At 6:50, as Carly was locking the door as she left, August was coming down the stairs. He climbed on the couch and then cuddled on my lap, silent, for a good ten minutes. Then, at 7:01 he asked, “Dada, can I search through every single picture of mama?” I’ve never shown him this, but the Photos library automatically identifies people. I pulled up all the photos with her, and I asked why. He said, “I’m looking for a light blue shirt with a pattern on it.” Suddenly, as we scrolled back to when we were in Thailand, he spotted it. We watched a video of them playing with the stuff frog that turns into a prince when we arrived at our AirBnB place in Bangkok. He was laughing hysterically in it: https://youtu.be/vbTm3gFUk2o
He then wanted me to read Shivers. So we read Shivers and he had oatmeal. We were talking about the weather, and I said something about not making a ‘meteorological prediction’ about rain or something. So ‘meteorology’ became the word of the day. He was a bit reluctant about leaving for school but we got walking at 7:47. We were going to play the brother and sister game on the bike, and kind of did as we were getting ready, but then forgot to once on the bike.
This morning he did tell me he didn’t want to go to school and wanted to go to another country instead. But everything was fine and I dropped him off. I went and talked to Cassie for a minute by PKB and then was leaving when he came out and told me he didn’t want to go to school today. Luckily, as I talked to him I heard they had art with Ms. Dorene today. Then Andrea called him over to get his opinion on something. Think those were just enough to get him to stay. I spied from the top of the steps for a few minutes and he didn’t come back out.
I went and picked up our boxes from the high school office. My SubPop hats (and two shirts for August) had arrived, as did my new case for my phone (so I can use the macro lens). I walked home, then rode back in the afternoon. Marion was walking students up to the busses and warned me that he had gotten upset about their art project today. They were making ponchos, but aren’t done with them. They need to stay at school, but he started insisting that he was taking his home to finish it at home. I thanked her, and went down to get him. He was doing fine, and decorating a doily at the art tables. The poncho came up, and I asked to see it. We went out and sat on the bench and talked about it. He softened when I talked about not having fabric glue (they are made of felt, and today they made a model of paper and decorated it with markers—they will then decorate the real ones with felt or something), and when I told him our plans: going to the cafeteria to get a snack (and coffee) and then going to the library.
So we left the poncho behind and headed to the cafeteria. They were low on the bakery stuff and August wanted a strawberry popsicle instead. He ate that and I had my cappuccino. He noticed the new phone case and took some photos with the macro lens. We then walked up to the guard station as there was another package for us to get. Well, August ran, saying he was just a blur and didn’t even have to breath when he runs. I called him ‘The Blur’. I thought it was the SIM cards, but the guard handed me a box and it is the watch I got for August. August peeked over and told security guard we were moving and mama wasn’t working at the school anymore. It was the grumpy guard (I’ve only seen him once before) and he didn’t seem to want to give August any attention, so I rushed him away.
We went to the library. The plan was to get books (I had returned several yesterday). August was distracted by kids playing computer games though and wanted me to play and he would watch me. It was the shooting game he wanted. I eventually talked him out of it. I pulled down several adventure-related graphic novels I thought he might like. He chose the first Bone book and we read the first chapter and he really liked it. He then also chose the book Mighty Jack (by the same guy that wrote the Zita books). Carly showed up, and the two of them went out to eat pita and hummus at the little table. I found a Tallulah book (Tallulah’s Toe Shoes) that we don’t have and checked out the three books.
We left at 4:30, leaving behind August’s water bottle by the library (we’d get it tomorrow). We walked home. He was having fun steering through puddles. At the door he looked in the cabinet with all the old security system wires in it and found a pencil in there. Inside, Carly got him a pencil sharpener and the two of them did work together, writing in a notebook. Think they did some math. I started making pasta with a mushroom and broccoli cream sauce. He watched one Berenstain Bears, then Carly read the Tallulah book and reread the first chapter of Bone. We then realized we didn’t have his water bottle and Carly got the one from upstairs. While they were reading ‘bride’ was a word August didn’t know and he said it was a word of the day.
We ate the pasta for dinner. They read more Bones and he was then playing with his net thing. He put it over his head and looked funny. He and I then read Mighty Jack. The whole thing. He had peanut butter toast. When the book was finished he was upset because a.) he really liked it and he wanted to keep reading the story and b.) he knew it was time for a bath.
Carly took him up and gave him a bath. He came down with his hair in a ponytail. He realized that when he waved his head around it hit him on the side of the head. Upstairs I took photos of his ponytail and I said goodnight and left them at 8:10. There was a lot of laughing for awhile, but I think he was asleep by 8:30.
Strawberry popsicle:
Being the Blur:
Grating cheese:
Ponytail:
Hats for me, shirts for Z
