7:10. Seemed startled when he saw me as he came down the stairs. But not upset. I got to hold him for a few minutes. I had set the iPad on the table and he got it. The only words he said were the words to the Wild Kratts song as he sang it.
The imagination was at work:
“Let’s go in the time machine…it’s in the garbage can I used to cook my eggs…in my not-real house…it’s not really made for two people.” Not really sure where all that came from.
“My miniaturizer is magical. My heart gets smaller, my blood vessels get smaller, the things the blood goes through gets smaller, all the things in my body get smaller. Yeah, so it’s magical.” “Dada, why can we see veins through our skin. It IS my eye sensory power…” The miniturizer is from Wild Kratts, but the discussion of how things get smaller is his own.
He watched two episodes as I got things going in the morning. We went upstairs and he was first going to play something while I took a shower. I made peanut butter crackers, but then he came into the bathroom and was incredulous I didn’t bring up Cheerios too. I got those for him, then he watched a Sarah and Duck while I took a shower. Skipped a bath for him.
We were outside at 9 but stopped as he played with Carly’s shoes for several minutes. He made what he called the “Shoe detective”, which senses dangerous animals like rattlesnakes, although he then changed the name to the “anti-venom”. We were driving at 9:10.
We listened to music both directions. He primarily requested Chemical Brothers. Listened to some on random, but he specifically asked for the “Go” remixes that he likes a couple times.
We parked and took the small stroller the couple blocks to the museum. We walked downhill two blocks and one required him getting out and walking down stairs.
We got to the museum where they were continuing work out front. The walkway was gone and we sort of had to walk around the side and watched a digger working for a minute. Got arm bands (which he flat out refuses to consider wearing) and were playing in the toddler area at 10:30. He started in the water area for a few minutes, then we went to the blue blocks. We first made a monster, then knocked it down. He made a second monster, then said “Not enough abstract though.” He was really into things being abstract today. We then made a town. I brought him blocks and he said “Did you notice you’re doing teamwork?” When smaller kids came and took his pieces or knocked down his town he did a great job of not being bothered by it or joining in.
He mentioned going to the science part a couple times but kept getting distracted. We walked through the mirror and tall grass part, then he got inside the 3D shapes. Went to the bathroom, then up to the science area.
As we went up he said “There’s so much interesting parts I don’t know where to go.” We went through the energy area, discussing the different types. Spent the most time at the geothermal exhibit, which also includes a part about brownouts/blackouts. He’d bring that back up later.
We went outside and had a little snack (sandwich and apple). He then pulled the ship up and dropped it back down the ramp. We played with the Archimedes screw and saw a couple guys fixing the mirrored shields burning the ship display, which is apparently supposed to make smoke, and discussed that.
Wen’t back in and went to the sound room. We spent a lot of time watching the binary counting machine, which was broken last time. Went up to the puzzle area, then downstairs to the da Vinci room. He quite likes that one Anders kept asking what the machines were for. Then upstairs to the magic room, where I perfected my technique for pulling out the tablecloth. August played with the hovering ball exhibit for several minutes.
We went to the next room and did the smelling stuff, then played with the different-shaped bubbles and the big sheet bubble thing, which we’d never done. Lot of fun with that one, as he could make the bubbles and pop them and blow on them.
Spent a little ice in the teeth room, and saw a couple babies in there, then wanted to be a baby over in the microscope and telescope room. I wasn’t having much of that, and he asked why I don’t find it as funny as mama does. Thankfully, after that we went to the optical illusions room. There was a boy who was about 11 there with a guy and we followed them into the dark room. The other boy knew his stuff and was explaining everything to the man. August picked up on that, and really started to explain each exhibit to me. At one point he said “Did you notice I’m teaching you about it?” We did the shadows thing a couple times, then got going.
On our way out we stopped by the energy room again and ended up at the stationary bikes that run the train set. He is tall enough to sit on the bikes and sort of just start to peddle and make the train move slowly. Did that for 10 or 15 minutes.
We got the stroller and walked to Cafe HaPanina. He was counting cats along the way. He spotted the first two, then I spotted two. He didn’t like that and said he got to spot the next two. He was also pointing out abstract things as we went, mainly paintings, but also fences and tiles.
Got there about 2. There was a cat sleeping on a chair nearby the whole time. They had music on like Tambourine man, Simon and Garfunkel, Wild World, Starry Starry Night. We ordered the zucchini pancakes again. August had a mango, peach, and yogurt smoothie and I had a Turkish coffee. We got his iPad out and did a little art (abstract, of course), but mainly he talked and wanted to sing. Didn’t want to read either. It was fine, but he had a tendency to get loud. So not exactly an ideal coffee shop visit. I.e. I didn’t get any reading done.
August got a bit sleepy and pretended to be a cat sleeping with his head on the table. We petted the other cat, sleeping on a pile of papers by the front door, on our way out and left a little before 3.
Pointed out more abstract stuff on our way to the car. I had found a old battered painting of a man with a face made out of birds on the way there and sent a photo of it to Carly. Should have bought it to hang out on our porch. Forgot about it on the walk back.
We drove about 15 minutes to a park to the northwest. Parked and walked to it, only to find the play areas roped off. August found a broken bench, then we walked over to the exercise equipment and played on it. August really gets going on the one that swings side to side and we discussed how he can actually go farther than me because he’s short and thus his hips don’t hit the side.
We went to the bathroom, then on the way back he found a green rope climbing thing and wanted to climb on it. He hung from it and said he was a sloth. In the meantime he noticed that the tape was down from around the play structure. So we went and played on it. 10 or 15 minutes.
We left about 4:15. Listened to music the whole way home. He requested Chemical Brothers and the Elements song. We were home by 5:20.
He and Carly played with the magnets and stuff. He said to her “Mama, there’s real science to do!” He played the Robot Factory app for a bit. When he ran off to the bathroom he told me to design a robot. When he came back he said “You didn’t do the work I told you to do!”
Had some spaghetti for dinner, then did more playing with Carly. The did some sentences and math on the white board and Duplos. They made a really tall tower that he knocked down by blowing on it. I traded with her and we made a helicopter shaped thing, which he said was a wind turbine.
He ate the last piece of birthday cake. He was asking about da Vinci and said that da Vinci invented him as well. We went to the couch and read Madeline and the Bad Hat and part of Hilo 3. I took him up and got him ready for bed. Carly came in and he was asleep about 9.
Abstract:
