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I moved the car at 8. They were both still asleep when I left, so I sat in the car and listened to a few more minutes of S-Town before heading back. Carly was up when I got there, and August got up just before 8:20. He and Carly kept doing their tea game and British accents. He’s now requesting teas as well: “Mango tea. Yeah, that’s my favorite.” Carly made coffee, but discovered that the coffee in the cupboard was old and stale. I took a shower and got out to find that he had eaten all the crab filling from the sushi Carly got at Trader Joe’s. He wasthen ready for a walk: I’m gonna put my shoes on and go for a walk.” He got them on the correct feet. There were three umbrellas and he chose the green one: “I want green for mama…I folded it up for mama…Now it doesn’t fit through the door…It’s a nice color green?” He was spinning it and said “it has batteries in it to make it rain.” He then wanted me to lift him up so he could let the air from the air conditioner into his mouth: “Yummy air.”

We found our car at the new parking spot and as we drove off he said “That place is my favorite.” Wasn’t clear if he meant the parking spot or apartment or what. We got up to the Imunch Cafe in the Brewerytown neighborhood at 10:15. We ordered a mang strawberry smoothie and two egg croissant sandwiches. Carly’s with cheese and mine also with salmon. We found a seat upstairs (it was empty) and August went back down with Carly after a few minutes. I heard “Is it done yet? Is it done yet?” We got the smoothie and headed back up. Reviews said the service could be a bit slow, and it was. Not sure why we had to wait for our sandwiches, but we did. People were all very nice though. But when we did get our sandwiches, August suddenly said “I need to go real bad” I took him down to use the bathroom and he sang a “Spiraly spiral” song as we went down the spiral staircase. That bathroom was in use, but we were told there was one upstairs. We went in there and he exclaimed “Nice bathroom!” Went and finished our breakfast, then went over to the Smith Playground.

Got to the playground at 11:05. I hadn’t really looked into it much, but knew from the map it looked big. It didn’t disappoint, as there is playground after playground. On the walk over from the car though he said “I’m not going to walk in ANY grass.” We gave a five dollar donation and I let him put it in the box. Carly then had a few coins that he was able to put in the alligator (well, actually a dragon) thing.

Play at the first playground fir awhile. There was a monkey bar sort of thing that tilted back and forth. Did that quite a bit, and he called it a pump, pumping up a tire. But when other kids started coming he didn’t do so well. He didn’t want to share, and wanted whatever toy other kids were playing with. We had to pause and Carly talked to him for a minute. He got better after that, but mainly because we found the historic wooden slide that you ride down on burlap sacks. He and Carly went down. And did it again and again and again. Ten or more times total. I sat and read and watched them.

Then over to a ship area for awhile. He sat in a swing thing that went back and forth and said “I call it a back and forth swing.” From there to the train, which he pretended to drive to another playground, but where mainly the kids would sit next to each other in the cars, not really doing much. A little odd, actually.

It was hot and humid, so next we headed inside August spent almost all of his time playing with a little grain elevator sort of toy that went with the wooden train set. I showed him that the K’nex pieces lying about would work in it. He had to collect all the pieces he could find: “I actually need all those…I need all the K’nex to make the conveyor belt go.” He tried to keep it to himself when another kid tried playing with it, but otherwise did just fine. He also played a bit with a toy vacuum cleaner.

We went to the bathroom, then left just at 1. We went to The Monkey and Elephant coffee shop. All they had for August was a lemonade, which he first wanted, but then said he didn’t like when it came, but then drank a fair amount of when I coaxed him into liking it. They had a few shelves of children’s books and I  read Bernstain Bears and the Trouble with Friends. We left the coffee shop at 1:40. Carly and I traded drinks as they made hers with too much chocolate and cinnamon in it (just a mocha). Here they had the coin parking meters, and he asked how they worked, so we talked through the whole process.

We decided to go for a drive and see if he would take a nap. We had neglected to ask him about the bathroom, and as we neared West Fairmount Park he said he needed to use the bathroom. So we went to the children’s museum and parked on the street and used a portapotty across the street. I looked up the hours and price for the Please Touch museum and it wasn’t good: 19 dollars for each of us and it closed at 5. So we decided to leave it for tomorrow and went for a drive. He did not, however, fall asleep. Everntually he wanted a snack and had some Cheerios. He was pretending they were coins (pennies, in particular). When he had had enough he said “And that’s enough coins.”

