Up at 7 after Carly had spent quite awhile getting him back to sleep. But she got him back to sleep yet again before he came back out another five minutes later.
Jeff made pancakes for breakfast. August ate a whole one, but also wanted batter: “The white stuff is batter…I want batter. I LOVE batter.” Jeff gave him some in a cup, but August didn’t really have much. He and Colin started playing with the cash register. There were only the few coins that Carly had found yesterday, and they wanted more. Jeff and Carly both went and got more, so they had plenty.
A bit later August left the bedroom and told Carly he was going to put something under the door for her. He told me he wanted to write “I love mama so much.” He wanted me to write it though, and only wrote the ‘I’ himself, then he went and just told her himself. Last night, before going to sleep, when she had said “I love you so much” he said “I love you so much too.”
We got ready to go outside and he wanted to wear the Minnie Mouse shoes and sang: “I like the Minnie mouse shoes. I like the Minnie mouse shoes. Do they fit fit fit?” Spent some good time swinging. Cassie was picking up sticks knocked down by the wind (it was windy throughout the day) and he yelled “What are you doing Tia Cassie?” Chuck was starting up the weed eater and August wanted to see. But first Vivian spotted a nice fuzzy caterpillar and we watched it. Then Carly came out as we were trying to move it to safety. She finished that, then we went up and watched the weed eater, then they went in and I went to take a shower.
We got ready to go and left at 10:20. We had Vivian, and Cassie had Colin. We went to the Giant Food in Wind Gap, where Cassie rented Sully. She and Colin then did a little grocery shopping while we got going to Wind Gap Park. But on the way there August had some good lines: “The machine runs on wind.” “I’m already spraying foods in the car already…I’m spraying mints!” And he spotted wind chimes while we waited at a red light: “Wait! Some noise! Wind chimes. You love all wind chimes? I love wind chimes.” Vivian asked “Even if they’re loud?” He answered with “Yeah. I love loud things, so…” With a perfect trailing “sooo….” And they discussed the kazoo as they shared it. Vivian claimed “The germs are on the inside.” And once, when Vivian asked “Can you close your window?” He replied “Umm, I can’t. Too busy.” With the kazoo, I think.
Anyway, at the park we went to the playground. Big, but very boring and utilitarian, with random toys placed in a big fenced rectangle. Played around there for awhile, and Cassie and Colin showed up. Carly said August seemed stressed for some reason, so she took him over to the other set of swings by the stage. The rest of us soon followed, and we ended up at a picnic table where we had our snack. He and I shared a banana and Vivian said I was opening it at the wrong end. August spotted a white spot on the bench and was asking if it was bird poop. Carly was being funny and trying to get him to stop touching it, and said it might have bird flu. He broke out crying on this – I think it was the mention of ‘bird flu’, as he knows it as something pretty serious, since it closed zoos in Korea. He kept asking Carly “Did I touch it?” and she assured him no, and that she realized it was a different kind of bird poop.
When he calmed down we headed over to the stage area. The three kids went up and did some performing and running around. Vivian tried to teach August and Colin how to play fishy fishy cross my sea. They were then playing school. Vivian dropped them off with Cassie, the teacher, then picked them up a couple minutes later. She held both their hands as they walked down the steps and away from the stage. I heard her ask “Do you want to stop by a park?” August said “I want the donut place.” Vivian: “Sorry, it’s closed.” I sat on the stage reading for awhile as they played under a tent shelter at the back of the audience area. That lasted a few minutes, then they decided to head home.
We headed to the car and Carly drove back to the house. August was holding his feet up in the sun and singing a “I’m heating up my feet” song. Got back at 12:30. The kids were slow to get out and Carly headed inside. When he was ready to get out I was trying to put on his shoes but we couldn’t find both of them. Looked around the car for a couple minutes, and he was starting to get distressed. I went in to get another pair of shoes only to find that Carly had grabbed his other shoe for some reason.
We went in and had sandwiches for lunch, then he and Vivian made a fort in the dining room and painted their paper mache shapes (August had done a triangle, but Carly did all the work, and Vivian had done a ball, and did about half of it). August then had a bowl and made a random mixture of things: water, ice, paper, starch, and finally salt. Couldn’t drink that one, so he then wanted a drink, so they made one together, including, but not limited to: water, ice, lemonade, cinnamon, jam, and soy milk.
We went out to the play area again. At one point he wanted down from something and called “Get me down Carly. Get me down Ryan.” Looking around on the ground he found a piece of glass and looked through it, then threw it away. He then wanted to find other garbage to throw away. He found a dead dry worm and jokingly (I hope) asked if he could eat it. They got over by the edge of the property and then Jeff told us he had sprayed weedkiller over there. August heard what was going on and asked Vivian if there were dangerous chemicals. When she said yes he got upset again. Carly had to take him inside.
Inside only for a minute, then headed back outside to the garage after Vivian had found the bike helmet. Think they may have ridden mikes for a minute, but when I got out there they were playing with the car washing stuff, although mainly to make a mess on the floor. Chuck finished with his car and we switched to the red car and Vivian and August helped out with the scrubbing and the spraying. Vivian had gotten in the pink toy car and was turning the button. It was just making noise, as the battery was low. Colin and August were also trying to play with it. I left when Carly came out. A couple minutes later I heard a lot of crying. Vivian and Colin were upset as Cassie was putting the car away back downstairs.
They all headed back on the porch. August rode the little tricycle up and down the side, then needed to go to the bathroom. While on the toilet he talked about it just being a bathroom for him and mama. When I said that made me sad he said I could use it too, but no one else. He then got violent: “Yeah. Taking over the bathroom and breaking it. Breaking the pipes and the toilet.”
Went back out and played with the water table and sand for a long time. I went in for awhile and came back out to find them making a big mess of sand on the arm of the chair next to Carly. Went on for quite some time, basically until August had the idea to turn on the water and wash it off. That was sometime after 5. The others headed in, and he and I sprayed and swept off the porch and chair. Colin actually helped a bit by pointing out spots of sand on the chair for me.
We went in to find Jeff conducting a science experiment: they were dropping magnetic balls through copper pipe and observing that it moves slowly. August at first demanded to play with it, but then sat down to watch Jeff demonstrate. Got a bit chaotic though as three kids had three balls and pipes and went in different directions: as Carly and I helped Colin find his ball when he dropped it, Vivian and August went off, marking spots on the floor where the balls found nails under it.
Called the experiment to the end after a few minutes. August wanted his wet shorts off. Carly asked if he wanted his underwear off too. He said “No, because I don’t want to see my bottom or my penis.”
Pozole again for dinner, alo
ng with cauliflower and green beans. A lot of yummy noises from him again as he ate. I was still trying to get August to eat, and Colin was still eating, when Vivian suggested popsicles. I got them over the disappointment of me saying no by suggesting we go out and throw balls on the roof othe playhouse. So we headed out there. Vivian was the first to get a ball to work, standing at the top of the ladder and throwing it up so it rolled around in the grooves. Difficult to do from the ground, as the balls just bounce off.
August ended up sad about something, and went inside to nurse. Then played on his own out in the playroom. He wanted soymilk, then was playing with the coins. I tossed a coin to him. He didn’t see where it came from, so he was confused and asked me. I told him I tossed it to him. He smiled and said “Thank you, dada!”
A bit later he was nursing but was then kicking her. I took him in to do his bath. He sat on the toilet first and we talked about saying nice things to mama. He came up with “I love mama so much.” and a couple of other things, then went and said a couple to her. Cassie came into the bathroom and he wanted to say something nice to her and he said “I love Tia Cassie”. He had been cranky going into the bath, but ended up having a pretty good bath and washed his hair without too much trouble. There is a little ‘stroller book’ called Tweet Tweet that he had me read 5 times. He said a couple times that he loves the book. He did some playing on his own, then dramatically exited the bathtub. He was trying to exit the tub on his own, but needs help. Before I could grab him he slipped down to the ground which is lower than the tub. His left foot hit the ground, his body spun around, and his right foot landed on the stool. I barely got a hand on him, but he didn’t need it.
He got out of the bath at 7:15. Went into the kitchen and they were getting ice cream. I dished up two kinds of ice cream for him and they went out and ate it outside. He came in and wanted some of the pink (strawberry) ice cream like Vivian had. Carly agreed and gave him some more. He was ecstatic: “I got extra ice cream! Vivian! Mama gave me extra ice cream!” A couple minutes later, Cassie was trying to get people to finish off a couple of them that were almost empty. August walked in wanting even more, and she gave him a scoop of peach. He couldn’t have been happier. I joked that she did it because he had said he loved her. After all that ice cream he told Carly he was ready to nurse. He was then straight to bed and to sleep at 7:45.