He woke up at 7:20: “Mama!” I ran up and he was still in the room. I picked him up and he flailed a bit and pointed towards the other bedroom and said “Mama’s out there!” We walked downstairs and he rested on my shoulder for a few minutes. We then rested on the rug and read Winter Days in the Big Woods a couple times. He then wanted to watch Puffin Rock on the couch and chose the “Puffin Practice” episode – which he seemed to read. It is also his favorite episode recently.
Had a breakfast of yogurt toast and two cups of milk. The first with his “something something” in it. He said “The more sugar I get the tastier my skin is.” And talked about that for awhile.
He played some Gro Garden, then I remembered that there is a Gro Recycling app so we downloaded that. Got going with that (he really likes that each kind of recycling has a different bin, and then also a different machine with switches and stuff) then I took a shower. I came down and asked him what he was recycling and he told me that “That one does all the people stuff.” It was kind of like the medical waste: toothbrushes, q-tips, etc.
We talked about what we wanted to do today, and then he wanted to draw on his feet again. I let him this time. He said “The more fruits you eat, the more colorful it is.” And “I hope mama will like it.” We had waited too long to skype with my parents and they were offline, so we left them a message, with him showing off his feet. He had gotten a little on the bottom of his feet so I wouldn’t let him walk on the rugs, which he did an okay job about.
We were waiting for the laundry to finish, so we went and watered the plant, and I let him have a couple of the small mints. He complained that they didn’t make his mouth minty enough. When the laundry was done it was still really wet and drippy. He watched me hang laundry, then walked in the puddles. He found the remains of a cotton ball that had gone through the wash and was concerned we had no more cotton balls.
Before we left he knocked all the shoes down from the shelves by the door and then put them away. Twice. I stopped him before it happened again. As we walked he said (on his own) that he doesn’t want to have a dog. He then said “and not a cat or a kitten.” When I reminded him that cats bury their poop he changed his mind and told me he wants a cat AND a kitten. As we got close to the top of the hill before the school he started singing “Almost to the top of the hill” – I had sung that a couple days ago and he remembered it. Then, as we got to the last roundabout he said “I have a better nose…I can smell sun sometimes.” Indeed, a couple days ago he had said “I smell the sun”.
We got to the school about 12:30. The security guard checked a schedule and told me the pool doesn’t open until 3. I assumed I had just read it wrong, so stood around for a couple minutes trying to decide what to do. I looked at the calendar again on my phone and it said 1. I went back and asked and he called someone and said I was correct.
On our way in we first saw Jill and Grace coming out. They asked August if he had eaten the mango. A couple minutes later we then saw Gaby and she asked the same thing. He and I sat on a bench under the covered walkway and ate our lunch. He had a good appetite today and ate most of his sandwich and a bunch of grapes and watermelon.
Looking up the path towards the pool he said it looked like it dropped off at the end and he wanted to jump off it. I told him it was probably an optical illusion and that was just the top of the hill. He liked being reminded about optical illusions and did the bigger/smaller thing when someone walked towards and away from us. He spotted what he thought was a piece of shell and said it was a seagull shell. Then: “I think a Puffin lives there…a tiny puffin.” When we were done we walked up the path and saw the soccer fields and went in to see the gym. It was then 1 so we went and got into the pool.
We had fun in the pool for about 50 minutes. Just us at first, then a group of kids came. There was a boy smaller than him with arm bands, but August didn’t express any interest in him except for comparing the arm bands to his floaties. He preferred watching the older kids as they played tag and another game. Stood watching them play for a couple of minutes before going to the bathroom.
After the bathroom we walked over to the playgrounds. Meghan saw us and invited us in to see her room. She had a shape stencil that she suggested August borrow, so we did. Before we left he wanted to feel how soft a rug was in her reading area. So he took his shoes off and walked on it. It had books on it with the names of different genres and I was reading them off: nonfiction, historical, science fiction… When I got to science fiction he said he wanted to read that. He wanted to read about people in rockets. He was upset we couldn’t do it right at the moment, but I suggested we could pretend to be in space at the playground.
We then stopped to fill up our water bottles, then as we completed our walk to the playgrounds he spotted the pictures down at the end of the lower hall so we went to see the kindergarten, 1st grade, etc. area and talked about how that might be where he goes to school in the coming years. Finally, he said he had a seagull machine: “I’m holding it and spraying seagulls everywhere.” And a “Super soup machine.”
At the playground he climbed up the big ladder and talked about how safe it was, then, after picking at some bird poop with a leaf, we sat in the big tube and pretended it was a spaceship and traveled to different planets. We then went to the preschool playground and I made soup for the astronaut. But he told me “Astronauts don’t like soup…astronauts don’t like bark.” So I made a pizza instead and they like that.
A little after 3 we headed back to the pool. This time he surprised me when I glance over once to see him kicking and swimming along side the wall, not holding on. He did it a few more times before we had to leave. We went and changed into our shorts, then went to Carly’s classroom. A little nursing and playing in the beanbag nest then we left at 4:45.
We walked up to town, checking out one park along the way. The library was open so we went in and looked. A nice kids area that he wanted to play in, but no English section. Then across to the second hardware store we had been to, which had nice bamboo bowls and cups for August. Also got a few other things, like gardening tools, a new drain for the kitchen sink, a flyswatter, and a big bowl. August and I went to look at the kids store, but it closed at 4. Carly had gone to the bank to pick up our cards. We met her there and I got my bank card as well. Finally, we went to the grocery store. After we had done most of the shopping August got out to walk around. Carly left the basket, which is a big plastic one with wheels and a handle that you can pull, and August started pulling it around and shopping. He would want to put something in and I’d explain we didn’t need it and he’d say “Oh. I don’t need that.” He saw Carly and told her “I’m gonna get a headache drink for you.” While we were checking out and bagging groceries he dropped the towel and something and was afraid he had dropped his water bottle. I went over and he was telling a story about it: “I dropped the water bottle and it rolled and went out in a car and it drove away.”
At the grocery store Carly had found a Spider-Man and a Hello Kitty water bottle. He chose the Hello Kitty. He thought it lit up somehow, as he thought he had seen the Spider-Man one do so. I told him it was probably just a reflection from the lights.
We were home by 6:30. The walk was kind of slow as we let August have a vanilla yogurt, stopping every few seconds so Carly could give him a bit. Carly made him an egg and cheese and he ate a bit. He played the recycling app a little, then we talked about how he had said he want
ed to learn more about trees and roots. We downloaded the Gro Forest app, then watched the Peppa Pig gardening video and a time-lapse video of roots growing in water. Didn’t play the app, as it was then time to go up for a shower. He did that, then sat on the toilet while Carly took a shower. I heard him say “I pooped in space.”
In the bedroom he stubbed his toe with the door, then went to sleep about 8:15.
Photos:
Lunch at the school:
In the rocket:
Soup:
Pointing:
