He woke up at 6:35. He came and sat next to me on the bed and I carried him down to Carly a few minutes later. She was about to go outside and drink her tea and he went with her. Back inside he agreed to a strawberry/cracker arrangement, but was then upset when Carly cut the strawberry in four pieces when I usually do two. So he had to wait until she was done making spinach pancakes before he ate. He had cinnamon and sugar on his, and was incredulous when he saw that Carly had yogurt and fruit on hers: “What‽ You didn’t put sugar? But the sugar’s sugar!” After he ate he came and sat on my lap and looked at the weather forecast with me for a few minutes.
Carly started to make macaroni and cheese and he really helped grating the cheese. I went and took a shower. When I came back down they were still grating cheese. August was being a mouse, stealing some. They grated the Parmesan cheese and August was interested in the hard shell part. Carly cut it off so he wouldn’t try to grate it. He asked why she cut it off and she said “I don’t trust you.” He replied “I trust myself!”
Carly gave him a bath and brought him back down and he sat bundled in his towel on my lap. He requested Toca Builders. He sort of built some three dimensional letters, then said “I’m building the Maze of Doom!” from 26-Story Treehouse. We did a little Drops then ate the delicious macaroni and cheese. He wanted to play the car and gas station game with the Duplo cars with Carly but she was cooking. I played with him, but he wouldn’t do the gas station part with me.
He had built a big pillow pile over his piano earlier (I had accompanied him upstairs to get pillows and he convinced me to let him throw some down – he called that the “Zinnie way” as opposed to the “Mama way”, which was sliding them down the steps – he did the last one the Mama way though and was excited by that too). He now went and removed pillows from the top and lounged across them and experimented by moving keys around and making different chord sounds.
I then went up to the office and started my work time. They had popcorn, took the backamapack and suitcases out to the car to see what would fit, and took care of the yard, I think. And other things I’m sure. They then decided to go to the beach. They went to Poleg Beach. The water was up high and it was really windy. Too windy, so they didn’t last long. They drove up to the boardwalk area but it was still quite windy. The cover on the bike acted as a kind of sail and the wind would still push the bike around when she took it off. There was one gust in particular where they just had to hunker down. They went back up to where the car was and across the street to the sort-of-science-y park with the helicopter thing where we’ve played before. They were back at 3:30.
As he went to the bathroom he told Carly “If my iPad breaks you will buy me another one.” “Not if you say it that way.” He rephrased “If my iPad breaks could you buy me another one?” This was bringing back a conversation from a couple days ago when he asked “Why do some kids not have iPads?” That had also led to a discussion of what would happen if he lost his iPad or it got broken.
August found the tape measure and was measuring things. Carly wanted to use it to measure leg space in the car. He went out and helped her measure. Came back and told me “We solved the mystery of how much luggage will fit.” We then went upstairs and solved the “mystery of the kaleidoscope cards”. He often says “I love mysteries!” He and I played with the kaleidoscope cards – putting together a few of the puzzles and making his own designs. He also licked his toe, which I was happy to catch on video.
Carly went out for a walk and he and I played Piano Maestro. Well, mainly I did and he watched me. I’m starting to get into two-handed songs, so it is hard, and the app breaks the song into pieces for you to learn one piece/hand at a time. So the first time for each piece I’d let him do “Zinnie mode” in which he would play as many mistakes/make as much noise as possible. He then lets me do “Dada mode” where I actually practice that piece. But after a half hour or so, as I was done practicing that song today, he took us to easier pieces. Then, he was suddenly doing it on his own. He did it a couple of times and was getting better keeping the tempo. In fact, he was playing with playing the notes slightly late in order to reduce his ‘Timing’ score, then did it again accurately.
Carly skyped with Cherie to discuss car things for the trip. August stopped playing piano. He asked “How many times are we going to Skype with Oma and Opa before they come here?” A good thunderstorm hit while they were talking. Poured rain and thunder and lightning. August went back to the piano and started playing Dust Buster, playing on his own using the on-screen keyboard. He found a set of Chinese songs. Carly got dinner for herself and ate while sitting a looking out the kitchen door at the storm outside. August watched with her, and when it was really pouring he said “Is it Friday or not? The ice cream truck will not come!”
I got him soup for dinner. He ate two bowls. But then he wanted a treat since he ate so much. Not happy there was no treat today. He went back to the kaleidoscope puzzle on his own and started to figure one out on his own. Got the first card, then needed my help to find the second one, but he placed it properly. I then helped him finish with the tricky third card.
He then remembered his “bassoon” from the park yesterday and asked where it was. I had figured he had forgotten about it and thrown it in the garbage. Luckily, the rain had stopped so I went out to the garbage and got it and washed it off. He played his bassoon and played Juicy Juice Store song on it. I told him I’d always wanted my song played on the bassoon. He sang London Bridge and changed up some words: “Silver and gold will waste too much money…my friend lady…” Then some Eine Kleine Nachtmusik. We then looked up some of the songs I’ve made up for him and sang them: “The hungry, hungry baa baa”, “Lost my helmet in the spaceship”, “The elephant was hiding low”, etc.
We went and read Lulu Witch, then a little over 20 pages of The Sisters. He asked “Can I get ready for sleep?” I took him up and got his pajamas on. Carly brushed his teeth. I told him to think about what he’d dream about while I went to get his water. When I came back he said “roses on a bed and a toothbrush on the flowers.” I left them at 7:55.
Sometime during the day Carly gave him a list of subjects (art, science, reading, music, etc.) and asked which was his favorite. He said “Science!”
Grating cheese:
At the beach with Carly. He thought I’d like this door:
Back home:
Flexible:
Bassoon:
Reading with me:
