When I went in to bed last night, August had the covers over him. I think Carly had put them on him. I shared the bed with him, and he used the covers all night, which I’ve never seen him do before. And he was stealing them from me, as he was rolling away, towards the other bed, and had the covers wrapped around him.
He called down for Carly about 7:10. She went up, then came back a minute later, carrying him. He was with her on the couch for a few minutes, then she went up to do laundry and he just lay on the couch for a few more minutes. He then got the plastic piece that held the feta in the container. He was playing with it yesterday. He used it as a mask, then asked, “Remember how I’m a robot Rules enforcer? On the fun scale you have to have 902 fun.” I said that sounded like a lot of fun, and he sounded more like a fun enforcer. “Yeah, I’m a fun enforcer.”
He asked for his iPad and watched the coral reef episode of Wild Kratts. I made pancakes for breakfast and he left his last bite. Carly then started an experiment. She heated water for him in a pot, then he put things in it to see if they would dissolve. The two big experiments were the last piece of pancake and a couple of green Skittles. He got to eat a couple of other Skittles. He decided he doesn’t like red Skittles either, but says he likes the lemon ones because he likes the lemony-ness. He wanted a hair to add, and he put a piece of tape on his hair: “It worked! I gotted a hair by putting tape on my head! It hurted a little bit though.” Carly headed to the grocery store.
He asked me what ‘specific’ meant. I’m not sure where he picked it up. We talked about ‘specific’ versus ‘general’ and made them words of the day. He then got one of the toy pans and started taping it to the coffee table. Adding things to this structure would be a major project of the day. We did a fair amount of iPad art, then he switched to the Toc and Roll music app.
Carly got home. August chose ‘culturally’ as a word of the day from the back of a book Mom had. He ate a slice and a half of pizza for lunch and said “VIPizza is the best pizza ever!” Carly and I were discussing where she should get lunch for a school thing. August had been talking about his pizza, and got confused: “Wait, am I supposed to talk in this conversation?” We explained what we were talking about, and he suggested the sushi/noodle place.
He spent some time pretending to be a baby with Carly, then he did some vacuuming. That ended when he wanted the small nozzle for it and I couldn’t find it. While I looked he got distracted by something else. Carly and I finished. Mom took him up, on the bike, to do recycling together. That was their first trip together, alone. It went quite well. Dad and I sat and talked about the Palestinian situation. August came back with a big round stick, like a shovel handle. He went outside with Dad to play with it.
They were taking about making machines involving flip flops and all sorts of other things
Back inside he was eager for Eve to get here. He was holding me up with his feet, then knocking me over. I turned out the new Mumford and Sons album and I ended up picking him up and he cuddled against me for a few minutes. Carly reminded him that she used to dance with him like that to a different Mumford and Sons song. He started adding more to the tape/piano key/tissue box/kitchen pan/cardboard sculpture at the end of the coffee table.
Eve and her mom, Heather, got here at 1:30. They excitedly started playing together at the toy kitchen, then ran upstairs for a minute. They came back down and started playing doctor. They started checking Heather’s symptoms. August said, “Dr. Eve, is there any other symptoms?” They started getting crazy taking out Heather’s bones, etc. We blew up some balloons for them, and they took them outside and played in the Zinnie house. August was either delivering things to the house, or it was a store. They were going in and out of the house, saying “Bonjour!” to each other, which they learned from Marion. They went on the seesaw a few times, and Carly would put her foot on the base. One time, Eve wanted her to come and do it and was calling, “August’s mom! August’s mom!” August told her, “It’s Ms. Althauser.”
Carly and Heather took the two kids to the playground. They weren’t there for a long time, and came back carrying a bunch of big leaves they had collected. August made a tableaux on the chair with the leaves and the Zinnie kitchen plates, and then a couple of straws taped to the arms. I was a patient for awhile, but luckily they weren’t removing my bones. August was taping a lot of stuff.
Eve didn’t want to leave, but they had things to do, so Heather eventually was able to drag her away. They’ll definitely be getting together to play again. I got August to plant the flower seeds with me in the pink pot, which I then placed outside the office window upstairs. August really wanted all the seeds to be piled together in the middle. I tried to get them spread out, but don’t know how successful I was.
August found the Bloom app on my iPad and made music with it. He found the sleep timer setting, and we listened to it for an hour. Carly headed to school to print something, then to Younes to pick up some Arab food for dinner. August and I listened to Bloom and told some forest stories. He then ate a bowl of broccoli and rice, no shrimp. We watched the latest Wintergatan Marble Machine X update video, then Carly got home. August had wanted Beethoven’s First, so we then watched that, as Carly went up to FaceTime with Chuck and Cherie. August went up eventually and told them about school. They came down and we ate dinner. He mainly ate the lafa bread and fries, but also a few bites of the lamb. He had two french fries, one long and one short, and said, “Look. Toddler, grown up.”
He and Carly then blew up a balloon and put chocolate chips in it. Mom and Dad gave us their leftover Euros, and gave August 5 specifically for him so he could buy something of his choice in Greece. A bit later August said, “I found out the word of the day: midair.” When I asked where that was from he said, “From 2009th…from when I was born.” He was then being pretty silly and asked, “Did you know I can count to one at the speed of light?”
I asked if he was ever hyper like this at school. He said no. “I want to be calm and quiet at school and get it out at home.” And he said, “Come on Henry, let’s go catch a frog.” From a story from somewhere, I think, but I’m not sure what.
He and I then played with the balloon, knocking it up and watching the chocolate chips bounce around. He was wearing my watch. I got him up to the sink for a sink bath. He played with his mixture in the bucket for a long time, adding soaps and lotion and water. He told me he had another word of the day: “Innersan…it’s from mooka Mook. It means stupendous.” More talking in mooka mook. He got me to put a little mouthwash in the small container he was using: “Smells dentist-y. I know, that can be a thing that helps you remember…just the dentist.” I finally washed him.
Carly had had the heater on in the office, so he went in there. He found a small square thing that sort of looked like an eraser or sponge. He poked holes in it with a nail he found, and called it a sponge. He then had me telling a story about someone going door to door, looking for their lost sponge, but then being sad when they find out someone has poked holes in it. He found Carly’s post-it notes and hung a couple up. He told her: “I did it to remind you to do the washing…maybe Gramma can come in here and see it.”
We got him ready for bed and I said good night after 8:20. Standing on the steps, he was sitting on one and I put my sock on his head. He liked it, like a scalp massage, but Carly didn’t like the sound. He wanted me to keep doing it. He tried to convince me to put him to sleep, but then, when it was clear that wasn’t going to work, he tried to convince Carly to do a story dice story, telling her: “Your story dice stories are the best.” I left them at 8:30 and went for a walk.
Art project with Gramma:
Sitting on the swing with grampa:
Kitchen with Eve:
Zinnie house with Eve:
Teeter totter slo-mo:
Teeter totter with Eve:
His chair art piece:
Bloom music:
Balloon experiment:
Admiring his creation
Playing with the water tubes
Admiring his work
Sort of playing school
He took a photo of his finished work
Adding to his concoction
Posting post-it note reminders
Poking holes in the sponge thing