Note: Sorry, no photos until I figure out a more reliable internet connection.
Around 2:30 at night I woke up because of allergies. But it meant I was up to hear something right out the window and then watch two baby raccoons as they ate something and rolled around.
August slept through the night, without waking at all. Eleven hours, which is a new record. He was up around 6:30. In the morning he did more vacuuming with gramma. We were doing a lot of last minute cleaning and packing and closing up of boxes. While I finished up some of that, Carly took him for a walk. They stopped at a gas station for some apple juice and a snack, then went to Riverwalk Park. But then they realized that his heart sunglasses were missing. They retraced their steps twice, but with no luck. Carly thinks they fell out of her pocket at some point. They were home around 10:30, then were sitting out on the front porch. He was feeling a bit nervous/upset, although not nearly like yesterday.
About 11 we started to get going. As we were loading up the car, mom joked about taking him out with the other stuff. He argued “I’m not stuff.” Then, he was looking at the vacuum cleaner and said “I need to vacuum more.” Carly turned it on and he was good with like a 3 second vacuum. Then, August was sitting on the couch and did his first ‘When this episode is over…’ A car show was on, and August said “When its fixed, I’ll leave.”
Outside, we did group photos, and August had to use mom’s camera to take a photo of him, dad, and Paul. Saying goodbye to Paul he he gave a bunch of high fives and we did an uncle hug. We left by 12:30. As we drove by the lake he spotted a parasailer. HE did a lot of humming, and hummed Eine Kleine Nachtmusik through the tunnel. He also spotted a few dead trees out the window. We stopped for gas before 1:30.
I had put the car seat behind the driver’s seat, and he kept kicking dad’s seat. Carly was worn out by trying to make him not do it. So when we stopped at the rest area, after I took him to the bathroom (he was startled first by the sensor flushing the toilet when he was on it, then by a loud train whistle as we left the bathroom), I switched the car seat to the other side of the car and I switched with Carly. While I moved the car seat he played with mom and Carly on a bench. I was now in the middle of the backseat with mom to my left and August to my right. We left the rest area at 2:20.
As we were leaving, he had noticed the small scab on the side of his face was starting to come off. He was concerned about it and told me “I need you to not touch it.” As we left he noted “Now you can see grampa driving.” And he said “The motor’s making it drive faster so we can get there faster.” He wore his sunglasses and said “In the car these are powerful.” And he held his fingers just an inch apart and said “This is a little vacuum cleaner that sucks scabs up.”
He and I played with a new nature education app I had downloaded and the Smurf’s object finding app. A few times he said “We need another rest area.” As we got close to Seattle he claimed he didn’t like blueberries and laughed. I said “don’t do that.” He knew what I was talking about and said “Don’t pull a Thatcher?” I’d said he was pulling a Thatcher earlier when he was doing something else like Thatcher.
We got to the house at 4:20. Unloaded the car and my parents stayed for a few minutes. August had a really nice goodbye kiss with gramma, which I was too slow to get a picture of, and then let grampa give him a forehead kiss as well.
They left, and we had some chips and salsa. He was then out on the back porch, climbing with the other two kids until we found out they weren’t allowed to climb on it at all. He played with the extendo arm and said “If you stick your finger in the motor it will KILL you.” We talked about going to the bathroom, and he remembered the downstairs one and called it the “Special special bathroom”. He put on Thatcher’s shoes and wore him around the backyard. Andrea pulled him and Kayla around in the wagon, then I took over, the Carly: “More coins makes it faster.”
Derek made a wonderful dinner of salmon on the grill, rice, and a salad. Andrea made a lemon cake with a honey glaze and whipped cream for dessert.
Then, the big event: fireworks. They had gotten a big box of Pop-It fireworks, and we contributed the three boxes we had. They started out doing one at a time, and August was doing a great job picking them up after he used them. Eventually though they were doing handfuls, and we stopped cleaning them up, although we still cleaned up the streamer ones. It lasted a long time. August did a few where you pull the string on his own, but mostly needed help. Kayle did the Pop-Its by squeezing them in her fingers. As a grand finale Andrea brought out sparklers and they did those. August was frustrated though that Carly wouldn’t let him hold it all on his own. He liked helping Derek spray them with water though.
Andrea convinced everyone (well, mainly Derek needed convincing) to go for a walk at 8:20. Just down the street. August wanted a blanket on him like Kayla had, then after a couple of blocks wanted to walk. He stumbled and scraped his knees a bit, but kept going. Thatcher found a feather, which made August a little upset when he couldn’t use it at first, but Thatcher was nice and let him have a turn. August rubbed it on his face and hair. We got back at 8:50.
Took him up to get ready for bed. Brought in the small mattress and it was leaning against the big one. He said “Know what I want to do? Slide down it.” I took him to the bathroom, then he gave him a good kiss. He was to bed and asleep about 9:20.