They were up about 7. I said happy new year, then went back to sleep for a bit. When I came down he was starting to paint his music box pink. He told Carly, “I think you can do your work cuz you might mess with the design I make.” When he wanted turquoise to add I went upstairs to look, but just found a baby blue, which he was very happy with. He finished that, then got hungry. Carly made him oatmeal with mango and date syrup. When he requested more date syrup I told him I shouldn’t add more because the chef might get upset. He was then singing “mama chef” over and over to the tune of the verse of “Beautiful”.
He had taken the empty nutrasweet box and taped it to the wall and said it was for mail. He now cut off the top flap of it, but when he pulled it off he ripped the back top of it. He got upset and took it all down. I helped him fix it by using scissors to enlarge the top, and he taped it back on the wall. Carly went and sat out in the sun.
He made a necklace (Carly had found the stretchy thread when she was vacuuming yesterday) and I glued it for him. He watched a little Pink Panther, then ate more of his oatmeal. He then bounced from activity to activity: He took some photos with the “birthday camera”, then wanted me to write on small pieces of paper so he could clip them together. Only did a couple of those, then wanted a small water balloon. I made one for him, and he tied a string to it. He wanted a second, but I said one was enough inside.
Eventually he took the one outside to show Carly, then he wanted to try to pop it. It was small, so just bounced until he rubbed it against a tree. He had me blow up 5 or 6 more, popping most of them, but leaving one sitting in the sun to see what would happen.
I went up to a shower. They were working on ‘thank you’ cards when I came down. August was into the art part, but less into discussing the presents. August asked me to film them and I said know. Carly said it was a wise choice. When August insisted I film I told him I’d stick with ‘wise’.
I then made a wind tester for him, at his request. It was a piece of paper with part of it rolled up to be a tube around his arm. The rest was the flap of paper hanging off for testing the wind. He wanted me to decorate it with crayons. I started a tree on one side and he helped draw it. He then requested a boom box on the other side, so I drew that.
We next finished reading Ramona the Pest. He next wanted “A imagining game.” It was the one with the light on the highway that turned out to be a kid going through the lines.
We started to get ready to go. Carly had put a patch on the pair of pants he was wearing today. When August saw her doing it he insisted the patch go on the outside of the pants, knowing it would bother him on the outside. Carly remembered we were going to the post office and needed to make envelopes and finish a letter to her grandma. Meanwhile, August had wanted to pack things to take. I got him his backpack and he’d put things like his lip gloss, necklaces, bracelet and other items in it, and was now wearing it, repeatedly asking (but at least being patient) when we would be done because he was “ready for an adventure.”
We left at 1:30. We parked in town and walked to the new ice cream and gelato place. August knew we were going for a “something something” but didn’t know what it was. He was very excited when I directed him into an ice cream shop. He chose Oreo cookie, then when the guy asked if we wanted two flavors he added bubble gum. And sprinkles for the top. We sat outside and shared it. Carly said the bubble gum flavor wasn’t overwhelming. August picked up on this to try to convince us to not eat it: “Everybody stop eating, it’s too overwhelming.” When we were done and getting ready to go, August ran into the ice cream shop, started dancing to the music, slipped and fell down, and got back up and kept dancing.
We then went to the post office. Carly went in and I waited outside. August went in at first and stood in the middle of the floor in a rather odd pose before going out. That didn’t take long, then we drove up to Habanim Garden, a park in the north end of town.
We played on the round spinny thing—it reminded me of the first one he played on, in Dream Forest in Seoul, then went to the swings. I pushed him a bit while Carly read, then she took over and I read. he wasn’t interested in playing on the play structure. So we went for a walk, first on the streets in a circle around the park, then down in the neighborhood we once walked around before. Stopped and looked at a lot of aging construction trucks, then headed down towards the place we had parked before. Jeff called on FaceTime, and as Carly talked to Vivian August said he wanted to show Vivian “Something scary” across the street. He described seeing an animal in the fence and said it was “a jaguar”—it was orange. We went across and I could tell there was an animal in there. As the talked, I walked around the house and discovered it was a very large black dog, with orange on its chest.
We said we’d call when we got home and finished the walk down the street and back. We then drove into town and to the new grocery store in the basement of the new mall. August was being cranky, and Carly went in to shop on her own. We were deciding on whether to walk home using the bike, or go into the store. We went down and first checked out the bulk foods store to the left. August wanted to get something. There were cake decorations (shiny balls) he wanted for his birthday. We went in the store but he ran to Carly, jokingly saying he wanted everything. After checking out he admired the picture on the wall outside.
We drove home and August did FaceTime with Vivian and Colin, then did Wizard School with Vivian, then some art on his iPad. He wanted to watch something, and he snuck a BrainPop Jr. video on telling time. Can’t really complain about him learning something.
We then read Nimona and finished it for a second time. Shmuel had tried calling while I was reading, then there was a knock at the door. It was Shmuel with his handyman Shai, here to fix the gate. August went out to watch for a minute. They fixed it, very ad hoc, by drilling through the top of the handle enclosure and putting a nail through the broken piece to make it stay. Nice of them to come, but Shmuel made it sound like it was a favor, and it was actually our responsibility as tenants to fix things like this and the front door. But he did remind us about cleaning the filters on the HVAC units. Which we used to do in Korea, but hadn’t thought to do here. I cleaned them, and what do you know, it helped.
August told me about a new invention of his: “I made a new invention made out of REINFORCED steel…the transmit BEI…” It transmitted things…
He had oatmeal and then some soup for dinner, and he helped me to put the tape the power strip under the dining room table so the cords are nice and neat on the table. While I had been cleaning the vents, they had started sewing upstairs, using my old library card shirt to cut and sew. They were turning it into a quilt.
Carly gave him a bath and I went up at 8:25. He told me “You are GOOD at telling stories.” We did a story using the dice, “A Plague of Cacti”, then Carly took over to put him to sleep. I left them at 9. I went for a walk, listening to The Mere Wife.
Painting his music box:
Water balloon 1:
Water balloon 2:
Oreo cookie:
Dancing in the ice cream shop:
Climbing the rotating thing:
Sewing a quilt:
