Tuesday, July 23: weeding and animals and not going to a park

August and Carly came out just after 8. He found the tape measure and measured on the floor a few times. I helped him figure out how to read it. It was 16 feet from where he sat to the edge of the rug. He then had it come back to him fast a few times. Carly and Cassie were worrying about him hurting his fingers and also scratching the floor. So they did it one more time and then saved it for later outside.

Colin came down right after that. He wanted Carly to pick him up, but didn’t want to take off his used sleep diaper first.

August wanted to do a Brother game so we went into the bedroom. A short one where Bar ‘helped’ Brother open a broken washing machine that he was trying to fix by cutting it open with a laser. He then flopped backwards from the window onto the bed. Apparently something he learned from Vivian.

We went back out for awhile. He ended up walking around in circles, explaining how on My Planet everything is made of cake, with ice cream inside. But the ice cream is all mystery flavors, some which include tree nuts. So Carly decided she couldn’t go there. Of course, there is also an atmosphere of nuclear gasses, which causes explosions like fireworks, so that would be another reason.

He wanted another Brother game, this time with a girl who can turn anything into treats. We went and did that. The girl could eat all she wanted and not get sick, but he didn’t have that power. She ended up turning all of their garbage into food.

Vivian was up after 9 and he saw her. He got his iPad, then discovered the Minecraft mods that I had installed. They explored those together. He was very excited by these. Carly made French toast. They ate, then went and played in the fort. Colin tried to take away the rocket launcher from August. We intervened before any sort of hitting, but Augst didn’t like the intervention and Carly took him into the room. After coming out he ate a second toast.

Colin wanted play dough. Vivian got an art box of hers out when I got the play dough stuff. Colin played with it with his trucks, then we made an alligator and put sticky eyes on it. Vivian made an arrow.

August had an idea for a Brother game and wanted to show Vivian. We went to the bedroom but they ended up jumping on and off the bed as we listened to Erasure. August would tell her “You have permission for the ignition of the mission.” That’s from when they were telling Jeff they were ready for him to light a firework. We ended up doing stories where he met someone that turned things into cake. And then the computer games restarting. A lot of craziness. Colin came in and they all ended up jumping off the bed. Colin was doing big jumps and then forward rolls.

Cassie got back from going to Weis. The kids went out and played in the fort. Evil Wizard for a while, then Carly rested. They played in the fort and I was able to work. August played with the cash register, making the total go into the thousands of dollars by pushing the button repeatedly. Then Cassie got out these prickly seed like things that you can build with. They played with those and Colin joined them.

More playing and then we got ready to go to a park. It rained though, contrary to the predictions of Dark Sky and Accuweather. August ran around in the rain again. They then collected nice rocks (“crystal rocks”). Vivian remembered we were supposed to go to a park and said “The twins are really impatient right now.” In fact they were relaxing in the car. We never did go to the park. Colin pretended to drive the lawnmower. And Vivian went on her scooter. August focused on rocks. I walked around, breaking in my sandals and listening to an audiobook.

We all went over to their play structure and we started picking weeds. Vivian and August helped a bit before focusing on finding animals. August and I had watched a groundhog out in the yard. August was digging at a hole with a shovel and broke open an ant nest. And they found lots of big worms. August found a millipede, or centipede. Vivian was picking up ants and eggs and putting them in a jar. August and I had already abandoned the area because they were crawling all over our feet. They made it up Vivian’s arms/legs to her body and started biting her. Cassie rushed to her rescue and they took off her dress to get at the ants.

August got on the picnic table and picked walnuts for Colin. He then started stripping leaves from the low branches. Cassie asked him if it was a satisfying feeling. He liked the look of it, although we thought it was rather ugly.

Cassie and I carried the table to the back. The kids had a snack at the table, then they played in the trampoline. We went inside. Colin went out and brought in all of their water bottles all on his own. Vivian and August then supported Colin as he traced letters on his iPad: “Go Colin, go Colin!” Which he then repeated to himself later.

They ate pizza outside, then did the letter writing game, putting mail for each other in the mail box. I got educational videos going: one on wormholes, then the other two Lego ones. I was sad to see there were only three of those total. Cassie got a present from Jeff’s dad and wife. She let the kids help her unwrap everything. Colin fooled me about his dad being home. They were playing with the relaxing eye pillow that Cassie got (and which Colin had promptly gotten some snot on, giving it the moniker of the ‘snot pillow’). I suggested the game that Cherie had sent via email the other day: lying down on the couch and stacking things on them while they practiced being still and slowly breathing.

Vivian and I got the kitchen stuff and started with August. This game went on for a long time. Vivian was the biggest fan. I think we stacked stuff on her five times. When they were done the would throw everything off and we’d take a slo-mo video of it. Jeff got home to see Vivian do it once. Colin got into it, and he surprised Vivian and me, who had both predicted he wouldn’t be able to be all that still.

When we were done Vivian and August did a great job helping us pick up. Although when we were done and Vivian found something in the couch August said “The goal is to not look so you don’t have to pick up as much stuff.”

They went back to doing the mail game. He told Carly “Carly, get your mail.” August and Colin had a conflict over the mailbox, but compromised on it. Not sure if I mentioned the incident yesterday or earlier today where Colin got upset about August having one of his trucks. He was yelling, but I realized he was saying “Two minutes!” When we realized that August agreed to play with it for two minutes. Colin calmed down, then August gave it back before the two minutes was up.

More mail writing. August wrote “PP Poop” for Vivian. The two of them are learning how to write the important words, apparently. None of them really mentioned ice cream for quite awhile, and weren’t excited by it. Although they eventually wanted it. They had ice cream, then Carly gave them a bath. We got him ready, said good night, and I left at 9:50. He was asleep a little after 10:20.

Flopping on the bed slo-mo: