He was up at 8:35. Held him for a couple minutes, then he just lay on the floor for several minutes before getting up to go to the bathroom. I noticed there was a strawberry yogurt missing and found out that Carly had let him have it last night. I told him that was nice of her. That led to “No, you’re not really as nice as mama because you don’t give me yogurt when it’s not breakfast.” He then told me “I don’t like your pants; I don’t like anything that belongs to you.” and “I want toast though. I hope I can do toast on the couch.”
We’ve gotten into a routine now where I make breakfast and he can watch a few stories in Puffin Rock or Sarah and Duck. Today he had the rest of the mango they had brought back from the Kerns’ tree, and we shared some toast with cheese and some toast with jam. I cleaned up and then he could switch to an app. I showed him GroGarden, where you plant seeds and make them grow, feed the veggies to animals, compost the leftovers, then put your compost on the garden. We played it together for awhile, then I went and took a shower and got us ready to go. We did our goals for the day, and he said he wanted to learn more about swimming. We put down going to the new playground we found yesterday, and then he said he wanted to learn more about gardening. He said he wanted to learn more things, and when I asked what he thought and said “going underwater in mama’s pool.”
We finally got going around 11:30 and got in the pool a little before noon, wearing his pink floaties. There were seven other kids there, from a baby up to big kids. August didn’t really play with them, but he liked the excitement of them. They were there with two grandmothers who I talked to a bit. August got right in the pool, walking down the steps most of the way. He then took right to the floaties. After just a couple minutes I had him holding onto the edge on his own and letting go a bit. Carly came and watched him for a bit, and for a little while he swam a few feet away from the wall on his own. He spotted bubbles on my chest and said “I see oxygen bubbles on you.” And when he saw the other kids with their noodle toys and other floats (he liked a tube with balls in it) he said “I want to go floaty shopping.” We stayed in the pool until about 1:30, then finally got out and went and sat in the shade.
There were quite a few birds around and we watched those, at one point he was telling one to “Stop squeaking!” He also found a little bump in the grass and thought it might be an anthill. Took quite awhile for lunch and then, after a lot of indecision on whether he wanted to go to the playground or back in the water, we got back in at 2:30. The extra pool time was probably what was too much for us. Didn’t think about putting more sunscreen on and in the evening realized we both had pink shoulders.
We also met Gaby, a new teacher, as August pointed to her and asked “Is that a kid?” She’s a teaching intern in HS social studies. He liked watching me swim to the deep end and back, and to put my head under water, which he kept asking for again and again. Finally, about 3:15, he needed the bathroom so we got out and went. He spotted a couple cats going by outside. After he was done we went and showered and then went to get ready to go. He touched his shoe to the water and then asked if he could put his shoe in the water. I said no as it was really dirty, and he got quite upset, thinking he had made the pool too dirty.
We went and followed where the cats had gone, and spotted Holly walking towards the exit with cats following her: “I want to follow them…Go where they are going.” She went out to the front entrance of the school, where she feeds the cats. We watched three cats eat for a couple minutes.
We left about 3:30 and walked home. At a construction site there was a big pipe coming out of the ground. I guessed it was the water pipe, but he said sewer and had a logic to it: “water pipes comes from something else…sewer pipes go to the ground.”
We walked to Tal Garden, the park we found yesterday. He played on a rocking thing and a merry-go-round. I spotted Jack, who I got a ride with yesterday, hauling branches out of his place. He brought his dog Nellie over for August. August fed Nellie a couple pieces of his cracker and petted her a bit. Jack said there were some parakeets living in the park and pointed out holes in the trees that are nests. August and I were finding more of them when Carly showed up. August had just been crouching between my legs saying “I’m a beetle and this is my hole…But it’s not Bernie’s.” I had asked “A grotto?” August was amused, saying “No! It’s not a grotto.”
We showed Carly the little path/shortcut that leads straight to our other park right close to us. As we walked he was making sure Carly saw the things he saw and said “everything I see mama has to.” Carly headed to the pharmacy, and we headed down another little walkway we hadn’t seen before. August sang a “I will see you at home” song after what Carly had just said. The path comes out behind our house, past another house. So we have another walking path.
At home we looked at our goals and then he wanted to watch gardening videos. We watched a Peppa Pig gardening video, then a video with kids gardening. Carly got home then. He got some milk with “something something” in it and I made iced coffees for me and Carly. We went outside and watered the plants and he hung out with Carly for awhile.
But then he was being cranky, not eating any dinner, and hitting Carly out of nowhere and having a timeout with me. He was being dramatic, saying “I have to stay here forever.” Earlier, I was doing something upstairs on the computer and August thought I was doing something fun and wanted to come up, but wouldn’t come up on his own and he said he was “never see” me.
But we finally got ready to go and walked over to the mall and went to the grocery store. August had his shoes off and spent much of the time, after he got his foot pinched by the stroller wheel a bit, looking to see if there was blood and trying to pull himself around the store.
We then went out and got our anniversary ice cream. We sat outside under the huge trees that were full of birds. They were making a lot of noise. I got cookies and cream and Carly got two flavors, strawberry and chocolate. August had plenty of ice cream, but he still wanted his own.
At home we almost skipped a shower, but we had been swimming. He had fun playing in the shower though and then I took a short shower as well. They went in and he was asleep by 9:30.
Floaties:
Watching cats:
Playground:
Watched by the dog:
Anniversary ice cream:
The bridge home:
