I watched Wimbledon and then the World Cup. I stayed in the room so Glecy could sleep until Carly got up. Glecy was already getting up when we came out. August was up at 8:15, and we had some of the jack fruit and coconut dessert that Glecy made. August played Gro Recycling and GroForest with Thatcher. And Glecy did Vivian’s hair. August walked over to Cherie at one point and asked her for a hug. I took a shower. When I came out, all the kids got honey treats from Glecy.
Derek and Andrea and the older kids had left for a walk. We got ready to go and were ready about 10:30. August had started working on a Lego helicopter set with Jeff and was having a lot of fun, so we waited until it was close to finished. August then agreed to leave. As we picked up the last of the stuff, he said “What about my little backamapack?…that was in the closet?” And ran in to check for it. Cherie picked him up outside, and asked if he’d be nice to Vivian and Thatcher at their houses. He took some time, then said “No”.
We left right at 11. I gave him the peach-flavored Pororo drink that Glecy had given to me for him. He rememebered Pororo, then a minute later said, “I remember Korea!” We tried Piano Maestro, which he’s been requesting i play for a couple days, but you need internet to make the background music work. We realized there was a toll on the Tacoma Narrows going eastbound, so we took the route through Olympia.
He played the TinyBop Nature app. We stopped at a Shell station for gas. I took him in to find the bathroom and he suddenly threw up as I held him. All over the floor and my feet. I took him out and Carly went in to try to clean up, but the woman was already mopping. Waited for the bathroom fro a few minutes as there was only one. A woman was also waiting, and asked if my wife wanted to by any jewelry. Gave up after five minutes and drove across the street to Albertsons. Used and cleaned up in their bathrooms, then we got salsa and wine for the party.
We talked about snacks in the car, and he said of Cheerios “Well that’s for when I count to a million.” He had some apple and the rest of those rabbit cookie things (which had been the quiet cookies). He said “Cookies is always eaten in a line.” I didn’t know what that meant, but Carly said it was from that tablet game he plays with Cherie. He was then singing the Twilight Sad song from his playlist for the first time “We danced to save them all, we tried to save them all…”
We arrived at 2:40. Before my parents. Dee showed him the gel candle he had liked last summer. He got some on his fingers and it was hard to wash off. He said “Let’s watch some baseball.” He went around playfully hitting Darrin, Grant, and Cailen with drink coasters. Dee or Mom asked him how long he will grow his hair. He responded, “Years and months.” Dee dropped some popcorn, and he was a vacuum cleaning it up.
My parents were there at 3:10. August told them, “Come watch baseball.” When he was lying on the floor and someone joked about stepping on him he said, “I’m not a rug, I’m a person.” Darrin and Grant went to get pizza, which was 50% off since Darrin works at Boeing. August played chess with Carly and dad and then Paul. Mom and Dad had brought a box of toys for him. He kissed Carly on the arm and said “I was giving you a slobbery kiss.” He wanted to teach Dee chess, and he played with the fan with Cailen, describing all the speeds to her. Also, he doesn’t like fans to oscillate, so always stopped it from doing that.
He played with the puzzle piece building blocks with Carly and she said it was a good stress relief activity. He replied, “But then you get more stressed when it falls apart…”
Pizza arrived and we dished up and went and ate out in the yard. He was using his potty words and I told him to stop, and he said, “Okay, but that rhymed.” As we sat outside eating, a leaf fell on grant and he said “that stupid leaf”. August said, “Uh-oh, someone said stupid.” And thought Grant should have a timeout. Everyone thought that was pretty funny.
He played some Gro Recycling, then Dee brought out the anniversary cake for my parents’ 50th. He was really excited by that. He had some cake, then shared some with Carly, then was touching the frosting. Eventually he was entranced, using the extr frosting to coat his hands. He called it his “creation”, then when I asked him what it was on video he said, “art…frosting art.”
Carly got the squirt guns and they watered the bushes. August made sure to spray towards the roots of the bushes. When I was in the house once he just came walking past me and continued on to the bathroom without saying anything to me. I did go with him, and he liked the decorations in the bathroom. We were looking at the stars and hearts. He said, “You know when stars line up in a picture? I think the horse is a constellation.”
Dee brought the cake in, and a minute later my dad caught him walking in and finding it and getting some more frosting: “I spotted it!” He did some Legos on the floor with Carly, then Cailen and Darrin left. We left at 7. He said, “Bye bye everyone. Bye uncle Paul.” And gave high fives. We did family photos and Carly said she’d pick him up. He said, “That makes me cuter. The higher I am, the cuter I am.”
While we were driving he sang more of his “Open the mailbox, open the mailbox, throw the ball” song. He was getting sleepy and watched some Sarah and Duck. We stopped at QFC to get some food for the next couple days and for my book group meeting (popcorn for the za’ater, hard cider from Chelan).
We got to the house and he first went in Thatcher’s room. In the playroom we played with the cash register and worked on counting change. He had the stuffed rattlesnake and asked “What happens if you tease a rattlesnake?”
Downstairs he had some Cheerios and milk. I then got him ready for bed. We looked at the hand-me-down Thatcher clothes a bit and decided they should do all of it tomorrow. We put the sheets on the bed (we were staying in the guest room/office this time, not Kayla’s room), then I sang him 4 songs. He wanted Carly for going to sleep. On the way down he was talking to all the photos hanging in the stairwell, saying, “Hey Kayla. Hey Aunt Andrea, hey Thatcher on a truck…”
They went back up at 10:20 and he was soon asleep.
Hauling the floaty:
