Wednesday, March 13: his birthday at school and IKEA

During the night he had a moment where he clattered against the wall. He then sort of sat up, and when he lay back down he hit his head against the headboard. He started to crawl off the bed, but fell back asleep lying face down on another pillow. That lasted about ten minutes, when he got up and climbed off the bed. He repeated something unintelligible to her a few times, but then lay down and fell back to sleep.

Carly got him up at 6:45. When he let her go to work he just sat on the couch for a few minutes. He watched Pink Panther and I made oatmeal. When I told him the oatmeal was ready he told me, “This is a GOOD Pink Panther. I love it.” It was called Pink Panther Vs. Frankenstein.

When we got to class before the bus kids, August started telling his teachers how there were more seats and people at the robotics competition than you could see on the monitor in the library. He told Marion there were “more seats than in a 747!”

I went to the book swap and got just one book, a Mr. Man collection of twelve stories. I then rode home and did just a little work and finished chopping up the strawberries for his party, then took the car back to school. When I got there, Carly said they were setting up for his birthday, but that August was up with Vicky. He had wanted to sit next to Lydia during morning meeting, but then got upset with Leonard when he was in the way. We waited a couple minutes, and when I went up they were on their way out.

Outside, they were having the kids set up all of the plates and they were doing art of things August likes all over the paper tablecloth: lots of giraffes, robots, and monsters. We started with the healthy snacks we had brought: bell peppers, strawberries, cantaloupe, and the banana bread. Then they did cake. Carly was able to stay for the singing, then had to go to teach her class. We had cake, then the party had to end as Ms. Liron was there for drama. Although, it wasn’t drama time like usual. She is very pregnant, and sitting down with the kids isn’t easy. So she had them playing outside. That probably worked out best for August, as he did fine through that.

I quickly ran up to the library and found Marka. She had wanted to prep me for the sustainability committee meeting tomorrow, and also talk about what they’re needing for the PTA webpages that they want to set up.

I met with her, then had a little time in the library to work, then went to pick up August at 12. When I got there he asked, “Why are you here?” He showed me the ribbons that he and others had been tying to the railings of the stairs, then he said he wanted to stay until they went to lunch. I went out on the bench and started responding to email, but Marion came out a couple minutes later and said he didn’t actually want to be a part of the meeting; he was just building with blocks. He had made something pretty cool, and agreed to leave with me.

We went up and got the leftover snacks, which I had placed in the staff room fridges. August spied Zoe, Eve’s sister, having lunch out in the cafeteria and was excited about that. We then went to the book fair. He chose one book, The Lucky Puppy, and I got The Man Who Walked Between the Towers, and an old book called The Mice Who Loved Words (which, for a second, I thought might be a book I remember from childhood about mice who steal letters from a printing press. It isn’t, but is still an interesting looking old book).

We went to the car, and August went and looked for insects in flowers nearby. We caught some sort of insect on them. He also told me that, yesterday or so, he had found a birdie egg on the ground in the butterfly garden. Marion had said it was a good experiment breaking it open and finding yolk in it.

We then drove down to Ikea. He did a good job there. He really liked looking at all the model kitchens and bedrooms. He kept commenting on how cool or awesome they were, and liked trying to turn on the stoves. He also liked the display that made it look like six different stove tops in one kitchen.

He did one hopscotch, but then mainly rode in the cart. We chose pillows for the Zinnie house: two bigger cushions, and four throw pillows. We also got a can of white paint for the shelves, and he liked the idea of an analog clock, so we got a cheap one of those to hang up. We also got batteries. We also tried out desk chairs. And he was sucking on the strap of the backpack and commenting on how he liked the flavor of it. As we got near the end, several guys in blue outfits and makeup ran by, filming themselves. We’d seen a couple of guys in odd outfits earlier as well.

As we got up to checkout, August convinced me to let him in with the pillows, and he lounged in the cart until we had to take everything out. We stopped to get lunch. He had a hot dog and I had the falafel. He ate the whole thing, then we each got an ice cream cone. We went outside to find about 20 younger guys all in various states of dress in costumes. No idea what was going on. It is early for Purim. August liked their funny costumes, and as we put our cart away we saw several of them do a race with the shopping carts, which the Ikea employees appeared to reluctantly allow.

He fell asleep on the way home, about 3:20. I could not wake him up. He kept sleeping on the couch, and I tried several times to get him up. I was out vacuuming the Zinnie house and getting the pillows together. At one point I thought he was awake, and I went out for a minute but returned to find him asleep. Finally, I put on Pink Panther and woke him up and he slowly woke up to that. It was after 4.

We went out to the Zinnie house and checked it out. August liked the pillows and clock. Carly got home. He was rough with her at first, so she took him up to wrestle. He then agreed to a haircut, lollipop-abetted, of course. She made it look much neater. Afterwards, he put his shirt on all by himself. It just happened to be backwards and inside out.

He took Carly out to the Zinnie house and they sat in there together for a couple minutes, talking about the clock. August compared the different kinds of hands on it to different sizes of candles. He came in to go to the bathroom, then did a good job of taking apart (by himself) the thing they had made with the construction kit while we figured something out with Carly’s phone.

I went upstairs with him, as he wanted to play a Brother and Sister game where they capture a peregrine falcon and it attacks them. ‘Profusely’ was a word of the day from that (i.e. how much I was bleeding after a talon cut me). We went down and read The One in the Middle is a Green Kangaroo by Judy Blume. He liked it. Carly made sushi and he ate that for dinner. We then headed back upstairs, where we played the game where he turns into a cat after I accidentally give him cat medicine. The cat then gets passed from owner to owner, as it is always causing problems. That somehow turned into a shopping game, where I was a pepper pot (an Eric Idle reference) buying stuff: hedge trimmer, to seeds, to chainsaw. Each thing led to a problem (too much trimming, too many plants) that required the next item. Somehow, this ended with me being a human ant nest stuck in a zoo. I don’t know how.

He went to the bathroom, then made a big creation out of rubber bands and other items on the toilet paper roll holder. It was a machine that transfers power. He was learning how to tie rubber bands together. When he had given Deborah’s puzzle piece back she had given him two rubber bands. He had tied them together, but on accident. He asked me how to do it. I taught him, and he had it down pretty well by the end. Although he still needed me to hold the one he was tying the other to.

I washed him, then he sang a “Ladybugs eat aphids” song. He ate some Cheerios, then I read him the I’ll Take a Nap! book. He laughed crazily again. I commented on the bunny in it being Knufflebunny, or something like that, and he said he had watched the Knufflebunny story in PKB last year.

Carly came in and we got him ready for bed. I left them about a quarter to 9.

Art at his birthday party: