He was up with us, about 6:50. Carly was already in the bathroom, and he wordlessly went out and sat on the floor. After a minute he scooted right to the door. Then he lay down and stretched out on the floor. He was sitting back up right in front of the door when Carly finally opened it and he loudly said “Watch out for me!” She accused me of putting him up to that, but I had no idea.
She took him into the bedroom for awhile. When they came back out he was cold so we put on his sweatshirt. He was still cold, so Carly got him his sweatpants. He wore them as a shawl as he sat and played with Legos on his own for about ten minutes. He got up and went to Carly and they decided to read. She gave him a challenge to go get the iPad. He brought it back and they read some Captain Underpants. She told him about the strategy of re-reading a little to remind you what is happening, then was reviewing alliteration with him. They finished that one (#3, I think), then they restarted #1. August said “I love your poop talk. I was being sarcastic.” That was part of us teaching him what sarcasm is yesterday.
He had some toast and oatmeal for breakfast, then did some more reading with Carly. He was doing some annoying chanting with her though, so I got him outside with me at 8:35. As we walked out he saw the fire pit and told me “At nighttime I was dreaming about checking if the fire is dead.” Perhaps the first time he’s clearly reported a dream to me. We went over to the sand toys and he played with them and wanted me to do the teasing game. We did a few rounds of that, and we walked around and out on the dock. On the way back he refused my hand and wanted to walk across it on his own. Back at the toys he ws selling me sand soup.
I was cold, and convinced him to go back in, a little after 9. He was worried about packing stuff – we brought his sand toys over by the door, and he wanted to make sure we got his flashlight, Smokey, and his shoes.
My parents were going for a walk, so he and I went with them. We walked to the south end of the property, close to the border. At the tree farm he kept pointing out good Christmas trees, and found a funny Y-shaped one (the top had been cut off) that we thought Carly would like. He dropped rocks down the mice/gopher holes, and walked with my mom while dad and I walked a bit ahead. He was a little concerned when he realized we were farther ahead and ran to catch up and had me carry him a bit. But he walked probably 80% of the entire walk.
We got back at 10:15. Carly was outside, reading. I went in and took a shower. As we packed up and got ready to go my mom was the last to go to the bathroom. He was ready to get on the road to the fossil hunting. He told her “Yeah but could you go to the bathroom?”
We got driving right at 11. August was looking sleepy right way and fell asleep from 11:15 to 12:40. He stirred a bit at the border but kept sleeping.
He was waking up as we parked in republic. We walked around and went to the Knotty Pine Restaurant and Lounge. When it was our turn to order, August ordered the tuna melt for us. We got the baked potato soup as our side, and Carly got a wrap, with curly fries to share with us.
Mom said that he was speculating about the border fence on the property and whether it was electric, but he concluded a tree leaned on it and wasnt electrocuted. I asked “When did you learn about electric fences?” He said “When we went beet picking. Fences around the animals!” It took me quite awhile to remember that where we had parked last time we had gone beet picking was next to a place with a fence with a warning sign that it was electric.
He played the chess game while he waited. He’s become a bit better with trying things in the battles and not worrying about it. He had some of everything when the food came. Near the end he wanted more ketchup and grabbed the ketchup container and squeezed some out on his own. I was just commenting on the progress he’s made when, as he set it down, he hit the spoon in the soup and it went flying, getting some soup mainly on my shirt: “Like a meteor. Or asteroid!”
We headed out of there at 1:45 and went and registered for the fossil hunt. Changed our shoes at the car and walked up to the site. Spent a good 90 minutes up there. Dad had brought all sorts of hammers and chisels. He started with showing August how it was done, then August explored, working with each of us at some point. It was a ton of fun and he had a lot of questions. Although at the end he was a little disappointed that he’d only found worm tracks and minerals.
We walked back to the office at 3:40. The two guys there were really nice and explained the rocks we’d found to August, and let him put a few of them under the microscope to look at. We looked around the museum a bit (he liked the diorama showing the mine locations) and used the bathroom, and left at 4.
It was a nice drive back. We listened to Ball of Wax 49 along the way Nd liked a few songs on that. August did some playing, then stared out the windows. He was looking tired again, so we thought about getting an iPad out of the trunk so he could watch something. But he just kept looking out the window for quite a bit longer. Finally, he was sleepy and also impatient for the iPad, so we turned off after Okanogan and got out the iPad. He watched new Sarah and Duck videos the rest of the way and made it home away, at 6:35.
He was a bit cranky at first, I think because of the changes. He had some corn, then was out watering the grass. I gave him a bath and we played with the toys quite awhile. I washed his hair, which went pretty well, and he played a bit more of the teasing game. Carly dried his hair, then he came up with a bag of Cheerios and Carly went to take a shower. He started a big guessing game, clearly inspired by a snippet of The Price is Right which he’d seen a few days ago: we had three guesses to guess a number, and if we got it correct we got to eat the Cheerio. If not, he ate it. This went on and on, with us all taking turns guessing, and taking turns having him do it. We did numbers and letters and countries he’s been to, etc.
I was really tired and took him down to Carly just after 9. She brushed his teeth and took him to the bathroom and he was asleep about 9:30.
