He was up at 6:30. Csrly took him to the bathroom, then he came out and started to play with the toy vacuum cleaner. He sang a nice song that turned into “This fits in the vacuum” as he put a stick in it. He was then walking on the sunny spot on the floor and sort of chanting. He wanted to go outside, so I went out on the porch with him. He wanted his sweatshirt and shoes, so we got those. He played a little on the porch and with the sad. He was disappointed that the sand had dried out: “That’s too bad, there’s no water in there.”
He wanted to go for a walk, but when I asked if he wanted to go get mama he said no, just dada and Zinnie. Maybe the first time this summer that he’s wanted just the two of us for something. He repeated this several minutes later when we were out by the lake and he wanted to keep going for a walk and I asked if we should go back and get her. Anyway, the walk was prompted by seeing two women run past and through the lake parking lot. Me headed across the grass to the lake, me carrying him. He said something about how we wouldn’t catch up with the runners, and also how he prefers to be carried on walks. We just went out on the little gravel spit into what is usually the lake. Played with the rocks and threw them in. I threw a rock in to surprise him with a splash and he asked what it was. I said it was a frog and he quickly caught on to the joke, and when we’d throw more rocks in he’d say “It’s a frog!” Playing around, he joked “It wetted me and it tickled me and it poked me and it hurted me.”
We went back in after a half hour or so. He told me he wanted ice cream. “Dinner, then ice cream.” He was excited when Oma and Cassie came in, spying them out the window and watching them as they walked in. A little conflict started when Vivian came down. He helped crack and mix eggs for French toast, just like Vivian. Cherie made the kids french toast. He then played with the toy vacuum, putting coins in it.Vivian joined in on the game. Colin was down too, and he and August ended up playing with a flashlight in our closet. Cherie then took Vivian to the store with her.
They played outside with Carly, then I took a shower and did some packing. When I went out the kids were with Carly and Cherie out at the play area. She and Vivian had brought back little bouncy balls from the store. They switched around a bit, but August ended up with a green and white one, which he liked because he said it was for mama. Much later, when I went through security at the airport, I would forget the ball was in my pocket.
Carly went inside. Played with the balls a bit, then he was swinging with Vivian, her holding his swing to make them both go. I saw two golden eagles fly low overhead. All the kids ended up in the motor home with me and Chuck and Cherie. August tried a bit of dried green bean, then when we were trying to ask him if he wanted apple he ignored us and kept talking about how “Dada, I ate the rest that was in my mouth.” We played the elevator game: “I want to take the elevator.” He developed that sometime with Carly over the last couple weeks, just where we slide him on and off our lap. Then he was: “I’m the pipe that goes up to the water tank.” Cherie let him and Vivian share water from a cup and he had tons of why questions about sharing water with Vivian and why he couldn’t blow bubbles.
They ended up all in the bed in the RV. August said “I made a really strong firework that killed Vivian.” Which luckily he didn’t repeat, but was a reference back to something Cherie explained while we were in the car driving home from the lake. Due to August’s why questions she had gotten off whatever point she had been making to explain why an explosion could kill someone. August was then tightening screws on Vivian. He and Vivian each had a magazine and were reading them in bed. August was looking out his window and could see the motor home. Then took some negotiating with Vivian to let her blind be drawn so he could look out and see the lake, which he quite liked.
Cherie had let them explore some of the cupboards in the bedroom, and I had seen magazines from when Carly and Cassie were born. Then back out in the main room she got out the canisters for flour, etc. that Carly liked. Think Cherie said she got them in 1970. She was saving them for Carly, and later I would manage to pack them in the backamapack and get them to Israel. Anyway, the kids wanted to bang them around, but Cherie let them switch to her cheaper pots and pans. A racket commenced.
Eventually, August went inside to nurse. Vivian put notes through the door, then August ended up playing with the toy coffee maker and mixer and got some tomatos and wanted to make a tomato drink. Very excited by this. So Cherie helped him blend the tomatos with the hand mixer. He saw Colin trying to use the toy mixer and said “Oh dear. Colin shouldn’t use that.” He drank some and said “I dranked the tomato drink.” Did you like it? “Yeah!” Although he had actually just said “Hhh.” He did end up drinking more of it though.
