He was up at 8:08. Upset for a minute, and sat at the top of the stairs, crying. But when I took one of his socks off he threw it through the railings to the stairs below and that turned into a game. I made him toast and watermelon and strawberry yogurt for breakfast. He sat at the table and watched Puffin Rock while I did dishes and took a shower. Every time a new story would start I’d hear him call “Another one!” While he went to the bathroom he told me “I want to go water table shopping.”
When I came down from my shower we finished the story he was watching then turned off the iPad. We used the whiteboard to list our goals for the day. He had told me he wanted to play with sand today. So I wrote pot the plant, go swimming, lunch with mama, and find sand. I then asked if he wanted to add anything else, and he said “learn about chalk”.
So first we went outside to pot the plant. There was a garbage truck working nearby though and he didn’t like the sound. He said it was “too wrinkly”. It moved on and we were able to pot the plant. He was able to see the roots and we talked about all the stuff he knows from the Namoo app about roots and leaves and water. After that he did an experiment with water and cotton balls and a tea bag but did it outside this time. He also looked at our ant experiment and added a little water to it.
Then we went in and watched a couple videos about how chalk is made. We found a good one about how to make your own sidewalk chalk. After, he said something like “everyday I want to watch vidoes and explore”.
We crossed off the things we had done from our list and got ready to go to the school and go swimming. We left at 10:45. Took some different roads on the way. August got a mint as we walked and he kept talking about “I want to get more mints for Vivian and me…And Colin…When Vivian is here and we run out of mints I’m going to buy big ones for us to share…Not expensive ones though.” Found a second park a couple blocks away that he said he wanted to go back to, and closer to the school we watched a guy trimming branches from up in a tree.
We got there about 11:15 and walked over to the pool. Matt was there with the three girls. August started talking to them right away and I put on sunscreen and he didn’t complain. We went to the stairs, and he was slow at first, so I simply picked him up and walked in as it was quite warm. He didn’t protest, and after a couple minutes I had him in up to his neck. He gave the girls high fives, we walked along a rope, he hung on the side of the pool on his own. For a bit we got out and walked over to the little kid pool. He was sitting in the water talking to the three Kerns girls and Matt and I went to get my camera. When I came back though he had said he needed to go to the bathroom. So I took him, and when we came back out we went back to the deeper pool. Jill showed him how to kick and he practiced that, and then Carly came out and visited for a few minutes.
She left to go finish lunch, we took a few more minutes, then went and got food and took it to her classroom to see her and to eat. Along the way we saw Holly and she took us in to see the office cat, Taylor, who doesn’t have a tail.
We ate in her classroom, and August ate a good meal: green beans, mashed potatoes, fish, chicken…everything on the plate. We also had a little cinnamon roll that he really liked. He played on Carly’s bean bags. He curled up on the big blue one and was really comfortable. He called it a nest, then wanted me to join him and he just spent a lot of time resting, making sleeping noises.
Eventually we left and went to find the preschool playground. Got there and looked around and started making soup with a pot in the sand/wood chip area. He needed the bathroom, so we found one at the end of the building, then went back to soup making: “The sand is basil and I needed more basil in there.” We mainly made soup, but also looked around at the other toys which were kind of in a mess. About 2:15 I said we needed to go back to the pool or we would run out of time. He was concerned about running out of time, so we got going.
Back at the pool there were just a couple of adults. We played around some more and he talked about wanting to swim like the adults. We worked a little on having him lay on his back in the water. Before we left we met Steven, the new elementary music teacher. I talked about bringing his floaties next time and August talked about bringing something else: “I have something that is waterproof…It is special and it is on the floor and next time I will bring it and play with it in the pool. It is special to Vivian and me.” Don’t know what he was talking about.
We went to Carly’s room about 3:45 and met her and walked home together. At home he watched some Sarah and Duck and I took a quick shower. We went outside and waited for Mandy and Matt to pick us up at 4:50. Mandy dropped Matt and I off at the school entrance for ‘guys night’ and took Carly and August on to their house.
When they got there Gaby came down and started playing with him and took him outside and he was just fine. He had a lot of fun with the three girls, and he was really excited about making lime juice (which were actually unripe lemons). The pizza was good, but Carly made the mistake of leaving the leftovers on our counter for a bit when they got home – we really need to fight the ants. She also thought he seemed ready to stay with the kids as babysitters. But when she talked to him about it before they left he got a little stressed because he thought she meant right now. They got home about 7:30.
He told her “I want to learn things…I want to go to preschool to learn things.” Which I think was an impressive idea drawn from different conversations: when talking to people at the party, etc. he’s heard us say he’ll go to preschool next year. And when we were at the playground today he initially said he was too big to play there, so I had to explain it was for the preschool and 4 and 5 years old. Finally, as we walked to Carly’s classroom one of the times we saw a little cart/truck with a trailer full of boxes that looked like books. He asked why it was books, and I explained you use a lot of books at school, then went on to explain you do art, write things, do experiments, exercise, etc.
Meanwhile, I rode in a car with Jack, who had previously lived in Turkey, over to the restaurant we were meeting at, a burger place called Black’s. We had a beer, a lot of starters, and a burger. Good overall, and the conversation was more mature (older group), worldly, and generally fun than what we experienced in Korea. Also, no complaining about the school, which was a plus. So that’s a good sign. It was Brian’s birthday, so there was also a tart at the end. We (there were eight of us) then went and saw Dunkirk. Glad I saw it in a theater, and definitely a good film to watch.
August was asleep at 9:15 and I was back about 10:30. On the way home we saw the partial lunar eclipse from the car and I told Carly about it so she could go out and see it.
Naked boy:
Watering the plant:
My sunglasses:
With me in the pool:
Bean bag chair:
Cooking at the soup playground:
Towel:
