He was up at 7:12. I was upstairs at the kitchen table and Carly had gone for a walk. So he yelled for me and I rushed down. He took a good 15 minutes to get going before we went upstairs. Carly was back from her walk. He perched on the back of the chair and watched Smurfs and ate his banana and english muffin.
Peter and Micah came in around 8 and visited. Carly, August, the two of them, and I then drove over to Kave, the new coffee shop just past the city park. No chance of getting August to walk, since there were clouds about. But on the way Carly drove Paul’s car to Walmart and dropped it off for an oil change. I drove the Jag, and August was okay sharing the backseat with Micah. We picked her up and then all went to Kave.
Kave was nice, but didn’t have a huge selection. But they had quiche. We shared a couple slices of ham and cheese quiche, I got a berry scone, August got a chocolate chip cookie, and I got a large cappuccino to share with Carly. We had a good sit and talked about movies. We sat on the big bench that must have been an old church pew.
We got home, and August played Civilization Revolution. He changed the TV to 90s music. We went downstairs to play a Brother game for a little while. Brother was going to the school with all the rules and getting a lot of detention for sighing, etc. There was then a magical cat that turned out to just be mean to him, turning into an alligator, a tiger, then a dragon. At one point he said, “What’s 46.5 plus…93?” He then requested The King Midas story. I told him that, then we went upstairs.
Found Carly, Micah, and Peter all outside reading. Joined them for awhile. August needed the bathroom so went in with him. He asked, “What’s ‘generous offer’s mean?” That’s from CivRev. We discussed the difference between ‘generous’ and ‘stingy’. And then he asked, “What’s central America? What’s ‘central’ mean?” So explained that and found it in the atlas.
Peter and Micah wanted to go to Walmart for some stuff, and the car was ready, so the five of us went in their car this time. We split up inside. I took August in the cart to fruits and veggies. He spent a long time weighing things on the scale and reading it off in pounds and ounces and in kilograms. Carly shopped, then went to get the car and drove around to wait for us. August and I finished with getting cream for his nose, paid, and met her out front. As we waited to pay August found the little table for people in wheelchairs. He wanted his snack and used the little table to set it on. The cashier was impressed with finding a new use for it.
We crossed paths with Peter and Micah as we put stuff in the car, then met them back at home. They wanted to go to Lakeview, but August was done with outside. So he and Carly stayed, and the three of us walked to Lakeview. Mom was in taking a nap and didn’t feel well. Weather was looking pretty good as we left, as the sun was breaking out. Got windier and windier though as we were at Lakeview. I got a ham and cheese sandwich and fries.
We ate, then headed to the variety store. Looked around there. Much more dedicated to tourist stuff than it was when I was a kid. Also looked at games. On the walk back it got darker and windier and started to rain on us. Luckily, never really hard.
When we got back to the house August and Carly were on the back porch, watching the rain, of course. August excitedly said we had gotten rained on.
We sat around the kitchen table. Micah got out a little pool game he had bought at a dollar store. Didn’t work too well as the balls rolled around,but we had fun with that, and all did some reading. August liked the pool game and tried it out as well. Peter and Micah went out to the garage to rest. August and I read The 65-Story Treehouse while Carly rested, then I switched and went down for just a couple minutes before they came back in before 5.
Mom tried to get August to help with shucking corn. He was resistant at first,but then asked, “Is it satisfying?” I said it was, and got him out with her by the compost. As he shucked I asked if it was satisfying. He said no at first, but hadn’t gotten to the corn. When he got to the corn he got excited and said “It’s really satisfying!”
Before dinner we played Brother game with a girl with laser eyes. I can’t remember what math problems we got into with that, but at one point he said, “So 4 million divided by 50…” That is, he’s pretty good now at judging when a word problem requires division, multiplication, etc.
We had a big dinner. Managed to be just warm enough to eat outside. Dad cooked pork and hot dogs on the grill and I grilled the veggies and got out fruit. Carly made a salad and cut and prepared all the veggies. During dinner August was having Micah do math. He’d ask a math question, then ask “Who’s in?” But would stare at Micah, expecting him to answer. When Micah gave an answer August loudly called, “Judges? What do you think?”
August was hyper at first and kept standing up in his chair as he ate. Then he ended up on my lap, a little cool, I think, as he had no sweatshirt and no shoes. I used reverse psychology and he ate three pieces of asparagus from my plate as he also drank a lot of the sparkling drink I’d been drinking.
Peter and Micah wanted to go for a drive after dinner. August didn’t want to let me go. Not sure what the anxiety over me leaving was about today. Same thing earlier when going to Lakeview. But he was fine after I left both times.
We drove out to Manson and up in the hills. Ended up at Willow Point Park, where we had taken August two? years ago. Walked down to the lake for a minute then headed back.
Found August watching Llama Llama when I got back. I took a few minutes to help put him to bed while Peter and Micah went out to the garage. He was being really picky and difficult over every little detail of the going to bed process. Think this is a sign of anxiety, and when he’s anxious he suddenly wants to control everything, then that leads to getting upset if he can’t.
I left them at 9. Micah and Peter came in a little later, and we watched the long, slow episode 2 of Too Old to Die Young.
Weighing fruit:https://youtu.be/DlO8K_M93r0
Having Carly do math:https://youtu.be/6CGaKsKXHoQ
Shucking corn:https://youtu.be/jVTP0WkQ9rI
Quoting the stinky socks book:https://youtu.be/epDmxvxdOvU
