Carly said that at some point August dreamt he was washing himself – he had his hands together as if he was rubbing soap in them, then was rubbing them on his body.
I heard the bedroom door slap shut (he often closes it behind him) at 6:34 as Carly was still closing the gate. He later told me he heard the air conditioner noise and that woke him up. He was tired but happy and I held him for several minutes standing in the kitchen. He spotted the coffee maker flashing and we talked about the contents of the canisters. He commented on not wanting to eat or drink flour.
I made a chocolate pancake for each of us and he watched Puffin Rock. He went to the bathroom, then we read Biscuit is Thankful, Berenstain Bears Go to School, and Berenstain Bears Trouble with Chores. Brushed his teeth, then Skyped with my parents. When talking to them he said he wanted a kitty and a cat. When they asked what he would name them he said “Same as gramma and grampa’s”. My mom also said “Now if gravity would just stop dropping crumbs for the ants,” referring to how he was dropping crumbs from his mouth. August responded “Gravity never stops!” We also told them about how he got mints inside yesterday and how he wanted to keep it a secret from Carly. He told them “Don’t tell anybody.” He then played Mammals while we skyped and he noticed that the elephant was literally leaking food from its stomach and falling to the floor. A very odd glitch for the app.
After we got of Skype we played the Pop, Pip, and Otto game. They went on a conveyor belt that he had made to their stump, then they were machines. He then directed some playing based on one of the episodes: “Otto, you go find eggs. The shrew crew and Mossy will find good berries for them in the meadow…Its not blue or white so it’s not a seagull or Puffin egg.” We also did some Flynne game. He pondered why you can’t eat water, after he said he was hungry but then just wanted water. He walked to the bathroom and as he did so said “All sorts of interesting ways to go…through those lines…streets.” Referring to the lines on the floor.
Out of nowhere (or maybe we were talking about killing bugs) he asked about dying: “You disappear just like that…whoosh…you die slowly? Not right away?” We talked about that a little.
He was hungry and wanted apple, so I cut one up. He talked about our house in Korea and apparently his opinion has changed and he now says he likes this house: “I didn’t like our house…I just like this house…I just like this house…I don’t like other things…I don’t like neighbors…mama…dada.” “No I didn’t at all. I didn’t like the wood. I didn’t like the wood floor. I like tile, so I like this house.” He climbed under my shirt to be warm at one point.
We read Take Care of Our World, which is a cool app/book with lots of animals in it. Then he played Highlights Shapes while I took a shower, then we explored the new forest level in Aniscience as we sat on the couch and he watched/read Little Green Riding Hood while I made pizza for lunch. We sat and ate lunch together, then we noticed flies buzzing around the house. Not sure if they came in when we had the door open for a couple minutes when we were out in the yard, or through the open window in the bathroom upstairs, but I killed three of them with the flyswatter and their may have been a fourth.
Back to animal games with the pillows, he wanted the sheet, so we went and got it and I made a stump/lair with chairs and it as the roof. He tried going on it and fell right through, but ended up bundled up. So he lay there and it was his hospital bed. The shrews were sick and couldn’t talk. He started blinking, which has meant ‘yes’ or something in the past, but he told me “The blinking doesn’t mean that…Means I want to blink.” He just lay there being cute, then was sort of just talking to himself for quite awhile. At one point he was reciting part of the Lucy and Pogo story, where the narrator asks you to count her claws.
We listened to Led Zeppelin II as I realized he hadn’t heard them yet. And also a Robert Plant album. We got ready to go and he played a little Human Body. He tried to convince me to play, saying “If you don’t play this dada you’ll NEVER learn about the human Body!!!”
He wanted to do recycling, so we took the bag and walked up, then came back to the car and left at 2:25. He was trying to get Tic-Tacs out and said “This container said it’s not gonna let me have a yellow one!”
We drove over to the Tiv Taam at the mall. A very direct walk, but a convoluted drive that probably takes just as long or longer. We parked, got out the stroller, and went in. Left the stroller by the entrance and he sort of hopped/crawled through much of the store. He was really excited about fruits and we got apples, bananas, and plums to try. He was also a machine destroying the store for a minute or two. But we made a quick shopping trip of it and left at 3:15.
As we got in the car he saw a paper cup and other garbage in the parking lot. He said “I hope people put garbage where the claw picks it up.” He talked about it polluting the earth, and I said that at least the mall should come around occasionally to clean it up and something about how they are responsible for keeping their land clean or they could get in trouble with the city. He thought of our own house and said “But, I made a mess with pillows.” I assured him that wasn’t what I meant.
As we drove out of the parking lot he looked out the window and talked about how he gets tired of foods, etc. but that he never gets tired of the things he sees when we are going on walks and adventures and on the bus and driving.
We made it to school and parked in the parking lot. Went to Carly’s classroom but she had decided not to swim. So we went just the two of us. He got really said when he saw the metal recycling can and we realized we hadn’t brought the small metal altoids container to recycle. I eventually got him in the pool and that cheered him up. There was a swim lesson going on and he was fascinated by that. He saw kids goofing around and asked “They don’t want the teacher to teach them?”
We mainly played with bubbles, with me doing the splashing thing to pull bubbles under him, then him popping all the bubbles on us. The first lesson got over, then a bit later he said “It’s Jill and a boy!” He had recognized Jillian, one of the Kerns, coming into the pool. He said hi to her as we got out, then watched a little of their lesson as we got ready to go.
We got to Carly just at 4:30 and we all drove home. As we walked to the car he was a post machine, making more posts and cutting up something for building sites (as we had been driving he was pointing out everything he recognized, including the half-done house that isn’t painted). He also told Carly he likes bus rides that last “Hours and hours…because I love busses so much.”
We got home at 4:45. They nursed and he chanted “I want something something milk, cuz there’s no milk in the nursing.” He ate the pilaf and veggies for dinner and was really liking it (he had seemed to be getting a little tired of both chocolate pancakes and pizza already). He had dropped some on his chair, but then brushed it on the floor. Carly talked to him about picking it up, and he decided to eat it instead: “Cuz I LOVE my dinner. I’m gonna pick it up from my chair and eat it.”
Carly cut up a plum and he ate a couple bits of it through the evening, although he said he didn’t like it. We went outside and he looked at the sap and we filled up the cat water with fresh at his request. Back inside he wanted that milk he never got. He got upset when Carly was going to make it with honey and not sugar: “Dada’s something, something milk!” Carly gave in, and told him she poured in too much sugar. He was thrilled by this, and kept it a ‘secret’ from me for several minutes before deciding to tell me: “M
ama gave me too much sugar! Enough to make me sick!”
Carly told him to go to his lair after that, but he said “But I don’t have a lair!” Carly asked him what that was made out of pillows, et. And he said “Just a hospital bed.”
Carly left to go to Back to School Night, taking the car. As she was about to go out August said “I want a hug and a kiss from mama.” He played Gro Recycling for awhile, then was doing the talking to himself playing thing, although I couldn’t catch what it was about. He was still hungry and ate most of a banana, then some of the pilaf and mushrooms. He talked about wanting to wake up with mama and watch Sarah and Duck. Wasn’t clear if this was something he was remembering or a new idea of something he wanted to do.
We went upstairs and he took a shower. He was covering his eyes to see shapes and colors and told me “I want to look up why you see colors and shapes and robots and stuff when you close your eyes.” I was surprised by the ‘robots and stuff’ part.
In bed we read Berenstain Bears No Girls Allowed and finished the first book of Hilo. He was doing fine until 8:47. Then it really sunk in that mama wasn’t home to put him to bed. He got sad and I held him. Eventually we went downstairs and I was holding him in the kitchen. He would calm down for a minute and would think he might go to sleep. He paused being upset too to go to the bathroom again. When I wouldn’t let him outside we ended up sitting on the floor with him in my lap. That was when he got upset with me, repeating “Mama’s nice. You’re not nice.”
I was telling him we could go outside in the yard if he calmed down a bit, and finally he did, although he got upset again for a bit when we realized that Carly had the stroller in the car. So I carried him for a walk at 9:15. Which was quite nice. We saw a cat sitting on the corner on the sidewalk, and saw it again on our way back. Walked past the house and up towards the park, then turned around again when I saw Carly pull up. I had kept expecting him to put his head down and fall asleep, but he didn’t.
She was home at 9:25. He was happy to see her and went in and was asleep just after 9:30.
Hiding in my shirt:
Being cute:
Finding Cheerios:
Sap:
