Wednesday, August 23: Grocery shopping, the Flynne game, and falling asleep without mama

He was up at 6:10, walked down and found Carly. Watched some Puffin Rock and said goodbye to mama, then had cereal for breakfast with a mix of our three milks (oat, soy, and cow). He played Human Body while we listened to Billy Joel’s Innocent Man album. We played Musyc together, and we would make something, then he would say “Too loud!” and erase it all. We took a plastic container outside and he filled it with water for the cats or birds, then he said “Now I’m gonna water our fake grass so it can grow.” Back inside he wanted to see how cardboard boxes are made so we watched a video, then watched videos of ice cream factories while he sat on the toilet and I showered.

Back downstairs I made us a bigger breakfast, as we shared three eggs with cheese and cauliflower. We then made green tea and lemon iced tea and put it in the fridge to brew and I started laundry. Playing Human Body he focused on the heart and lungs and we talked a lot about the red blood cells and their trips around the body. He asked what makes snot and tears and spit. When I talked about the glands he asked “Does Human Body show us the glands?” When I said no he got upset: “It doesn’t show us any of the fun parts though…I never get to see anything!”

Played one round of Animal Hospital, then I showed him the Pet Doctor app. You use it to be a doctor for your stuffed animals, taking a photo of them and answering questions about how they feel and making notes about their condition. We did it with Marshy and Green Monster, and would later do Bluie and, even later, Smokey.

But then the big game, which we called the Flynne game (from Puffin Rock). Basically, we took turns being Flynne the fox or Mossy and the shrew crew and they would wake Flynne up and make her run away with their scent glands. This lasted a long time. He got a little dark with it: “Oona and baba killed Flynne so she couldn’t eat the shrew crew.” Then said “I have a pretend show that’s about dying people. I’m gonna watch it now.” Back to the game: “I’m messing up your den, dada.” But also he was a machine: “It kills you really fast like this…so the doctor can’t fix you.” “I’ve got something in me that unsicks them.”

We then spotted a weird insect on the wall and caught it and put it in the bug viewer and looked at it. He ate a large cracker, then I said I needed to hang the laundry. He still wanted to play, so we set a timer for 10 minutes and did the Flynne game until it went off. I hung laundry and he talked the whole time about the game and the couch and pillows: “I don’t really like your den cuz there’s not enough color on the pillows…” He said he likes the striped pillow the best.

Back downstairs we talked about our plans for the day and our goals. We played more Flynne game, then watched the recycling truck pick up the limbs across the street. I made cauliflower and sweet potato fries for lunch and we tried the iced tea, which was good already. Did more Flynne game, then took care of Bluie. We stopped to sit at the table and eat lunch and watch Puffin Rock. I had a few of the fries but he ate most of them and didn’t like running out. He ate a lot of cauliflower too though. The recycling truck came back as we were getting ready to go to the grocery store and we left at 2:40.

We walked over to Tiv Taam at the mall. He did a pretty good job helping with the shopping. He is all into trying out new things, so I gave him a few minutes to choose a new milk and he chose a coconut milk to try. And while looking at peanut butter he found a biscuit spread I agreed to get as a treat. We also found pizza sauce and got long sandwich breads to use for pizza. He spotted a price gun thing sitting near an employee and asked if that was a price machine. I was surprised he knew what it was, but later Carly told me they had seen someone using one. He was at his limit though and was being cranky when I was bagging groceries. I asked if he was having a hard time and he said “Yeah.” While we were then getting mints and putting the backpack on, etc. he hit his head on a cart and got pretty sad. We then stopped at the health food store as I had seen salt and pepper shakers out in their display. Got those, then inside they had crackers and five spreads out as sample by the counter. August tried all of them. They also had samples of seed and nut bars and we tried those. Free samples really make him happy.

We got home at 4:30, before Carly as she was staying a bit late. We took care of Smokey and played the hospital game, making a hospital bed for him and Smokey (as first he said Smokey had been hit by a car and then he said he was as bad as Smokey). He was really closing his eyes trying to act asleep. We were doing that when Carly got home.

They nursed, then we had more green tea with sugar. August said “I need some extra to make my skin sweet.” And “It tastes brilliant when it’s like this cold.”

I made pizzas with cauliflower and seitan that Carly had just fried and those were really good. We then had toast with our biscuit spread, which he really liked and wanted me to let him eat spoonfuls of.

We looked at our goals. When writing them I had mentioned reading later and he had said “Yes, please!” We said we could read now and he said we could then cross it off. We’ve crossed things off a couple times, and at the store he was helping cross everything off the list. But he went ahead and erased the goals. We read Peppa Pig Around the World after we bought it and Sarah and Duck at the Library. We brushed his teeth, then Carly read Sarah and Duck Stay at the Duck Hotel. I looked up ‘helter-skelter’ to confirm what it meant and realized it was a spirally slide. I said we could start calling the spiral slides helter-skelters and August disagreed, insisting we call those ‘slides’ and the straight ones ‘helter-skelters’.

I took August up and gave him his shower. When we came out he thought he heard Carly watching something and he kept talking about her shows and “She has those boring videos she watches all the time.” He was a sock making machine tonight and would make socks then tell me I was a price machine and I’d put prices on them. He decided socks were 100 dollars a pair. They tried for sleep 8:10. No go. He went in the bathroom and hung out while Carly took a shower. He then came down and we read Peppa Pig Around the World and the dentist book twice. During the first book he asked “Why are they flying with the wheels down?” He’s never actually seen landing gear go up/down but we’ve talked about it multiple times when we are actually on planes and hear the noises. In Dentist George pours fluoride wash down his toy dinosaur’s mouth. August asked “Does it have a digestive system?”

He went back upstairs with Carly at 9:10. They were going to the bathroom first, and August was really articulating the order they were going to go and nurse, etc. Earlier, before we left the house, he was on the toilet and I stated the 4 or 5 things we were going to do before we left the house. He was repeating it, but adding things in, like washing his hands, that I had left out.

Still no sleep, and August wanted me to go to sleep with them, which he’s mentioned to Carly several times too, I think. So I got ready for bed and got in bed with him. He was quiet, but wouldn’t actually lie down between us, insisting on being sideways. He was kicking his legs over my back, which was actually a pretty good massage and he called it as much. Would have let him do that as long as he needed, but he would also reach up and grab Carly, or push on her with his head.

So around 9:30 I took him downstairs and I pulled out the sofa bed. I lay down and said I’d take him upstairs once he was falling asleep or asleep. He didn’t like the idea, and wouldn’t get on the couch, but he never made an attempt to walk upstairs. He wouldn’t get fully on the couch/bed until after I talked about how Vivian goes to sleep on her own, an
d I suggested we set a timer for a minute and see if he could lie down next to me. He said he didn’t want to do it, but slowly climbed on the bed anyway and did it. For the first minute I had to put my hand on his chest a couple times to keep him from sitting up. But then he kept lying there. He turned sideways for awhile as he kept asking when we could go upstairs, etc. but stayed on the bed on his own. Did the timer thing again and he did it on his own, no hand from me. Finally, he said something about wanting mama, said “No, upstairs” and rolled over one more time, facing the wall, and was asleep by 10:20. That’s the first time he’s ever fallen asleep at night without Carly and nursing. And I think the first time he’s fallen asleep with me while lying down since my parents were in Korea.