They started walking up around 7:30. I had gone for a little walk down the trail along the lake as I listened to S-Town. I came back in about 8:15. They were sitting on the floor, August sneezing. Colin came out and he gave August a hug, then was giving other people hugs. August really wanted mama to get a hug, and he made sure she got one from Colin. I ate some of the leftover pizza for breakfast, which confused Carly and Cassie when they saw me turning on the oven. August requested toast, then peanut butter, jam, and honey on it.
I took a shower, then found him being unhappy with things: Chuck had made an egg for Vivian so August wanted one too and he made him one as well. But then August wasn’t happy with the fork he got. While he was protesting the forks and not eating the egg, Cassie cut up apple and handed it to Vivian and Colin. August demanded some. I picked him up and took him to the bedroom where we had a quiet timeout. He just sat there.
We were getting ready to head to Philadelphia, and Cassie was taking the two kids to the gym. August wanted them to come with us to Philadelphia. They said goodbye and left and we finished loading the car. He then ate his egg and some other food. Then, he was being funny on the toilet. He was kind of hitting his bottom and saying “The poop’s not coming out. I need blueberries.” We left at 10:30.
We took a blue highways route to Philadelphia. It was a wonderful and scenic drive with all sorts of landscapes and views of the Delaware River and old houses and abandoned buildings and historical markers. That lasted for about an hour until 611 left the banks of the Delaware a ways south of Phillipsburg. And that, of course, was when August, who had settled in and been watching Sarah and Duck for awhile, decided he was hungry and wanted to get out. We made it to Doyelstown, parked and they nursed in the car. I found the Sweet Pea Ice Cream shop and we went there for ice cream. He chose straight chocolate, and I got a cinnamon twist pretzel. We sat and ate those. I had found the Mercer Museum and the James A. Michener art museum. We decided to walk over to them so Carly could get a postcard for her grandmother, who really likes Michener. We left the ice cream place at 12:35, did that, then hurried back and left. We’d liked to come back and actually visit the museums sometime.
August promptly fell asleep at 1:15 and slept until Carly woke him up as we entered Philadelphia after 2:20. We had driven through Manayunk, a neighborhood Carly had researched when we were considering moving to Philadelphia, on our way in. We decided to go over by the University of Pennsylvania (one of the other neighborhoods Carly had looked at) for lunch and to walk around. We started walking at 2:40 found a Cori and ate there. Carly got a salad and August and I shared an order of mac and cheese, a cup of tomato basil soup, and some carrots.
We then walked around the campus, August in the stroller. We headed from the east to the west. Along the way, a woman with a two year old talked to us. She was quite amusing, talking about how people tell her her son’s too old for a stroller and that he shouldn’t liked pink. On the way back west through campus we stopped at 3:45 and he watched a couple of workers sawing a block of concrete and building a walkway and steps for several minutes. At one point Carly asked if he wanted to stay longer or get going and he said he was ready to go. Then he said “Stay. I changed my mind.” We then went in a building and used the bathroom and filled our waters and walked back east, then diagonally northwest back to where our car was.
We got to our Airbnb place on Moravian St. near Rittenhouse Square at 5. At first we couldn’t get in, but I called the owners and they quickly had the door entry code fixed. We settled in, then decided to go for a walk over to the Schuylkill River and to the Markward Playground. We got going, him in the stroller. We walked along the boardwalk. We stopped so he could get out and walk, and he saw a low big bench, the sort I would use if he was in the big backpack, and asked “That ones for backamapacks?”
Because of the lack of exits from the boardwalk and the railroad tracks we had to go a little long and circle back around, but we made it to the playground. It was quite nice, and he wandered through it, playing. We left by 6:30.
On the way back he wanted to nurse and he said he wanted to nurse in the car. He had been a little nervous upon getting to the Airbnb place. Carly remembered that he’d been really nervous in Thailand and told him about it and how he ended up liking it. That seemed to help, and he did fine. There still seemed to be a little nervousness as he was hesitant to go back. Anyway, I asked “Why not the hotel?” And he replied “Why not the car?” We repeated that several times.
We walked on up to Trader Joe’s to get snacks, milk, drinks for dinner, fruit, etc. It was busy, but didn’t seem horrible. Then I noticed the line that circled ¾ of the way around the grocery store. I stood in line, did a little more shopping as it moved, and Carly left with August to go to the pizza place. The line moved quickly though, and I caught up with them at the pizza store, Rione, as they were paying. We went back to our place and had dinner. Carly cut up the five kinds of pizza, and we had fruit and smoothie drinks from the store.
August has started wiping himself on the toilet, an influence from Vivian. At 8 I went and moved the car. Was afraid it was going to be difficult to find another spot, but found one just at the east end of the alley as it rained slightly. Got back to the apartment and August said “Now I want to clean up and go.” August tasted the berry drink and said “Ewww” when he tasted the berry drink. He was joking though, although he had done the same thing to the tart cherry one earlier and had actually not liked that one. He needed cream on his bottom, and when Carly got it he asked “This is the normal cream we have in Korea? I want to lie down like in Korea.”
We went out for a walk at 8:30. We walked over to Rittenhouse Square. We walked around it and looked at the fountain and talked about how it worked. He got off the stroller and was pushing it around in a wheelie. He wanted to find a bench, and Carly was pretending to not see any. He started pointing them all out, using the stroller as a pointing device. They played more of the tea game: “smoke with milk” and as we walked back to the apartment he was making a humming noise. He said he was a machine digging underground.
We got back at 9. He showed a little nervousness it seemed as he didn’t want to go back inside. He pointed back down the alley and said “I want to go back that way.”
Convertible table. He then said “I want one extra walk…Can we please do one extra walk?” And of the apartment he said “It’s not even fun.”
August sat on the toilet and Carly took a shower. They had a wonderful conversation in the bathroom – about how mama washes her hair, sharing the soap, playing peekaboo, and all sorts of other things. I’ve noticed that, as talkative as he’s always been, his conversations have really taken off since he got to the U.S. and has had so many people to talk to. Now, when he’s with Carly in the bathroom or the backseat of the car it’s just constant conversation.
He talked about not using tissue when he has snot: “I just pick it.” And he talked about the low bed and the bed on the floor: “I’m used to having it low. But normally I like it high.” And he was talking in a British accent (comes from the tea game and watching Sarah and Duck) and was listing all the things he doesn’t like “I don’t like…” He was asleep at 10.
Boardwalk:
Playground:
Trader Joe’s:
Dinner in our place:
Our place:
Returning from our evening walk:
