He was up at 6:09. They nursed, then played Dragonbox Plus. I went over to help. We then read eight chapters of The 78-Story Treehouse. We then went and played with Duplos. We added a pattern to the wall of the zoo, then made a house. He then acted out sucking me up with a straw – I was the puddle and he used the Duplo tub as a straw machine. That was from the Treehouse book.
He then watched a couple episodes of Peg + Cat and I went and took a shower. He then asked “Can I spell words on your iPad, dada?” He spelled a few words. One was rather creative: “I want to spell ChairShoe…it’s a robot chair that makes shoes.” Did more nonsense typing, and we played on the piano. We then played with the new version of GarageBand, trying out all of the new sounds and the sequencer. He pointed to one symbol and said “I know what that one is: chimes.” Eventually played other music apps, pausing once to nurse.
We got ready to go and headed to the store at noon. He was fine until we got over there, then before we went in the store started yelling “Go away!” I made him stay outside with me for a minute and he got really sad, separated from mama. We went in and after a couple minutes Carly took him and carried him around for the rest of shopping.
I paid, and found them outside doing the chocolate game: he had a chocolate chip, then had to wait 3 minutes, then 6, etc. We were up to 15 by the time we got home. We took the long route, along the trail, home and were here by 1:30.
He did more typing in Korean/Arabic/Hebrew and then was asking me to play songs on the toy piano. We played Wheels on the Bus, Yankee Doodle, The Ants Go Marching, Twinkle Twinkle, etc.
Carly skyped with Cassie. August ran over very quickly to say hi to Colin and Vivian. But later Vivian got his attention by hiding under a blanket or something and being a green blob. August took me upstairs, climbed on the bed, and hid under the covers and asked me to touch his head. He was being a blob like Vivian and wanted to say the same thing, so we went down and asked what Vivian had said: “I’m a big green blob!” He also pretended to be a ghost, saying “I’m a Halloween ghost!” And then he was a baby squirrel hibernating. He lay right next to my head, and wanted to watch the stopwatch on my watch. Did that for several minutes, then asked if he wanted to read a book. He went and got The World of Babar. We read parts of that, then he was a blob again: “Something squirted me with green paint so now I look like Vivian.”
We went downstairs and they nursed and ate some quiche. Then back to the algebra app. We finished all the levels, then it repeats the levels, this time with all numbers/variables instead of the cartoon symbols. I was happy to see how well August was doing on the early levels. He was then playing it with Carly, who hadn’t really played it much before and so was still trying to figure it out. He was helpful: “Wrong” “Did you cry?” “Now you got it!” “Mama, did you get one star?” “Dada, can you help mama?”
I then started making an analog clock for August, using a Cheerios box. He helped color the hands, then I cut curvy shapes out of the leftover box for him so he could color them while I finished the box. Finished the clock, using a paper clip as the center.
He and I then headed out with his balance bike at 4:40. I had moved the seat on the balance bike lower as Carly had seen kids with lower seats. He rode it a bit on his own as we walked up to the park, then I pushed him. At the park we spent some time on the exercise equipment. He wasn’t too happy with all the other kids around and I said “They’re not bothering you.” He replied “No dada, you’re wrong. They are.”
He wanted to go back to the house and switch to the orange bike and go for a walk, so that’s what we did. Sang some of our old songs (“Mama love August…”) but mainly Wheels on the Bus. We walked to the north east, then at the second street circled back to the west and down HaHadarim and past the park. We kept going down to the trail and headed west for several minutes. Almost entirely dark by now. A woman commented on us singing Wheels on the Bus and commented on it and said “Swish swish swish” – referring to the wipers verse, which I’ve always done as “back and forth”. Funny, as I remember a couple other people seeming to think I was singing it wrong by doing it that way. Anyway, August also made up his own verses, including “The pictures on the bus go … … …” as he looked over at the graffiti. It was funny, as the pictures didn’t make any noise.
At some point he said, referring to the chocolate game, “When I get home I’ll ask mama how many minutes there are and she’ll say zero.” As we headed home he started excitedly chanting numbers and letters and words, including ‘Andy’ and ‘window’. He explained it was information for his computer. We were home at 5:40 and he remembered and asked for chocolate. Carly was skyping with Cherie and he went and did some of his counting songs/skills for her. After the call we read some Plumdog, back up to page 100 and something. Carly brought him grapes. While he finished those up we watched the Hebrew counting video.
I gave him a shower and washed his hair. He wasn’t happy at all but suffered through it. On the bed I brushed his teeth, then tried brushing his hair with his brush/comb. He held it and played it as an instrument, showing me how you play each side to make the bristles “vibrate”. The harder he played the bristles, the louder he said it was. He said it was an instrument from China. Carly managed to brush his hair and I left them at 7:45. He was asleep before 8.
Reading together:
