August and Carly came out a little before 7. He sat on the butter chair stool for several minutes and said hi to Jeff when he got up. He then came and played with toys by my feet before lying on the floor for awhile. All of them got up and had oatmeal for breakfast, then I took a shower. They took turns closing the gate to upstairs and then were playing in the bedroom. Vivian and August negotiated over going in th closet alone. August took Green Mknster and Marshy in for a minute and said he was having private time.
Chuck made an egg for Vivian. August wanted one, of course, but it was the last. Cassie and Colin got out Candyland. August initially said “I don’t like boardgames.” But then “I want to play it. Can I play it?” So his first real board game experience, as Cassie taught him to play. Colin’s speech teacher got here, and Cherie took Vivian and August out to the motor home. I hung out and watched the therapist play with Colin, in part because when I left after a minute Colin came and brought me back.
Carly and I left with Vivian and August at 9:40, headed to Stroudsburg to drop a couple packages off and then go to the library. Vivian does a “Firefly friends!” game, calling to her firefly friends out the window of the car. Only she keeps arguing that August hasn’t met the firefly friends yet, so he isn’t allowed to say the ‘friends’ part when he calls out.
We first stopped at the post office, where Carly ran in and the kids played on the railing of the ramp and the railings on the stairs. Although there were six railings on the stairs, they were often wanting the same one, and August suggesting they set a timer on one led Vivian to decide she was done and go get in the car. Vivian was excited today as she was buckling herself into her booster seat.
Then a quick stop at a FedEx place. We stayed in the car while Carly went in and we played I Spy. Then to the library. Got there about 10:30 and the children’s librarian told us there was a nature show run by a woman with animal costumes going on in the back room. So we went back there. August didn’t want to stay, so Carly went back with him. Vivian had a seat on the ground with the other kids. It was an interactive thing with the woman calling up kids and a few adults. Right away she called me up to be the skunk. Luckily, I didn’t have much to do. When that story was over (about fire in the forest), Vivian wanted to go, so we went and found Carly and August.
They played with some toys, then the library started to get busy, especially after that show finished. I read a funny Doctor Ted book to the two kids, then August was off playing with other toys and kids. I read a children’s book version of the Abbott and Costello skit Who’s on First, then Vivian and I read Dream Big Little Pig! by Kristy Yamaguchi and Poo in the Zoo. I also read Duffy and the Devil by Zemach and a book called Town is by the Sea. We left at 11:45. A game that Vivian and August can both agree on is looking for Subarus. He suggests it even, although I’m not sure he actually knows what he’s looking for.
At home I made Boca Burgers for August and Carly, and we cooked some mushrooms for him and sliced some pickles. He didn’t eat nearly as much burger as yesterday.
Cherie and I then took the two of them (Colin was asleep) on a trip to get eggs, letting Carly have some alone time. Vivian was again trying to forbid August from saying “firefly friends”. We first went to the farm where they usually get eggs. Before we got out of the car I told August he had to be quiet and careful with the chickens. When I went to get him out of his car seat he barely moved. So I lifted him out, and realized he was whispering. He whispered the whole time. So adorable. Turned out there were no people there. So we walked around a bit and saw the chickens and guinea hens and the pigeons on the roof. An old, fat beagle came over. Vivian said its name was Molly. August let me put him down to see the dog, but he was pretty unsure of it, even though it moved really slowly.
So we got back in the car and headed on up the road, stopping at a second place where Cherie had seen a sign for eggs. We all got out and went to the serve yourself refrigerator. Cherie got a couple dozen, and they were mixed colors – green and blue and brown and white. The kids both wanted green – back in the car, when Vivian said she was going to have the green ones, August let out a howl of despair before being assured that wouldn’t happen. Before we left, they stood at the gate, looking at the gaggle of loud yippie dogs barking at them. August stood farther back before I pointed out that they were behind a gate and couldn’t get to him.
From there we continued on up the road to the mysterious Bangor Big Chair. We helped them up and then they climbed on it. August had fun saying “I can see all the way to New Jersey.” The front lip of the chair is 5 or 6 feet, and they could hold my hands and jump down. Did that a few times, admired the view of the nuclear pant in New Jersey, then we got going. As we were leaving, I think, and getting in the car, Vivian said “I can’t stand to listen to your questions. I never have so many.”
In the car on the way back they argued about the eggs, then Cherie suggested she make French toast tomorrow. So then they started arguing who loved French toast more. Cherie made the mistake/comically brilliant decision to introduce ‘infinity’ into the argument. I contributed by suggesting that their love of French toast, no mater how many infinities, was still short of my love of pie. When Vivian pressed on, I got her to say that she loved French toast more than pie, cookies, and candy.
We were back before 2:10. They both wanted to use the outhouse, so took turns. On our way in August spotted Cassie and thought she was mama. Inside, a package had arrived for Vivian. It was an electrical experiment kit. August was upset for a second that it wasn’t for him, but then Carly came along. August then explained that it was something for Vivian. They used it for a few minutes with Cassie, but August’s frustration was returning. Didn’t matter though as Colin was waking up so the kit needed to go away.
Carly, August, and I then made a grocery shopping trip to Weis. Rather cold inside, and Carly mentioned a sweatshirt. August decided he wanted his sweatshirt, which we didn’t have. So we split up, with me taking August and the cart to a warmer portion of the store. August really wanted food from the seafood section when he saw it, and lamented not having any meat in PA: “I really like meat!” We went and picked out bread and he convinced me to get him out of the cart. He had taken his shoes of already. He climbed around on the outside of the cart and held on while we rolled. We then found Carly and all went to choose ice cream flavors. The talkative section of the store as two people talked to us about ice cream flavors. Finally, we also bought swim floats for August – pink, as they were the last ones, but likely what he would have chosen anyway.
In the checkout line, August spotted multi-colored Tic Tacs and said they looked like pills. I said they were mints, and he wanted to get them. A long sentence: “The ones at home aren’t colorful but the ones at the store are so I want to buy them.” Carly realized we had forgotten Boca Burgers so she went back inside while we put the groceries in the car. When she came back he showed her the white spot on the bottom of his shoe: “Mama, here’s bird poop on my shoe.” Carly drove home and August was excited that he could see her drive. But he also wanted to kick her seat, arguing that it wasn’t as fun to kick my seat. On the way home he asked for Smokey out and played with him as he used a funny choice to talk about seeing the house and motor home.
Back at the hose at 4:10. Vivian spotted him from the motor home this time and he hid behind his hands from her. We went into the motor home and he told Cherie “I wa
nt a to play the harmonico.” After a bit he needed to use the bathroom, so we went inside. Played outside for awhile with Carly and Vivian but apparently took some of Vivian’s pop-its and popped them. Carly came in with him for a timeout. He and I then talked about it and he had a lot to say about it. Apparently he felt that she had more, although Carly said it was the reverse and that Vivian was actually in the process of counting them all out when he did it.
August went back out and I went back in to work on the blog. Colin came in and climbed on my back as I was on the bed. Played there for awhile, then I was drawing trucks for him, cement mixers, etc., on the whiteboard. Carly and August went on a little walk in the stroller but were back after 10 or 15 minutes.
Cassie had made chili and rice and broccoli for dinner. Carly got food for the three kids and I got their drinks. We all ate out on the porch. Colin put his drink on the arm of August’s chair and August said “That’s okay. I just don’t want you to eat my food.” Colin spotted two bunnies, so he and Vivian were off chasing bunnies. Probably part of the reason he didn’t eat much dinner, then ate a ton of broccoli from Cherie’s plate later. The three kids then spent a long time playing on the toys in the grass, from the little plastic play gym and slide, to the push car and wagon, etc. They were really climbing all over them. At one point August climbed up the slide: “This is easy to climb…(slides backwards)…No it’s not!” Over by the old outhouse, August stood on the stones, but then Vivian was lifting him up, carrying him out in the grass, and setting him down so he had to walk on the grass and get used to it. Quite funny, especially as he wrapped his legs around Vivian and she had to set him down on his back once. When I wouldn’t pick him up either he ran all the way back to the steps to get on the porch.
August came in with Carly to get his shoes, so we were then at the front of the porch and all went out to the motor home. They sucked down juice drinks there, then all three played night night on the bed. Cherie needed to take a shower, so we left at 6:50. As we headed out Jeff got home and August said “It’s uncle Jeff.” We spent some time hanging on the branches. Competitive at first:
August: “I want to be the highest. I want to be the lowest.”
Me: “How bout you just have fun.”
August: “No.”
I hung August from a higher branch, still holding him, and August was excited: “We maked mama really nervous!”
Then more fireworks. Carly started with some snakes. August was then dirty and wanted to wash his hands. Colin handled the dirtiness by just getting more dirty, and walking behind my back and holding up his hand on one side of me and saying “Dirty!” then walking to the other side and repeating, etc. He also managed to wipe his hands on all of us. Vivian and August decided they would watch the loud ones through the window, and after it went off would ask “all done?” using sign language. They would then run out, choose the next firework, then run back inside. Repeat.
Back inside August took a long, long time on the toilet. The blueberries had worked (all the kids had eaten a bunch of blueberries right before dinner, which is especially unusual for Colin). August had a long and very funny talk as he sat there, about things in the bathroom (he called it a “foot bathtub” and talked about how it could walk around on its own) and outside (a lot of talk about the ice cream, and whether he could have the coffee one, and what would happen if he ate a lot of caffeine or all of the ice cream).
We had gotten four flavors: coffee, cherry cheesecake, peanut butter crunch, and salted caramel. August and I both had the first three. I just gave him a little of the coffee, which was more than the other kids got. He finagled some of my ice cream from me, arguing he liked the crunch bits in the peanut butter one and then that his was all melted and he wanted unmelted ice cream.
Carly did a bath again as Vivian wanted the tea party thing again. More hilarity, as August and Vivian would tell her they pooped or peed in the tea. The bath was at 8, then we went into the bedroom. Vivian sent an ‘I love you’ note under the door. I let her in to say goodnight. After she left, I mentioned we hadn’t read any stories tonight. Despite barely participating yesterday, he started sobbing, wanting to do stories. Very, very tired. He was asleep at 8:40. I did read a few stories to Vivian and Colin after that: George Catches a Cold, The Little Red Hen (chosen by Colin), In Mary’s Garden (was afraid Vivian wouldn’t like that one, but they both did), Peppa’s Ballet Lesson, and lastly Bedtime for Peppa.