I spent a dull chunk of time checking in online and signing us up for United frequent flier accounts. When I was done Colin was excitedly pointing to something outside and I went out with him. He wanted to go over to the grape arbor where he pointed out insects and we picked some grapes and raspberries. Back inside August was in the bathroom and declared “Mama, my favorite thing is poop.” Then a bit of sadness. He had been fine with going to Israel up to now, but a couple times today he would say “I don’t like Israel. I like it here.” Luckily, he never got upset about it.
Cassie and Cherie had made spaghetti, so they had some of that. Vivian had worn her dress that Glecy sent her from Sierra Leone. August wanted a turn, but lost interested when spaghetti happened. Too bad, as I would have liked for him to wear it.
He ended up hitting Vivian over something (may have been the dress). I talked about being really sorry, and not just saying it (as he said he was ready to apologize right away). Him: I have a machine that runs on sorries. I put more sorries in there.” And he said “You feel sad for what you did.” Back to the machine: “It only needs sorries to work.” “Real sorries in there.” And he used Vivian’s line: “Stop! There’s a bug on your head! For real!”
Then Vivian said it was time for a treat: “Mama! She says it’s dessert time!” It was Kinder Surprise Eggs. He started with the top, then Vivian immediately traded with him before he knew what he had. He got a little car, but then Colin wanted that, so August ended up with the little skunks, which he was a bit disappointed in. Jeff went to wash his truck, and the kids joined in. August mainly ran the hose, spraying off our dirty rags and spraying the truck. I joined in. August then needed to go to the bathroom, and I let him pee in the grass since it was the last day. He was very excited about this and kept asking for my reasoning. He then said “When it’s the last day I will always pee in the grass!”
Went back inside and I packed the canisters in the backpack. Vivian knew we had sticks for drawing in the sand nod brought in a rather big one as a gift. I said it was too big, and she came back with a small stick. Very sweet of her. It was some quick goodbyes, and Vivian grabbed August’s hand and started to walk him out, saying something like “Time to go to Israel”, which I just missed getting on video. We left by 5:20, me sitting up front with Chuck, and Cherie in the back with Carly and August. August fell right to sleep, by 5:30. So a quiet trip after that, except we saw an Apple mapping truck before exit 30.
They dropped us off, said a quick goodbye, and we headed in. August was only half awake as Carly put him in the stroller and took him in. He gave Opa a high five as he went past. Took some time to check in, as we had to shift some stuff in our suitcases to make them both under 50
pounds. We got dinner. Carly ordered a couple of Boars’ Head sandwiches for us, and August and I went to a salad bar thing and got lasagna, potatoes, and carrots and broccoli for him. He really liked his food. Carly had to wait for our sandwiches, and he kept offering her some of his food. When I was feeding him with a fork a tine got his cheek a bit. He dramatically said “You poked me. There’s a hole there.” He wanted water and we went to find a drinking fountain to fill his bottle. Came back and then Carly took him to get a smoothie. When they came back he said “You can have some, dada.” Carly went to get a latte, and while she was gone he asked for the green ball, which I now knew was in my pocket. She came back, and while he was playing with it he tripped and fell on the floor and ended up nursing.
We went to our gate after 9. Confusing as there was an extra security gate, but no one explaining anything about it. He made a friend, Amalia, who was a girl just older than Colin that was running around. August started rolling on the floor, and she copied him. Carly then managed to find Megan, a new third grade teacher at the school who was on the same flight. So we talked to her. As we were boarding, August then sneezed nine times. Impressive.
While taxing and during takeoff August wanted the window seat and was looking out the window. We figured out how to turn the lights on and off, and he joked “Where’s the eye button?” Which was a game with him and Vivian when we were robots and it would make me blink. He was looking out the window as we flew and could see the lights of New York, etc. We changed seats when they went to the bathroom and I had the window seat for the rest of the flight. Our flight took off at 10:45. There was some dinner, he watched one Sarah and Duck episode wearing his headphones, then he went to sleep at 12:40.
A few photos. Something bothering his foot:
Vivian in her dress from Glecy:
Somethinf on his chin:
Snokey and mints:
