Note: Sorry, no photos until we have a more reliable connection.
He was up at 6:20 with Carly. He went outside with dad, and Iris let him pet her. When I got up at 7 they got ready to go to the park. August was quite hyper. They went to the park at Don Morse. Did some bouncy thing and climbing and up on the play structure. They went to the water for a few minutes, then he sat on a bench and lamented his wet shoes. Carly got sunscreen on him against his protestations. They did a couple swings – he still prefers the bucket ones as they are new to him. They got back to the house about 8:50.
He was watching a car show with gramma and grampa and grampa left. He watched for a couple more minutes, got up, and said he wanted to go see the garage. He found grampa and they first went to the old garage, which he hadn’t wanted to do the other day with him. They ended up in the new garage, where he turned the vice (when he did it last time, the rod fell through and strartled him), August told him “We need to oil something so it doesn’t wear out.” And they played with with air convertible. It was running out of compressed air, so dad asked “Do you want me to turn it on?” August firmly said “No.” When asked which of the cars is his favorite, August said the new convertible. And when he’d seen the old one he had noted it only held two people.
We all came in about 9:35. Dad needed some breakfast, August went downstairs with Carly, and I took a shower. They were downstairs for quite awhile, and when Carly and August came out he was talking about cinnamon rolls. They went up and shared one.
We left about 11 and drove down to the Beebe Springs Wildlife Area. August was being grumpy, and also complaining about some itchiness. Think the heat was also bothering him today. He was better once I got him in the backpack. We got walking at 11:20. The trail to the west was closed due to water over the trail, so we went back to the area close to the parking lot where you can get down to the river. Went to a different spot than our usual, actually out on the river side, and played with rocks: turning them over, throwing them in the river, and doing some stacking. We all relaxed until close to 12:30, then got in our cars and headed over to Powerhouse Park.
Had fun there as well. Peter and Carly went in a couple times, with Carly doing a lot of floating. When we first got there and were choosing a spot in the shade, August was particular: “Yeah but I want tons and tons of shade.” I took August down to the water and he was doing well with some wading, but then he stumbled and got his arms, shirt, and face wet. He got upset and we ended up back at the towel site. He wandered off and led me on a walk past the picnic shelter and along the path. When I caught up and asked why, he said “For funsies.” And he proudly said “I also did it without my shoes.” I got him back to the towels and he had the raspberry strawberry walnut Orchard Bar and he was feeling pretty good. He played with the floaty that Peter and blown up and sang a “Peter’s float” song. He fell down, then sang a “Ow ow ow” song to Peter, then a “Peter P” song. August wanted his wet shirt off, then I got sunscreen on him, mainly without complaint, although he told me “You did it on my belly button. I don’t like you doing it on my belly button.”
He was also doing a lot of pretend vacuuming, sucking up the people, the sunscreen, and the dog nearby. However, he noted that the dog was tied up, and he slowly got closer and closer. There were a boy and girl with it. The girl said a few times “It only licks.” Which was rather funny. And we found out its name was Leo. August also sang a “I’m distracted” song, although it wasn’t clear why. He was eventually petting the dog, and it licked his hand and foot. So maybe a turning point for August. August also got a graham cracker from the woman they were with. Eventually, I was worn out by monitoring him as he tried to step on/jump over/touch more and more strangers’ stuff, so I said we were ready to go. On the walk out, a woman asked us if he wanted to see the baby in a crib that August had walked by a few times. His name was Sebastian and he was 5 months.
Left 2:30 and August promptly fell asleep in the car. That helped explain the whiny tone he had been using at the end. When we got back to the house we parked the car in the shade and left the AC on and Carly stayed with him and read.
Mom had helped a guy carry a watermelon as we left the park and needed a shower as a result. After she did that, we left about 3 for the Chinese restaurant. Carly stayed in the car and woke him up. The rest of us went in and ordered: veggie delight, chow mein pork, honey shrimp, and sesame chicken. Carly got August to eat the vegetables, by saying that Uncle Paul was going to eat them. August took this seriously: “Don’t do it uncle Paul. Eat your own…I ate all the broccoli, Uncle Paul.” When there was something messy on the table he told Paul “Clean that Uncle Paul.” I took him to the bathroom before we left and he kept asking why there was no urinal. I ended up doing a “I don’t know” dance, which he requested more and more of. He also said he wanted me to pee in the sink and said “The water would wash it down?” Needless to say I did not. He was still complaining of being itchy, so Peter and I took them him and Carly to the house then headed to Safeway where we got a few things to turn the steaks into steak tacos. Came back and found Carly and August down in the bedroom, him watching Sarah and Duck. I rested on the bed for awhile, then we all went up. They went out to play in the sand.
Carly then brought him in to do the root beer tasting at 5:15 He first asked if root beer was an adult drink, and when told it was a kid drink he asked “When you’re a grown up you don’t get any anymore?” He got to try each of the four kinds of root beer with ice cream, but it turned out the ice cream was his favorite, and he was very excited when Carly gave him just some ice cream at the end.
He then went down and did a long Uncle Paul visit. Carly went down and saw him playing with an empty tin of Altoids: “What these mints for?” Paul: “Enjoyment” August “I’m going to get the crumbs.” Paul left to go back to work just before 6. August found an empty can on Paul’s desk, so we recycled Paul’s cans for him. August crushed three cans in the crusher. The last one wouldn’t start to crush and he said something like “Maybe this one doesn’t want to be smashed.” He then played does it blow or not with a Pepsi box from recycling. When he was done he put it on his head and sang a “This is my hat” song.
We then did the science experiements again. Carly told me what to do, and I did them and she relaxed a bit. When she did the glove thing for me though August said “Not the glove thing! Because I’m running away!” He watched from a distance. We did the science art and ended by pouring all the leftover vinegar in.
Carly gave him a bath. He had fun playing for awhile, but didn’t like the washing. I was outside with Peter and my day – we took apart the third wheel that Peter gave me, trying to figure out how to ship it. Peter then fried up the steak for tacos, and August seemed ready for sleep around 8 so she took him in. The rest of us ate, but then they came back out. Carly went and took a shower, and he came out with me and played outside. He actually started by sitting down at the table outside with my parents and Peter and putting up his feet and talking to them for a few minutes while I went and got him olives and avocado to eat. He ate a good amount of both. He and I then measured things with the tape measure, which he had been wanting to do when we were using it on the bike.
He saw Carly with a quesadilla and said he thought it was bread, and he wanted bread. We said no to that, and he argued “But bread is the yummiest.” I helped him do a headstand, then we ended
up out front petting the cats. They are very accommodating with him. Peter keeps commenting on how calm they are. Finally, back inside he was climbing on the chair and said “I’m sleepy. I want mama to take you to bed.” I took him out back to say good night to gramma and grampa and Peter. He said “Night night gramma, grampa, Peter, Zinnie, Dada, Mama, Peter, Gramma…I messed it up.” He said he wanted to read with me, but when we got down to the bed he decided he wanted to nurse and turned around and went upstairs to find Carly. He wanted the chocolate-covered coffee beans on the counter, and Carly told him they were off-limits. He thought about it and asked “What’s ‘on limits’ means?”
At some point today, in talking about the meat we had for Chinese, or the tacos, he decided “I won’t eat any meat”.
Carly took him back down and he was asleep 9:30.