Thanks to the time change, he was up at 5:50. He didn’t want to go outside with Carly as it was too cold for him. When I came down a few minutes later he was watching Wanda and the Alien. I sat next to him and typed. He requested his vitamins, then a piece of toast with peanut butter and syrup. He decided it was warm enough to go out with Carly and put on his sweatshirt and shoes and went out with her. She made him chocolate milk. He asked for my watch and was exercising—he showed me an exercise where he was bouncing on the teeter totter. He had me untie the 2kg weight from his project yesterday so he could exercise with it. He then wanted to weigh it on the kitchen scale. He was playing with that and having fun, then got upset when we couldn’t zero out the scale to exactly measure the yeast mixture. Carly took him upstairs for a few minutes.
August wanted to play with the guitar and we ended up playing with it for a really long time. He found some amp and petal setups that he really liked in GarageBand—ones with lots of echo and phasing—and played. He used VoiceMemos to record some of his improv. At one point he wanted me to play the xylophone, but then decided it didn’t go with the guitar. He asked what an amplifier actually was, and ‘amplify’ was the word of the day. Eventually, I went to take a shower and he kept playing with it. He discovered that his synth app would, oddly, start playing when he switched into one other app, but not others, and he called me out to see it.
Back downstairs, I made scrambled eggs and cheese and we ate outside. He was then making a concoction for the plants with Carly. I then made the zucchini bread and he helped with that. He would play iPad, then help when I had something to do. At one point he went and told Carly “Mama, I was thinking about you.” He asked for some honey in a spoon “because you love me.” He played with Toca Band on his iPad and there is one arrangement of musicians on it that he really likes and he recorded it with Voice Memos. He then used my phone to make a long time lapse. He carried it around and then had it hanging from the couch. Eventually, he had it propped up over on the rug somehow and he was playing around on the floor in front of it.
We left at 12:30 and walked over to the mall. I pushed my bike and stopped at the bike shop where they put on new tires and a new back tube and also an iPhone mount for the handlebars—I never use my phone while biking, but I’m always worried it will fall out of my pocket.
While I did that, Carly and August went to Rebar and got one of the chocolate banana smoothies. Carly called and asked what size and I said medium. When I showed up they had gotten a large. August had been worried bout us drinking too much of it. Carly taught him ‘gatorading’. He said, “Gatorading! Word of the day!” As we were finishing it, he justified the large by telling me “I thought I knew that you’d drink lots.” But I was only drinking “lots” because there was a lot left and we wanted to get going.
Carly had gone on ahead to do the shopping: more tape rolls for him and some groceries. August wanted to go to the playground so I did that with him. He climbed on the plane, then was playing imaging games when Carly showed up. She noticed these interesting flowers from the trees with seeds in them and we collected some to try to plant back at home. I left before 1:30 to head home and start baking the bread. August said, “Great. Cuz I don’t really like to do baking.” they found a couple other kinds of seeds after I left, and he found a piece of rope that he tied to his bike on the way back.
I baked the bread and cleaned up the kitchen. They were home at 2:30 and August watched the end of the Mexican Grand Prix qualifying. He wanted to make slime and realized “Time, slime rhyme!” He then chanted “I love time rhyme slime!” I got ready to go pick my parents up at the airport. August was saying bye to me as I left, using his megaphone thing to call out the window: “Good use for my megaphone…bye!” I left at 3:35. Traffic got worse and worse as I went, so I switched routes to take 6, the toll road. Got there in plenty of time. There flight landed at 4:24 and I was there 12 minutes later. They came out about 5:30.
Got to the car and eventually found the exit to the parking garage. We were home before 7. I heard him calling “Gramma!” out the window. He then needed to run and go to the bathroom. He was so excited when he greeted them at the door. A very happy boy.
He took them upstairs and gave them the tour, showing them where everyone sleeps. He said, “Please get used to my tape thing…I tape things…” and went on to explain how he likes to put tape on everything and trick you by taping things down. Downstairs he showed them the slime that he and Carly had made. The special ingredient today was cinnamon. While I was gone they had done that, Carly had made a full dinner, and they had made popcorn. That made August went to watch a nature show about polar bears (of course). She couldn’t find the one they usually watch, but found a different one that they watched together.
Grampa give him a couple of googly eyes he had found on the ship. Each day the towels were folded as different animals and used googly eyes. At first August said he could take them to school to add to the eyes collection there. But then he decided to add them to the piece of art that is hanging on the fridge. Carly got it down and he glued them on. He talked about how many treasures he has “All because of my special eyes!”
We had the chicken and rice and veggies for dinner. August and I then sat on the couch and finished reading Hilda and the Black Hound. August’s hair had been wet when we got home and he’d been talking about how he had washed it. So I had thought he had had a bath. Instead, he had just wanted to style his hair and had gotten it wet.
Carly got his bath ready and I took him up. But when he got in he said that the spider bite still hurt. I agreed to wash him outside the bath, but negotiations broke down over the details and he had a complete meltdown. Carly took him into the bedroom. When he calmed down she had him say goodnight to my parents. She then took a shower and I put him to sleep. He was sad that I wouldn’t tell a story, but he asked for a song. I sang the Alligator song and we made up verses about hippos and dragons. Then I sang the Sleepy Little Nautilus song, then Animal Life. He was asleep at 8:55.
Seesaw exercise:
Guitar improv:
Reading by himself:
Crazy time lapse:
Greeting Gramma and Grampa:
