I was the first one up. Might try to keep it that way, as it was nice to be up at 6 and a couple hours before the whole crowd. Vivian was up next, about 7:20. She and Jeff then made scones, and everyone else got up. August was the last up, at 8:40. I saw him first and followed him out as he made his way to mama, past everyone else. He wanted to nurse and said “private” a couple times. Vivian had put a note under the door for him while he was sleeping and put more stuff under while he nursed. Eventually Vivian got out the walkie talkies and gave one to Carly and they used those. August came out and they started playing. The kids had some scones, and Cassie, Carly, and I got the kids ready and took them to Mountain View Park. I drove the red car by myself, as August wanted to ride with Vivian and Colin.
We left at 10. I was a few minutes later getting there as I was stuck behind someone who wouldn’t turn right after the off ramp, then missed a turn. I caught up to August and Vivian as August was trying to climb a metal dome thing. We then followed Vivian as she went down to an obstacle course thing. There were two ropes, and they climbed on those. He had and excellent grumpy face when he was telling me he wanted to climb after Vivian on the same rope. At the end of the ropes August was smelling them: “I wanted to smell my rope.”
There was then an elevated square made out of square posts. They walked around on it, August wanting to do it entirely on his own and not hold our hands:
Vivian “You want to crack your head?”
August: “Yeah!”
Vivian: “Then you would die.”
August jumped down “You cracked your head?”
One more stop at the ropes, then August said he needed the bathroom. But they got distracted by the Jeep thing. It had two steering wheels, and August remembered the similar car at a park in Seoul that we went to on a day it turned out to be really polluted. He asked what the second wheel was for and we decided it was for spraying water and he was pretended to spray people he saw: “This one sprays things.”
Eventually they went to the bathroom and then down to another playground (there were several at the park). They climbed up and Vivian went down one slide. August spun a wall thing a lot and went down a small slide several times, climbing back up a green climbing thing. Then to the sand area where they played with the “diggers” as Colin called them. From there Vivian and August went on the tire swing with another girl. She got off, and they chanted “faster, faster, faster”. August really liked the tire swing and said “They didn’t have this in Korea.” A 9 year old boy came over and spun them, getting “too fast” at one point. August also looked at the circle made on the ground and sang a “There’s a dirt wheel on the ground.”
Went over to a bench for snack time. August bit his tongue. “Maybe another cracker will help.” Colin kept pushing the tractor and mixer under my arm and fed me a couple of crackers and a bite of apple. August wanted more apple but we were out. Carly offered him other things and he said “No, I will spit all those out.” Carly convinced him to eat a banana.
We headed home. We were all going to stop at the store, but Colin wasn’t happy so they went straight home. Colin fell asleep in the car. I went to the store, getting spaghetti sauce, frozen peas, some toiletries for me, and an apple turnover that I promptly ate in the car. I headed home, but made the aesthetic and speed mistake of driving through Stroudsburg. West Stroudsburg is rather depressing, and also shut down to a single lane headed east.
When I got home Cherie had finished with pies and had leftover pie dough that she divided between August and Vivian. I helped them make cookies out of it. August was asking Vivian a lot of questions and she got frustrated: “I’m not going to answer. You’ve got too many questions.” August ate three little cookies of raw dough “I basically like little things.” They were using cookie cutters and spoons to make their shapes, and I said something about making a spiral. August wanted a little spiral. That wouldn’t work, so I just gave him a snake instead, which he ate. A bit later he seemed critical that I hadn’t made a spiral, but changed his tune again and said he really liked the snake.
Vivian had leftover dough after making shapes. Difficult for August to understand that they had started with the same amount, and he got upset about Vivian not giving him more. He calmed down, but then when she left some on the counter he took some. She got upset, and when we asked why he did it he said “I like to steal things.” Got that sorted, then they were scaring Chuck by yelling in his ear. Got them outside for a short time.
Carly and I were then going to take the kids to Columcille at 4. But Colin stayed behind with Cassie. I drove Cassie’s car there and we got walking. Vivian kept talking about how she’d been there before and seen things before and August was copying here, and said “I’ve been here a couple times.” He was then walking quite a bit and impressed by his own walking: “You’re walking a long way?” At one point Vivian found some balancing rocks and said she was balancing a rock on top. Just as she got it balanced, August walked up and asked “whatyousaid?” and grabbed the rock she had just set down.
There was a light rain as we walked. Vivian got a walking stick, then August wanted one the same size. We walked in roughly a circle, clockwise. When we came out in the grassy area we went back in through a rougher path with more stones. August pulled his hand away when Carly offered hers to him. We ended up on the same path, took a path a bit deeper into the forest, then turned around and went back to the grassy area again. August had gotten upset he didn’t have his walking stick, and Vivian remembered to look for it where he had dropped it and we found it.
At the grassy area there were were two people walking up the hill behind us. August told them “I’m blocking you.” That was pretty funny. Oh, and along the way we had met two nice dogs, although August was suspicious of both. Vivian had wanted to take Smokey out of the backpack and I said that he only came out for photos. So we found a rock to take a Smokey photo on. Vivian and August sat on a rock and we put Smokey between them. We then took a photo of Carly and the kids (and Smokey) for use in the new staff thing for WBAIS.
We headed home. Some competition over Smokey on the way home, as they argued which of them loved Smokey more (or vice versa). We got back at 5, and Carly started a 5 minute turns for Smokey thing. Carly and Cassie had been making fried rice when I got home from the store, and Cassie finished it up when we were gone. We ate that for dinner, which was excellent, but kind of drowned out by all the craziness: August spilling milk, Colin taking Vivian’s milk and getting upset when it was taken back, taking Smokey turns, Vivian upset when August erased the pictures on the whiteboard (he had said something like “I’m going to erase this because it’s not very good and erased most of it, then left just an owl. When Vivian then told him not to erase it he did.), Vivian using the chopsticks and August pinching her… For the last I took August into the bedroom and he said he was sorry about it. I told him to say “Sorry for hurting you.” He did that, then needed some encouragement in giving her a hug, as she was sitting in the chair and not reciprocating. But he reached in and gave her a hug.
They ended up playing on the whiteboard, with August scribbling things and Vivian saying “I don’t like it.” and erasing it. Vivian then brought in her pogo stick and they played with that on and off through the evening. Vivian also found our little broom from the backpack and got it out. She swept August with it: “I don’t want Vivian brushing my face.” She act how he used it, and he demonstrated by ho
lding it up and saying “sweep, sweep, sweep”.
Vivian and August played on the couch a bit, then at some point August was finding crumbs on the floor and said “I want to jump on the crumbs so I can smash them and hurt them.” Colin had started playing with Jeff’s remote control truck, and he charged it and they started driving it around out in the grass, pushing the empty kiddie pool with it at one point. Unfortunately, it didn’t last long, and when I went out to watch I was greeted with a smoke smell. The engine had burnt out.
So they did fireworks instead. Vivian: “August, closing ears time. Colin, you can plug your ears if you want.” Colin spotted a ton of ants swarming on the ground, and August wanted them climbing on his feet and hands. Back inside, August and Vivian did headstands on the couch while Colin climbed on it, and they played on our bed, jumping off. Carly took a shower. They were hungry, so I cut up an apple for the three of them, and Vivian and August went out and ate all the snap peas from the plant. Vivian shared the last one they could find with August. Cassie came into the kitchen and sat on the chair and August walked right up to her, looked at her, and asked “Is THAT my mama?”
Carly had some difficulty getting him to brush his teeth, as he wants a flashing toothbrush like the other two. He said something like “Those colors are for older kids” referring to his toothbrush. He was asleep at 8:40.