He was up a bit after 7. Carly took down the blanket to the fifth floor to put it in the washing machine, then made him scrambled eggs. They then added to their door ball path and Skyped with Cherie. When I got Cheerios August wanted his own bowl so I got him some. I went and moved the blanket to the dryer. I spent quite awhile trying to find the Allen wrench to take apart the rocking chair. And they did some art together, decorating their drawing with stickers. When I found the allen wrench August helped to start taking apart the rocking chair.
They went down and got the blanket and I took a shower. They then went outside and I finished our taxes and did dishes, etc. They went to the Spiderweb Playground where he rode around on an abandoned bike a bit then they got Bugles at the little store and went and ate them on a rock in the park. They then played at the Madeul playground before heading home. Along the way they found one of those carts with a broom in it and no one around so he played with the broom. There was some exercise equipment he had wanted to play on but they walked past it, but he remembered it at home.
They were home at 12:45. I was listening to a Yaz album and he wanted to add it to his playlist. They went in and nursed and he locked me out of the parlor. He wouldn’t tell me what they did so I had to get it out of Carly. I gave him a few lunch ideas but he didn’t like them. I asked “Are you being picky?” Shook his head, gave me a thumbs up, and said “Yes”. But I made a grilled cheese and broccoli sandwich and he ate it just fine.
He then spent a long time helping me take things apart and pack. First, we took apart the rest of the rocking chair. Carly made us a smoothie while we did that and he really liked it and told Carly a couple times. On the chair, he was getting better and better turning the wrench. We then took apart one of his sets of green shelves. He used the small screwdriver and got a couple screws, then helped get the rest out with his hands at the end. Carly was cooking and he walked up and said “I like the smell.” We then took down his growth charts (but first measured him – nearly 96cm) and rolled them up and put them in a small tube. We took down his Korean posters. Threw the one ripped one by the door away, but kept the others. He particularly talked about how he likes the one in the changing room: “I still like it though…I like the colors…I like the pictures.”
While we were doing all of this we were also ripping his Teuni Teuni CDs to iTunes and listening to them. He liked hearing the songs from class and added them to his playlist. We then took down the photos from the wall and the refrigerator. His job was to put them in the big envelope. At first he needed help opening the envelop to put in photos, but then he figured it out. He seemed amazed that I had a big envelope and kept talking about that. He was also asking about and identifying people in the photos.
At some point he found his hat in my shorts pocket and took it out. He said “I don’t like the feeling of hats.” But he’d seen the “Let Zinn Zinn do it for now” video and had been saying he wanted to wear a hat again. So he tried on his old hat and said it felt better. So we’ll try that in the coming days and see how it works.
Out on the couch talking to Carly I mentioned we had three weeks before we leave. August said “No, 4 weeks.” So some moments of hesitation, but still doing quite well with all the talk of going to the United States and Israel.
We all headed out on a walk at 4:30. In the elevator he started to say “I don’t like that person” to the other people in the elevator. When we got off we talked to him about it. He said “I like mama and dada but I don’t like strangers.” Carly got him to say “I’m uncomfortable around strangers.” and he seemed to like that sentence.
We stopped at Mama Juice. He got banana and Carly and I got coffee drinks. I sang Lost My Helmet on our walk. August plugged his ears but kept demanding I sing it. He kept asking “What you said?” as I talked to Carly, even as he had his ears plugged.
We got to Chrysanthemum Park. He said “I don’t like to share.” as he went over to the play structure. Carly watched as he climbed the climbing wall then went around the structure. He even walked the board alongside the rope bridge all on his own. When he got around to the top of the shaky platform area I got up to help and Carly went and sat down. He stood on the shaky platform, shaking it around for a few minutes. He then climbed back up to the top on his own. Next thing I knew he ran off across the bridge and went down the slide and ran over to the water.
I saw a guy help him turn it on as I went down the slide to join him. But then August was doing it all on his own, standing on tip toes. Early in the week when we went I was holding him up so he could do it. He then ran over to the empty swing and climbed up and on it quickly. I said he did it “so fast”. So he then ran around the swing several times, jumping on. After a couple minutes he got off and ran over to the exercise equipment and was able to hang on and do the swinging one on his own. He’s definitely gotten taller… He wanted the back massage ones, so I held him up and rubbed him against those and he started laughing.
He then ran to Carly and it looked like we were going to go. but as we walked across the playground he spotted an orange bike and wanted to get on it. The grandmother next to it encouraged him, and I ended up pushing him around the playground several times. It was a bike with training wheels. This, at least, was just a little too big for him, as the pedals were a bit too far away for him to turn completely. There was a girl that got hurt and he was concerned about her. When she and her mom came out of the bathroom he wanted to ride over and take a closer look.
He got off the bike and ran over to the green catepillar thing. There were girls playing on it who had been up on the shaky platform earlier. He sat on the end while they made it shake. He then needed to use the bathroom and Carly took him and I sat down and did some reading.
I continued to read while they went and played in the sand. He was digging and throwing a little ball around with another girl, but he had a couple of the small yogurt drink containers that he was being very possessive about, holding on to them so no one else could use them. August went over and climbed into the hexagon area, then played there for a long time, filling the containers and pouring sand back and forth. Then he was pouring sand down his shirt.
We headed home and I went to Lucky Mart to get some groceries and they headed home. I bought frozen mandu and peanut sauce, and when I got home I made that for me and August to eat. But he only liked the outside of the mandu, so ate some of that. I then heated up some broccoli and and dipped that in teriyaki sauce for him and he ate a little of that as well.
Carly gave him a bath, then he brought the whale to me and wanted to take care of it. We removed the plastic from its stomach. I had to find the AAA batteries to get his flashlight to work. He then put a bandaid on the whale’s stomach. In bed we read Seuss’s Mulberry Street and he went to sleep about 8:15.
Photos:
Out with Carly:
Helping roll the growth charts:
Turning the water on:
Taking care of the whale:
