I finished listening to S-Town in the morning.
He was up at 8:30. Opened the door, saw the other hyper kids, and closed it. Carly went in and the other kids went in as well. At one point in the morning Colin and August drew with crayon on the bedsheet and we washed it. At another he hit Vivian. Instead of apologizing he gave her a big hug. Vivian and August then ended up outside, where Vivian painted August’s toenaile and fingernails purple. They then started playing in the water. I took a shower and they were still out there. August walked up and down the slide, but wouldn’t actually slide. I sprayed the hose up in the air like rain for Vivian. They kept playing and playing. August drank water from a spray bottle and said “I like hot water. I like warm water. But I don’t like shower water.” At first I thought he said ‘shallow’ water, but he carefully pronounced it so I got it. While he had the hose “Vivian’s picking tomatoes and letting me wash it.” We talked about the “digger” coming tomorrow to level the spot for the RV “After we go to sleep?…Thats fine…I don’t want it right now.” Vivian and August played the shutting down robot game after they drank water. Vivian got him to start dropping the bottle when he shut down.
About 10:30 August finally ate some breakfast when Carly brought some cereal. They ended up inside, and Carly and Vivian read Merle the High Flting Squirrel, which had just arrived in the mail. August played with the wand/club thing that lights up when you hit things. He said “I only hit the butter chairs.” Vivian and August were outside with Carly on side porch while Chuck mowed the lawn, and their when the gas guy came to refill the tank on the house. A funny moment of confusion, as Carly asked him what he was doing, and the guy thought she was Cassie and was confused. The kids, Colin included, watched him and his truck.
Then out on back porch playing with water again. August was getting his hands dirty in the soil out front, then running to the back and washing them off with th hose. Vivian turned off the water and I joked that the well had run dry. August then decided to refill the well by putting the hose in the pool. They played for several more minutes. Vivian went inside about 12:30, and August played a bit longer on his own beforing going in.
Vivian made a lemonade cafe for Carly and Cassie’s birthday, and they sat and had lemonade. Vivian and I had eaten the last of the pizza for lunch, then August had some of the curry for lunch. When he was done they were allowed to have a cookie. I suggested a version of the Stanford marshmallow experiment, where you offer a child one treat now, but two if they can wait. We only asked for 5 minutes of waiting, and they had plenty of distractions, and both Vivian and August easily made the five minutes. When I handed each of them their second cookies though I suggested they share them with their moms, which they did. As August ate his he exclaimed “I just love chocolate.”
Awhile later I found him crouched in the mud room, just admiring Vivian’s pink flip flops. Vivian went to the RV with Cherie and August headed around to the back with me where we filled up the water table but didn’t use it, then filled the pink water bottle but didn’t spray it, then peed in Colin’s toilet. He dumped it out and we sprayed it off with the hose. He then decided to head inside, a little after 2, where he very quietly asked me if he could use Vivian’s towel to dry her feet. He then kept going out and spraying his feet, then coming in to dry them again. “I love this towel.”
He ended up in the mud room again, this time admiring Vivian’s other pink shoes:
“I like vivian’s sparkly pink shoes” I said he should probably ask if it was okay before he wore them, and he responded with his best Sarah and Duck impression: “Yeah, s’pose so.”
We did some art. He used up the last bit of the sparkly paint, then drew on his foot with a marker on his foot. Sang “I want to wash it off in the pool. But if I wear my shoes they’ll get dirty. So I’d like you to carry me.” Then asked “Could you please carry me dada?”
We got ready to go to a park. Hot and stifling today, so we wanted a park in the shade. We decided on Mountain View Park as it is big and shady and Cassie told us there was a Crocs outlet store near there. Before we left, Vivian and August played wonderfully on the bed for quite awhile. While I was in there, they were pretending to go on a journey to Mexico. Vivian was pretending to fly the plane and asked “what’s that noise?” August said “That’s the plane moving.” She changed the noise and asked again and he replied “That’s the engine breaking.”
We headed out, about 3, and stopped at Chuck and Cherie’s car to get the booster seat for Vivian. August said “Their car’s super cool. I don’t like our car very much.”
We got to the outlet mall and went to the Crocs store. They both had a ton of fun trying on shoes. August liked the ones that were fuzzy inside and with Mickey Mouse on them. Vivian found a pair she really liked and we took a photo to show her mom. Carly had to take August outside while I chose a second (buy 1, get 1 50% off) pair. They didn’t have orange, teal, yellow, or gray in the next size up, but I found a nice dark green pair. So he has a sea green pair to replace his dark blue ones that are getting small, then a bigger pair for after that.
Vivian spotted escalators on our way out and asked to ride them. They did one trip up and down, then we got going. Vivian had asked to ride a second time, but didn’t protest when we said we wanted to get to the park. But back at the car she said “I really wish we could have ridden the escalators again.” I then realized that escalators were more of a rarity for her, kind of like when I was a kid and we rarely got to ride them. August likes escalators, but got to ride them daily.
At the park they got out and first ran across to the tire swing. I pushed them on that, then they ranged over all the playgrounds. Carly talked to a woman who had three older sons there. She was from Norway but had a New York accent, although she had never lived there. She had lived in Florida and got the accent from her husband. Vivian pushed August on the swing and taught him how to make poop balls out of the moist and dry sand. He would then throw them on the ground and they would break apart kind of cool.
We left at 5:30. We stopped at the bathrooms, and while Vivian was in with Carly, August and I made a river going down the hill using the drinking fountain with the clogged drain. Something to do more of if we go back.
In the car they had snacks, and August exclaimed “I love apple so much…I love crackers so much.” Carly had been working, before we went to Philadelphia, on having them say the other person could go first. Only Vivian had done it before, but this time August started doing it: “Vivian can have cracker first.” They then played a poop tea game, offering each other tea or water with poop in it.
We got back at 6:05. Yummy tofu and mashed potatoes and broccoli for dinner, although August barely had any. August got upset when he saw Vivian with his chopsticks, and hit her. We had a timeout in the bedroom and he said he was ready to apologize. We came back out, but then he was asking “If you hit Vivian there will be a consequence?” He was clearly testing consequences, and a couple minutes later he hit her again, for no apparent reason. Carly took him for a timeout, and he sat in the room by himself. No crying like when she’d try to do it before.
Back out he played with the bouncy ball that lights up when it hits things. He called it the “super cool” ball and would get it to light up, then give it to Carly. We were then playing outside on the porch when a thunderstorm rolled in. We admired the wind and as it really hit the ducky floaty started to blow away. Colin saw it and said “U
h-oh, oh-oh.” I ran and got it. A few minutes later the rain and wind really hit and the kids retreated to watching from inside the bedroom.
Vivian and August did more art on the floor in our room and August was being silly, hitting Vivian with Marshy. He was then lying down with me for a bit. Then he stood on the bed and was throwing Marshy well over Vivian’s head – he’s definitely improved his overhand throwing.
Back out in the kitchen it was time for ice cream. In the chocolate container August spotted a perfect little bead of refrozen chocolate and I scooped it out for him. They then each had ice cream out of the small “adorable” bowls.
Before bath time Vivian and August had the idea of trying to go on the toilet at the same time. While admiring this attempt at equity, Carly didn’t think it a good idea. He spent a long time on the toilet, and Vivian didn’t want to go in the bath until he was off. She instead drew funny pictures (of poop) for Carly. They took a bath, then were jumping off the bed. I hung out with all three of them while Carly took a shower. That was fine until August was asking to play with a ball that Colin had set down. Vivian got it first and then he hit her.
After Carly came out I read Hug Machine, Gaston, and Creepy Carrots to the three kids, although August wasn’t paying too much attention. He chose Merle as the fourth book, but then asked if he could touch a bracelet thing that Vivian had left on a table. When she said no and took it instead he hit her again. Carly did a timeout with him this time, and reading time was over.
He didn’t fall asleep, and I went in and read Bernstain Bears No Girls Allowed with him. We switched, still didn’t fall asleep. I read two Frog and Toad stories to him. Then he was looking out the window and saw all the fireflies under the street lights. And we saw a bat flying around in them. It looked like it was on fire. August went and told Carly about it and we watched out the window. He also spotted the stars up in the sky.
I had some cereal, and he wanted some. I made him share from mine, but then when we were done he very sweetly asked “I want more cereal, but could I please have my own bowl and could I please have my own cereal?”
We went back in again, and he finally, finally fell asleep a little past 11.