanted to go home. It was about 6:30 when we got home.
We came home and ate – first the last cracker we had, then I fixed up a bunch of the leftovers for him, and he had fun dipping them in dongatsu sauce – and did art. He politely requested the iPad, so we played on that, mainly drawing with the stylus. At 8:30 he didn’t complain when I said it was time to put away the iPad.
At one point he wanted to play with the closet – the one to the air conditioner unit, etc. We let him play with that for awhile, but it was letting cold air in, so we said that was enough for the night. He really wanted to play more, and was very, very politely asking “pleeeeaaasseeee” while doing the ‘please’ sign. Very, very hard to not give in.
There was a lot more art after that, and some hanging out with Carly, and helping me put the covers back on the reading area mattress.We did some more reading – he requested the Puff book twice, which we read with Puff sitting with us. He went in to Carly and fell asleep about 10:15.
Three notable language things today:
He can spell his name. ‘Zinnie’, that is. He was Qing me this morning, so I decided to get him back by Zing him instead. I drew a Z on his head and said “Z”, and then he said “I N N I E”. He did it a good 10 times in the day, but never for the camera.
And his favorite numbers in Spanish are “quatro, cinco, seis.” He says them a lot.
He is getting quite good at fake reading the Polar Bear, Polar Bear book. I may have mentioned that already, but today I heard him saying more of it – he knows a few of the rather complex sentences, like “I see a bald eagle soaring by me.”
New words/phrases: find it, dongstsu sauce (spotted it in fridge), Derek, ‘reading’ Panda Bear Panda Bear
Kid Cafe:
Went straight for the food:
Our walk:
Art museum:
Looking down:
Watching from across the lobby:
Home:
Shaking things:
