He sat up when it was still dark, then lay down on me, his head on my shoulder and his arms and legs wrapped around my right arm. Then my alarm went off at 5:50. I stretched with my left arm and was able to reach my phone and turn it off. Lay there another 5 minutes to make sure he was asleep, then slipped out. I was out of my shower when he woke up at 6:13. He peeked in the bathroom and I told him Carly was downstairs.
He cuddled with her for awhile, then watched a video on how tortilla chips are made. Carly made him oatmeal and I got his snack and lunch together. He then talked about making a spicy soup, but went upstairs to find Carly. She got his clothes on.
Back downstairs she headed to work and he started a new video. He went to the bathroom and told me, “I watched how chips are made, and now I’m watching about Coca-Cola. Hah. Grown-up drink. I teleport Coca-Cola to my lab…is that okay?” He then switched to Berenstain Bears.
I set our alarms forward 10 minutes, and he finished up a Berenstain Bears (he’d watched one about going to the dentist, and another where Brother doesn’t do his homework while he is sick) and we got going, and walking by 7:34. He hadn’t eaten a lot of his oatmeal, but said he was full. He had his morning bar at the beginning. Chilly and clear out, and a bit windy, so he had on a second sweatshirt. Quiet on the way to school. He told me he wasn’t going to eat lunch and snack at school again for awhile like at the beginning of the year. But that he would after awhile. He was very clear about it. He could’t or wouldn’t explain why, but it seems like he is a bit nervous.
Dropped him off right about 8. He was comfortable going in, and seemed just fine. So hopefully the nerves will leave and he’ll feel like eating. I stayed for a couple minutes outside, then as I walked away he was looking at something out the window and saw me, so I waved. He seemed to be saying something to me through the window, but didn’t run after me.
I walked home and finished listening to The Mere Wife. Worked, then rode my bike back to pick him up. He was carrying a sort of net thing, like the sort of bag that marbles come in, and said that Marion had given it to him, and he could use it to catch fish. When I went in to get his stuff, Andrea then told me that he had been telling them about trying to catch fish and getting water snails instead and studying them. She said questions had come up about what’s the difference between different kinds of snails, and I recalled when he and I actually discussed this in Seoul, at the aquarium. I think he had asked if they breath.
Cassie picked up Taya, then we met her at the playground. Cassie had to go back to work. Taya acted out going to South Africa and driving someplace in a bus that involved going through a tunnel. They played on the boat and the car and had a little snack, and Taya also had her baby out and was playing with it. Cassie had left her book, and Taya was using it, saying she had to read it as her homework. August was on the big swing, swinging himself, and they both got on, and also pushed me in it.
It was chilly, and about 3:50 we headed to the library. Carly met us on the way to say goodbye. She was walking home and to the mall to buy decks of cards for an activity with her class. In the library the storytelling class (elementary school) was in the kids’ room, so I got the box of hand puppets out, and then the Legos, and we took over a space out on the floor and they played with those. They also looked through the bookmarks on Ilana’s desk, and played with the little clapping noisemakers she has. (August loves them. An odd choice for a librarian, but they aren’t really loud.)
Cassie came and got Taya about 4:15. August jumped at Amanda’s desk and yelled “Boo!” and scared her, which was funny once, but then he kept doing it and I had to stop him.
We walked home. August decided he was going to make a leaf soup at home, so he started picking leaves at school and we got more along the way. We were home just before 5.
He was hyper with Carly. I heated up his lunch (pizza, corn, and broccoli) and served it with his strawberries. Now he ate the entire thing. We read most of Amulet 4. He then had two bowls of oatmeal. Carly bought down the piano and they cleaned the popcorn out of it. I took him up and gave him his bath. We finished reading Amulet while Carly took a shower. ‘Conspire’ was the word of the day. He had a piece of twine and we ended up tying it around the bookmark and making a bookmark necklace out of it. I brushed his teeth, Carly came in, and I left them about 8:10. He was asleep in 15 minutes or so.
August and Taya 1:
August and Taya 2:
August and Taya 3:
