When I went to bed last night he was sleeping sideways where my pillow should go. I squeezed in and kept trying to turn him around, but he would turn back. Carly woke up and saw how he was sleeping and grabbed him and straightened him out between us. Then, at some point in the night I heard him loudly say something in his sleep about carbon dioxide.
He was up at 6:45. I went up and he had me carry him down, then he lay on me for a few minutes before moving to the couch on his own. Lay there for a few minutes and agreed to oatmeal. Made sure I was bringing him a vitamin too. As I was making oatmeal he told me that he was now Blanka. He said it was going to confuse the teachers when there were two Blankas. He sat at the table and ate his oatmeal.
He watched Llama Llama while at the table. At the end he told me “I heard ‘hate’ in this episode” (Llama had had a tantrum in the store and said he hated shopping.) “You get a consequence for letting me watch it.” I started to say “But it was actually teaching you…” And he interjected with “No buts!” (Which is what Llama’s mom says to him when he doesn’t want to clean up his mess.)
He was humming and singing “Always” by Erasure as we got ready. He said he wanted to drive to school today. After he spilled the cards and we picked them up, we listened to the song, and then he was okay with walking. Left right at 8:40.
As we walked in, Nicholas, Blanka, Selma, and Omri all said hi or called to him. I told August he should work on actually answering. He wasn’t sure what to do (and rejected playing with the gear things, which weren’t being used), so we looked at the schedule first. It said they had music today. He asked where I would be and I said the library, but then he asked if I’d be there all day and not go to mama’s classroom. I said, well I might go to the store. Wrong thing to say as he got upset and ran out. We sat on the bench and ate some nut treats and talked. When he was feeling better we went back in. Something was happening up in the treehouse area and I pointed it out. He said “I can get a better look”. He was off and I said bye and headed out.
I walked straight home today, then after lunch walked over to the mall. Got different omega-3 vitamins for August, got a hair cut, went to Delta and got him more underwear, then went to Tiv Taam and got a few things.
When I picked him up just before 2:50 he was crying again. They said it had been hard for him since 2:30. I saw some big drawing things hanging from the ceiling and asked if he had done part of that. He said “I was doing funner stuff than just writing.” Then listed “Bikes, buckets, pogo sticks, making water bottles, explosions to make water, making a treat dispenser…” I got that he’d been over on the Dion playground. Anna said he’d been doing challenges on the big playground with Selma, Blanka, and Derin. She’d say things like “Sit on every blue chair on the playground.” He told me they hadn’t had music time. It turns out they had had carrot cake with frosting for Ms. Vicky’s birthday.
For rest time he told me “I snuck to PKA and played with all the toys and maked a mess, then to PKC…kindergarten…high school…” “This one will be true…I snuck up on the roof. I used my rockets to break the roof. Then…” He then said he had been on Blanka’s bed before saying he’d been on everyone’s bed. He repeated the Blanka part later in the day, so it seemed the most true. He said he played with Selma most today, and that at the Dion playground he had gotten to ride a tricycle that he said was really easy for him to pedal and steer.
He was feeling better but still rejected the pool. He was still concerned about his scraped knees, although I told him they were pretty well healed. He noted I had gone to the store when he told me not too. I told him I had run home to get the swim stuff and then also gone to the store. He wasn’t upset, as I’d gotten a yummy protein bar thing, then on the way home we had some string cheese and he was happy about that as well.
We stopped at the drinking fountain on the way out just after 3. A woman who I don’t really know, but might be the other PKA teacher or an assistant, stopped to tell me how beautiful August is and that he should be in magazines. August then noticed that the big big small patter on his bracelet didn’t go all the way around – I’d had to alter it to make it fit his wrist. He was a little upset. He also saw Grace again, and this time noticed her shirt, and asked why everyone wore shirts with letters on them. Yesterday he had seen grace and admired her big goofy green plastic sunglass things.
We started walking home. He spotted a plant and jumped off and picked a small green tomato off of a random tomato plant near the big roundabout. We paused along the way and had string cheese, which he was very excited about. There was a house alarm going off on the way and he was curious about that until it stopped. And he noticed a tilted light cover on a streetlight.
We were home at 3:40. He shook his head like he likes to do in the mirror and said “My body just does it.” We then started making banana carrot bread. Carly got home as we started and he ran to her and asked her “What did you teach your students?” He and I made the banana carrot bread and got it in the oven. He then talked about Ms. Michelle – who he said was a teacher in PKA. He went outside with Carly and they had school time. I spied on them discussing what a democracy is. He played with the hose and came in with wet hands at 6:25. I had done the dishes.
When the bread was ready and cooled a bit we tried some. He then had noodles and stirfry. We read My Preschool then went up to his bath. He said “I don’t like to play with Junyeok. Why’s he always mad?” “One time at preschool we got into a fight scratching, laser beaming, polo sticking…” That wording was inspired by one of the Treehouse books.
After his bath we used the blow dryer on his hands. Went downstairs and read 3 chapters of Maguc Tree House #15: Hour of the Olympics. In the book they use the word ‘tunic’ and August thought I meant ‘too-sic’, which is the word that Dion, the play ball teacher, uses for ‘bottom’.
Carly was messaging with Megan in India, who recently found out she’ll be having a boy. So August was suggesting names, like “Concrete building son” and “Baby bBoy August Junior”. There were a lot more. I told him about his dream last night where he talked about carbon dioxide. He was then being a plant and wanting me to breathe on him: “More carbon dioxide. Ahh, that’s better. Now I can do my growing.”
Carly took him up and got him ready for bed. I left them at 9 and he was soon asleep.