He was up at 6:05. I was up at a quarter to 7. I came down and found them working on his costume, him doing most of the gluing. I did the lettering for the welcome sign, then made coffee for me and oatmeal for him. He then watched a video while I kept organizing and Carly made the cake. He was watching a long Lego video called ‘World’s Longest LEGO Great Ball Contraption”. I watched part of it with him, and it was a good engineering lesson for him. From that ‘module’ was the word of the day.
We got to finishing our cleaning and preparing for the party. Think I left a lot of that out of yesterday’s journal, but we had done a lot of cleaning in the evening, and August had helped me make two loaves of zucchini cornbread. Now, she cut the veggies and August and I finished the ‘Welcome’ sign for the Zinnie house and hammered it up. And he had the idea of hanging up the birthday cards/art from his classmates on the tack board in the Zinnie house so we did that. We had some time before the party at 11, so we let Mikaela know he was ready to show her his Zinnie house. She had been invited to the party, but was going to be gone by then. So she came up and he showed her everything in the house for a few minutes. He then played with the “antennas” on the Zinnie house, and inside we watched some of the Formula 1 qualifying.
People started showing up just after 11. First Eve, Zoe, and Heather and David. They brought a bag with some art supplies and a set of little plastic jars for his treasures. Eve tried on his robot costume. Then Simone and Anita showed up. He opened the present right away. It was a Transformer sort of robot toy. They were quickly followed by Taya with Cassie. They had brought a Lego-compatible spaceship set. Cassie told us that Taya had insisted that August wanted a doll. Taya loves dolls and has about 8. Later, when she found Baby Q, the doll Carly bought him in Korea, Taya told Cassie “I told you!” I told Cassie she could get the finally “I told you!” since he’s never actually really played with it. We were also going to invite Candy and her mom, but they had a meeting with all of the other Chinese moms and their kids for the International Day planning.
The kids did great together. They started outside, painting. They had brought one canvas, and I grabbed the big cardboard box out of recycling and used a utility knife to cut it into canvases for them. Lots of looking in the dirt for insects together. The Zinnie house turned out to be a huge hit and they spent a lot of time in there. August enjoyed showing off a bug to Anita, and David got involved kicking a soccer ball around with Simone and Zoe. Simone was reluctant to play with the others, but he is really into soccer, so that was good.
Inside, August, Taya, and Eve took care of Baby Q. He got a lot of his potions and they mixed them all together as medicine for the baby. They mixed them using one of the brushes that Eve had bought, and August put it in our drill to make an electric mixer. The three were really doing a great job taking turns.
Carly then brought down the toilet paper holder and, inspired by the project on the stairs at school where August and Eve had been tying ribbons all week, Carly had picked up rolls of ribbon at school yesterday, and now the kids went crazy tying them to the toilet paper holder.
There had been the hummus, veggies, potato pastry things, and pizza out, so they had snacked along the way. I had poured water for the kids at one point, and for the adults Anita and I had opened a bottle of wine.
At 1:20 we did cake. August requested we not sing the song. Zoe started it, but he only got about half the song before it petered out. Everyone liked that he had 5, 6, and 7 on it. We ate cake, then August got the little plastic jars that Eve and Zoe had brought and he went and filled them up with water from the sink and handed them out to everyone at the party, adults included, so they could drink them. That was very nice.
Back outside they play a little hide and seek, then it was back to playing in the Zinnie house. The only tough moment came when August got sort of trapped in the Zinnie house, then bumped his head. He got upset, and we took him upstairs to calm down. I was being really calming with him, but he was really mean with me, so Carly took over. She got him back down after a few minutes and the rest went smoothly.
August had Carly lift up stones, and he found a big grub. That was an exciting find. David then was helping August, the first that he’s really interacted with August.
People headed out about a quarter to 3.
Ilana and Howard were having their vegetarian soup party, and the second loaf of zucchini bread was for that, but we didn’t feel like rushing to that and decided to skip it.
So we relaxed and recovered, and worked on cleaning up. Carly skyped with her parents, and August showed off the Zinnie house to them as well.
We had some dinner, and August and I started putting together the Lego spaceship as we watched the Australian Grand Prix. I took him up for his bath and washed his hair. Went okay, but he got frustrated with the hair washing and threw his lollipop towards the shower after I was done. It shattered, which was a good example of a natural consequence.
In the bedroom, he asked me, “Maybe I could ask you a couple questions and watch some videos?” He asked, “Why does concrete chip off?” So I looked up chipping concrete and we read about it. ‘Spalling’ was another word of the day. He had us act out the necklace story from yesterday, then we did another Story Dice story, telling “The Girl Who Wanted to Be a Hunter”. August was repeating, “I kicked the habit and it’s almost done.” Which might be based on a Berenstain Bears episode, or some commercial.
Carly came in to put him to sleep. I left them at 7:40. Carly said he was really reflecting on school, and when she asked what he liked about school he replied, “My nice teachers, the fun activities.” When she asked what he didn’t like he basically said, “Handling all the kids.” They really role played when Eve wouldn’t let him hold the bug catcher at school, and he was practicing saying to a teacher, “Would you help me get it back?”
Showing Mikaela the Zinnie house 1:
Showing Mikaela the Zinnie house 2:
Opening the present from Simone:
Looking in the dirt with Taya and Zoe:
A little soccer in the yard:
Mixing medicine for the baby:
Using the real drill:
Tying ribbons:
Blowing out the candles:
Hide and seek:
Showing Oma the Zinnie house:
