What a night. Carly went to bed okay, but got sick like I had been.
It was a rough morning getting out of the house with so little sleep. And August was not understanding at first when he couldn’t nurse and be with mama. But it was clearly the best thing to get him out of the house so she could rest. We left at 8. He was asking me questions about how hair gel works and mohawks. From Carly’s middle school books. He was a Google Earth machine and more “what colors…what things feel like…what materials they are made out of…” On our walk he had system that could count how many garbage cans there were in the world, etc. Basically, it was a super Google, able to answer any question I could think of. And we talked about particles.
We forgot to put his bike at the rack and parked it behind the preschool building instead. We got there at 8:30. He did a series of watercolor paintings, more sure of his technique now: “Yeah! It’s so ABSTRACT colors!” One of the kids brought over a bird book and we read it a couple times. He was really not into morning meeting today, and basically sat on my lap the whole time: “I can’t do it!” “Can we not do preschool today?”
They went out for snack. He mainly ate just bread, but I was able to get him to eat a tiny bit of carrot. On the playground there was a lot of chasing going on and he didn’t like it. So he sat with me. Near the end he wanted to go over to the kitchen area and sweep like he saw someone else doing, but then he was sad because he thought they were almost done and there wouldn’t be anything for him to sweep.
Went up to the movement class. Another mysterious transition and new class for him. Think he’ll get much more comfortable when he knows the classes and teachers and schedule. But got him in the circle after a bit, and with Mariam’s help. He was intrigued by the big bag that the teacher had. They did some creative visualizing, and he said when they share he said “I see magical flowers that don’t need air or water or nutrients!” She then brought out the monster puppet, Leonard. A big blue puppet. August really liked it and liked shaking its hand, but didn’t want a hug, opting for a high-five. When the teacher asked where he was from he said “South America!” Don’t know if he was just being creative (he does like South America) or if he was combining South Korea with America.
After that they went down to the regular playground. But they quickly shifted PKB to the smaller play area at the other end of the building. They opened the storage sheds and got out all sorts of toys. August was excited about that. There were those hippity hop things, cup stilts, and best of all the tubes and balls that attach to the magnet board on the wall. He tried the other things, but mainly played with those. Jiyeok ended up playing with him and they played together really well, changing the paths, and handing balls to each other. This after August first accused him of not sharing. Very fun to see.
They went inside and read a Kevin Henkes book called Birds. Then out to lunch. He didn’t eat much of his sandwich. Convinced him to eat a good number of grapes with the reverse psychology thing. He was telling me “Just chewing air!” During rest time I read Corduroy Goed to School. A discussion came up of good things to eat, as August ate his dry Cheerios. He argued “nope. Eating Cheerioes is the best in the Earth ever.” We read some New Kid on the Block, the Jack Perlutsky poetry collection I brought to school for Poem in Your Pocket Day on Friday. Took August in to the bathroom and he had some difficulty with the soap machine: “What’s wrong with that soap machine? Do your job!” for video story time they watched Carla’s Sandwich again and I Need My Monster.
Then kind of a crazy time before Candy’s birthday party. They did the meeting part of the birthday celebration. August wasn’t too into it and moved his photo to the ‘gone’ column to be home with mama. But they danced to the “I Can Dance” song, which we had heard at Selma’s party and I just bought a few days ago, and he got into that. And of course he was into the snacks. Namely the two kinds of cookies and then the cake. He was still going and managed a bite of my cake as well.
We then went out on the playground. I was pushing Blanka and a couple of other kids on the swing. She is quiet, but when I mentioned something being awesome she smiled and said “Awesome.” Derin was also on the swing and telling me a constant, unending story about a rocket, while meanwhile August, on the ground, was trying to get my attention by talking about seeing. Derin interrupted his own story to say “Hes talking a lot.” The funniest moment of the day.
After school we went up to coding class. They did some coloring, which seemed rather pointless, then played on iPads. The class doesn’t seem too necessary now, but we’ll keep it up until the end of the year. After class he was out looking at the block area and accidentally knocked over a tower. he got sad/scared he was in trouble and said “It’s okay.”
We talked about Carly being sick and how we wanted to give her rest time. He suggested we go to the big playground. Went there and played for 20 or 30 minutes. I was tired, and he said “I’m lucky I’m not tired.” And “Why are you yawning?” For several weeks now whenever he makes up a large number it always ends with 888. He was running a store and said “Shopkeeper…on the dirty floor. It hasn’t been cleaned for a year. I keep calling and calling but nobody comes.” I bought ice cream from his shop (on the slide0 and he said “I remember the time we had ice cream with Gramma and grampa…in a cone…Gramma let me have some of hers.” That was in Chelan. And we talked about what ‘available’ and ‘unavailable’ mean.
We got walking at 4:40. He claimed “I’m the unstoppable litter boy.” And “I can make so much wind with my turbine I can knock over the universe.” He was then humming the “I Can Dance” song. He wanted to stop at our playground to give her more time to rest. But I wanted to check on her so we kept going and were home after 5. Checked on her and made a short grocery list: Gatorade, Sprite, tissues, water bottles. He convinced me to go to the playground before the store. “How do I have so much energy? I could walk to the mall!”
We needed to go to the big Tiv Taam though, so after playing at the playground for a bit we were driving at 5:25. “Love You to the Sky” came on and he got excited: “Thats what it’s from!” It’s his two-times mystery song. He also talked about electricity after talking about the water cycle: “I have an electricity cycle in me. I keep using it over and over.”
We got to Tiv Taam and parked. He did a great job crossing the parking lot. He wanted to play at the playground, so we did for a bit. Playground #3 on the afternoon. A little kid kept giving him chips. He then played the prize game on the rocking thing. I was coming up with prizes, but ran out of ideas. He said “200 penises?” I asked why, and he said “Just if one pops off.”
We did our shopping and he did a great job helping. Got everything on our list and a few other things. Lots of traffic on the way home. We talked about our plans for home. We were home at 6:50. When he went to see Carly he asked “What color is your throw up?” We went downstairs and he started talking about Nicholas:”Why’s he sneak around a lot?” I had promised August a popsicle since we ran out of time to go get pizza. We discussed why Nicholas had problems sometimes and discussed introverts and extroverts. August says he is an extrovert. August then switched to archeology: “Does the ground ever run out of things for people to discover?” For healthier fare he started with a spoonful of peanut butter. But then he almost gagged on it. He was done with eating. So a popsicle was basically his dinner. He didn’t mind talking about it thoug
h: “Can you make peanut butter for me by chewing peanuts?”
Carly told me how she had talked to him about ‘nausea’ and ‘chills’ – two new words for him that probably could have used when he was sick but couldn’t communicate how he feels. I gave him a bath and he played with the “soap machine” (the old soap bottle with a little soap in it to make bubbles).
I tried to get him honey milk but he was upset about Carly being sick. She said she was feeling a bit better and tried to put him to sleep. Before she came in though he was worried: “What will I do if you and mama are both sick?” She came in and I left them at 8:20. She told him “I missed you.” He replied “Does that mean it is good that I’m here?”
He didn’t fall asleep though and I was up at 8:35. He was hungry (no surprise) and ate some Cheerios and apple. I sang him two songs (Imaginary Bars and Idaho) and he was asleep on the big bed just after 9.