We got back to Smith Playground at 2:50. Before we went in though he found a mystery flavor lollipop in the car and we let him eat it. But first I tricked him, flipping the stick over as if there had been nothing under the wrapper. He looked at the stick though and said “That’s my favorite pointing stick.” I think that had been a reference to the Berenstain Bears book in which a pointing stick gets broken. Anyway, it turned out to be root beer, and then outside the car (maybe when we were leaving?) we found a pair of white sunglasses that somebody had lost and we decided to keep. We’ve lost a couple pairs ourselves, so it seemed reasonable to get a pair back.

He asked to put more coins in the alligator (dragon) thing, so he and I went back to the car and got all the pennies, nickels, and dimes out of it, and I remembered the bag of change in my backpack. He had a good little stack of coins to put in.

We wandered through the nature playground area this time, then walked over under a great big tree before going to the bathroom with Carly. On his way out he kept repeating “The things they’re using I want to play with, but the things they’re not using I don’t want to play with but…” Down in the playground he sat in a spinning cup thing that he was able to make spin by himself. Had a lot of fun on those, then wandered off with Carly while I looked for Wanamaker Organ info on my phone. They ended up at the swings, where he was swinging on his stomach and kicking his legs way up. He spotted some colorful cotton ball things on a tree as decorations and sent me to investigate, then I took him over to look at them. He fell off while getting back on the swing. He then wanted me to steal Carly’s swing, politely asking: “When mama’s done could you please steal mama’s swing?”

But then the best toy of the day: a big rotating cone made out of rope. He climbed halfway up and basically hung on for the next twenty minutes as people pushed it, chanting “faster, faster, faster” or “not much faster”. We also spent some time on an odd sort of teeter totter before he went back to the cone.

Before we left I took him into the bathroom. There were lots of questions about pipes in the bathroom. We left at 4:50. The plan was to drive into downtown and go see the Wanamaker Pipe Organ, the largest in the world, getting played at 5:30, then go to a Thai restaurant for dinner. Driving through downtown was crazy, and we couldn’t find a parking garage. Not a lot of them. Finally found one right in the Macy’s building at parked at 5:30. Went up and saw the organ, then watched from the second floor. August liked it, but was getting tired and hungry. We stayed about a half hour total. He was lying on the floor by t
he jeans area, pretending to be a pump and saying “The pump wore out.” There was lots of being a machine today and also sucking people up.

Anyway, that seemed like a good sign that we should get going so we left at 6. We parked just north of our place and August got upset when I put the credit card in the parking meter and he didn’t get to do it. He hit me with his sunglasses.  Carly asked if he had hit dada and he admitted “Yeah”. They headed to the apartment to turn on the AC and ended up staying for awhile as he sat on the toilet. They then went to the market and got some drinks. I went to a Thai restaurant but it was permanently closed, so I went to another one a couple blocks away and ordered a couple things and brought them back.

I was back after 7. I had developed quite a headache and lay down for a a few minutes. He said he had the same headache as me, which was funny, but then it turned out that he was actually quite concerned about me. Very touching. I got up and we had dinner. He really liked the wide noodles that Carly had gotten. He wanted some water and said “I want to get the food in my tummy soggy.”

After dinner he found the Wheat Thins and I joked that those were car snacks and that if he ate any we would have to go for a drive in the car or the snack police would come. He said “There’s no snack police?” Carly took a shower and we put stuff away and talked while she showered. He sat on the rocking chair and it bumped the wall. I moved it forward to it wouldn’t bump, and he joked “There’s no wall police?”

He wanted to read the Intro to Electricity book so I started to read it, then realized I needed to move the car one more time at 8. I went and did that and was back at 8:25. I came back to find them reading the rules of experimenting with electricity. He had her read that section several times: “I want to read the rules again. I like the rules.”

She gave him a little bath, then he was asleep about 8:40.

They started walking up around 7:30. I had gone for a little walk down the trail along the lake as I listened to S-Town. I came back in about 8:15. They were sitting on the floor, August sneezing. Colin came out and he gave August a hug, then was giving other people hugs. August really wanted mama to get a hug, and he made sure she got one from Colin. I ate some of the leftover pizza for breakfast, which confused Carly and Cassie when they saw me turning on the oven. August requested toast, then peanut butter, jam, and honey on it.

I took a shower, then found him being unhappy with things: Chuck had made an egg for Vivian so August wanted one too and he made him one as well. But then August wasn’t happy with the fork he got. While he was protesting the forks and not eating the egg, Cassie cut up apple and handed it to Vivian and Colin. August demanded some. I picked him up and took him to the bedroom where we had a quiet timeout. He just sat there.

We were getting ready to head to Philadelphia, and Cassie was taking the two kids to the gym. August wanted them to come with us to Philadelphia. They said goodbye and left and we finished loading the car. He then ate his egg and some other food. Then, he was being funny on the toilet. He was kind of hitting his bottom and saying “The poop’s not coming out. I need blueberries.” We left  at 10:30.

We took a blue highways route to Philadelphia. It was a wonderful and scenic drive with all sorts of landscapes and views of the Delaware River and old houses and abandoned buildings and historical markers. That lasted for about an hour until 611 left the banks of the Delaware a ways south of Phillipsburg. And that, of course, was when August, who had settled in and been watching Sarah and Duck for awhile, decided he was hungry and wanted to get out. We made it to Doyelstown, parked and they nursed in the car. I found the Sweet Pea Ice Cream shop and we went there for ice cream. He chose straight chocolate, and I got a cinnamon twist pretzel. We sat and ate those. I had found the Mercer Museum and the James A. Michener art museum. We decided to walk over to them so Carly could get a postcard for her grandmother, who really likes Michener. We left the ice cream place at 12:35, did that, then hurried back and left. We’d liked to come back and actually visit the museums sometime.

August promptly fell asleep at 1:15 and slept until Carly woke him up as we entered Philadelphia after 2:20. We had driven through Manayunk, a neighborhood Carly had researched when we were considering moving to Philadelphia, on our way in. We decided to go over by the University of Pennsylvania (one of the other neighborhoods Carly had looked at) for lunch and to walk around. We started walking at 2:40 found a Cori and ate there. Carly got a salad and August and I shared an order of mac and cheese, a cup of tomato basil soup, and some carrots.

We then walked around the campus, August in the stroller. We headed from the east to the west. Along the way, a woman with a two year old talked to us. She was quite amusing, talking about how people tell her her son’s too old for a stroller and that he shouldn’t liked pink. On the way back west through campus we stopped at 3:45 and he watched a couple of workers sawing a block of concrete and building a walkway and steps for several minutes. At one point Carly asked if he wanted to stay longer or get going and he said he was ready to go. Then he said “Stay. I changed my mind.” We then went in a building and used the bathroom and filled our waters and walked back east, then diagonally northwest back to where our car was.

We got to our Airbnb place on Moravian St. near Rittenhouse Square at 5. At first we couldn’t get in, but I called the owners and they quickly had the door entry code fixed. We settled in, then decided to go for a walk over to the Schuylkill River and to the Markward Playground. We got going, him in the stroller. We walked along the boardwalk. We stopped so he could get out and walk, and he saw a low big bench, the sort I would use if he was in the big backpack, and asked “That ones for backamapacks?”

Because of the lack of exits from the boardwalk and the railroad tracks we had to go a little long and circle back around, but we made it to the playground. It was quite nice, and he wandered through it, playing. We left by 6:30.

On the way back he wanted to nurse and he said he wanted to nurse in the car. He had been a little nervous upon getting to the Airbnb place. Carly remembered that he’d been really nervous in Thailand and told him about it and how he ended up liking it. That seemed to help, and he did fine. There still seemed to be a little nervousness as he was hesitant to go back. Anyway, I asked “Why not the hotel?” And he replied “Why not the car?” We repeated that several times.

We walked on up to Trader Joe’s to get snacks, milk, drinks for dinner, fruit, etc. It was busy, but didn’t seem horrible. Then I noticed the line that circled ¾ of the way around the grocery store. I stood in line, did a little more shopping as it moved, and Carly left with August to go to the pizza place. The line moved quickly though, and I caught up with them at the pizza store, Rione, as they were paying. We went back to our place and had dinner. Carly cut up the five kinds of pizza, and we had fruit and smoothie drinks from the store.

August has started wiping himself on the toilet, an influence from Vivian. At 8 I went and moved the car. Was afraid it was going to be difficult to find another spot, but found one just at the east end of the alley as it rained slightly. Got back to the apartment and August said “Now I want to clean up and go.” August tasted the berry drink and said “Ewww” when he tasted the berry drink. He was joking though, although he had done the same thing to the tart cherry one earlier and had actually not liked that one. He needed cream on his bottom, and when Carly got it he asked “This is the normal cream we have in Korea? I want to lie down like in Korea.”

We went out for a walk at 8:30. We walked over to Rittenhouse Square. We walked around it and looked at the fountain and talked about how it worked. He got off the stroller and was pushing it around in a wheelie. He wanted to find a bench, and Carly was pretending to not see any. He started pointing them all out, using the stroller as a pointing device. They played more of the tea game: “smoke with milk” and as we walked back to the apartment he was making a humming noise. He said he was a machine digging underground.

We got back at 9. He showed a little nervousness it seemed as he didn’t want to go back inside. He pointed back down the alley and said “I want to go back that way.”

Convertible table. He then said “I want one extra walk…Can we please do one extra walk?” And of the apartment he said “It’s not even fun.”

August sat on the toilet and Carly took a shower. They had a wonderful conversation in the bathroom – about how mama washes her hair, sharing the soap, playing peekaboo, and all sorts of other things. I’ve noticed that, as talkative as he’s always been, his conversations have really taken off since he got to the U.S. and has had so many people to talk to. Now, when he’s with Carly in the bathroom or the backseat of the car it’s just constant conversation.

He talked about not using tissue when he has snot: “I just pick it.” And he talked about the low bed and the bed on the floor: “I’m used to having it low. But normally I like it high.” And he was talking in a British accent (comes from the tea game and watching Sarah and Duck) and was listing all the things he doesn’t like “I don’t like…” He was asleep at 10.

Boardwalk: 

Playground: 

Trader Joe’s: 

Dinner in our place: 

Our place: 

Returning from our evening walk: 

August was the last up today, around 8:30. He made his way to Carly through all the hugs, etc. Carly started to take him in for a moment of private time, but then he said he was okay with Colin and Vivian and so they stayed in the bedroom and played. Carly was a saint for handling all that craziness so early. They were playing out on the porch when I was taking a shower. I ended my shower to hear crying: It was Colin. He had started to come in the room with his hands covered with sand. Carly tried to stop him but poked him with a fingernail and he got upset. Then he got the sand over the bed and managed to wipe his snot on a blanket. Calmed quickly though. Carly got the vacuum cleaner out and August vacuumed the floor while Vivian and Colin took rides on the vacuum cleaner.

August came out and sat next to Colin at the counter (August can climb up on the tall chairs) and wanted the same cereal (Life) and soy milk as Colin. Vivian came and was the one left out of the chairs and got upset – remarkably, this was our first conflict over the two chairs. I poured cereal and milk for him. I didn’t put much milk in and August just gave me a look, like “Really?” He then said he wanted them floating. I gave him some more, then a minute later he asked Jeff “Could I please have a straw to drink my milk?” Jeff showed August a little compass and August asked a ton of question about it. He hasn’t used a compass of any sort since using my phone in the subways and our apartment.

Bathroom. He tri D out Colin’s seat. Vivian came down and went to the whiteboard. August scribbled on her writing though so I took him out of the room. He and Colin then played in the bedroom. I gave Colin a piggy back and August wanted one from Carly. We walked out to the dining room to find Jeff working on the RC car. The kids all “helped” Jeff with that for several minutes. Jeff took off another wheel so Vivian and August could each have one. August had a lot of questions for Jeff about why it had broken and how it worked.

Before we left for brunch at Little Corner Cafe, I went to the back porch with Vivian and August to get our shoes. On the way to the front, Vivian and August ate some leaves that she said were edible. We left at 10:25 and made it to the cafe a few minutes later. We got the big table in the yard, which worked out really well; it would have been difficult to have Vivian and August in the restaurant. They were a bit difficult to start with: August didn’t want water, Vivian was standing on her chair, etc. Things started to turn around when they got up and started walking on the rocks, and then the fruit plate came. For the core pieces August was throwing them on the ground. Carly told him to put them on the plate and he matter-of-factly said “No, I’m throwing it on the ground.” Vivian and August both got big orders of French toast to share with Carly. I got the frittata special. Chuck and Cherie got the eggs Benedict and the corned beef. August and Vivian both ate a lot:

“After I eat those two I want more.” Vivian ate a ton of syrup, then didn’t want to share her third piece of french toast, which should have been Carly’s. August gloated by walking to her as he chewed a bite. Chuck suggested that would be a 15-yard penalty in football. A couple minutes later I was with August and he asked “Why like they do in American football?” Carly had picked up August and hauled him away when he was gloating, and as she carried him we noticed he was wearing one pink shoe; he had slipped on one of Vivian’s shoes as he stood there. I asked him about it and he said “I like pink.” Carly and Cherie took the kids in for the bathroom. There was only one toilet, and they ended up playing musical toilets as they both needed to go multiple times. Overall a good brunch. Service was a little frazzled, but nice. And the food was excellent.

We left at 12:15. Chuck and Cherie headed to do some shopping. I spotted Pennico Park on the map and we drove over there. We played there for over an hour. It was an empty park, but had a nice playground. Did swings, August was brave and went down a steep slide, etc. Vivian wanted August to go on a two person rocking thing, but it was in the sun and August sat in the shade under the play structure. I went to the bathroom, and when I came back they were both on it. I got there water bottles at one point, and August said “I don’t like my water bottle. It’s not purple.” Because Vivian’s is purple. His is pink, which he always likes every other time.

Then, the fire siren went off. Which was new to Carly as well as the kid, but reminded me of Chelan when I was a kid. This one kept going and going though. The kids covered their ears, then wanted to go. I said it would stop soon, but they wanted to go. Of course, it stopped as we got close to the car. Vivian said they could play again, but then the siren went off again. We left for real.

As we left, I pointed out the Chevy emblems on cars. They then looked for both Subarus and Chevys on the way home. When we got to the corn field that is close, August called that one out – I’ve taught him to identify corn – and said “Corn! Yeah! Corn! Yeah!” We were back at 1:35. Chuck and Cherie had purchased flip flops for Vivian and August, pink and blue. August wanted pink, but wore his. They were difficult for him to walk in.

Vivian really wanted to go for a walk in her new flip flops. Eventually Carly gave in and took them for a walk down the gravel road across the street. She used Cassie’s nice stroller with August. They met a couple of girls that Vivian knows along the way and walked with them. They were back about 2:30.

In the play room, August reached into the toy box and activated a piggy bank toy that made noise. He did it a couple times, but had a scared/sad look on his face and said “I want it off.” Don’t know why. Vivian dug it out and showed him how to turn it off, then they played with it, then moved on to other toys and Duplos. That lasted 15 or 20 minutes, then they calmly divided for private time. She went upstairs and he came to me and he and I read Sid the Science Kid three times and Maisy Cleans Up. Colin woke up, so the end of reading time. August was playing with the gate, and Cherie explained the baby gate and the concept of ‘jail’ to August. He kept asking ‘why’.

He went in to nurse, and Vivian hung out in the room as well. They went out on the porch. He mentioned a wheelbarrow and Colin went in and got a Duplo one. August was spraying with the water bottle and sprayed Cassie’s coffee when she spilled some. He then helped Cassie with the watering, and he said “Don’t spray people ever.” Not sure if he was just reciting a rule to himself, or saying it to Cassie when she got water close to him. He was a bit upset when he got sprayed by Vivian a little later. He then spent a long time in the bathroom, Carly with him. Vivian was looking in the window and feeding him green beans. He ate a lot.

We had thought to go to Belvidere this afternoon, but I realized all the shops were closed. Cassie had mentioned a playground in Roseto she had heard about but hadn’t found. I found it at the ballpark. So we were going to go there. But then the kids just kept playing and playing and playing in the yard, so we didn’t go.

Instead, Vivian and August were playing with rocks, and August said “I’m making a tower for Ants that has one really big rock on it.” He found another rock: “Oh! That’s nice! It has holes in it. What the holes came from?” “I’m making a home for Ants. JUST Ants!” As he points at Carly. But then Vivian said she was making a home for fireflies. August’s story changed and he was making a home for fireflies, but then was saying all sorts of insects could come in it. He drew the line at rabbits and bears.

Vivian carried him across the grass to the stones in front of the old outhouse. They played there with the rocks. He was excited about peeing in the grass and was drinking a lot of
water so he’d have to pee. In the meantime, Vivian peed in Colin’s potty chair. So he wanted to pee in that. Vivian brought it over to him and he used it a couple times. Vivian wanted to glue rocks together so went and got glue but couldn’t make it work. She got watercolor paints instead and they painted smiley faces on rocks, then painted their fingernails and feet.

Colin had been playing with them, but went in close to 6 for dinner. I went in after awhile and he was pulling my hand and saying “dinner” and wanted me to sit. I went and told the other kids that Colin wanted us to come in for dinner but they were playing so well that we didn’t want to interrupt them. I ate, then switched with Carly. They painted their nails a bit, then Colin got involved by stealing the rocks with smiley faces on them.

August went in to poop, then when we came out we found Vivian and Colin, naked (Colin had a diaper) in the kiddie pool. August climbed in, but I said “time out” to pause to take off his clothes. He said “Why a timeout? You mean the other timeout?” Vivian was using a scoop to get bugs out of the water. August kindly asked “when you’re done with it, can I have it?”

August then pooped in his diaper and contaminated the pool. They got out, then were over by the grapes arbor. They ate parts of grapes and spit them out and ran around the yard naked. I left for the store at 7. He ate a chicken burger but then bit his tongue while eating veggies. He wouldn’t show it to Carly, but she saw a good amount of blood.

I got back at 8. They were all screaming in the bedroom. Like really screaming. Started getting ready for a bath at 8:10. I walked in our bedroom to find Colin playing night night. He had come in through the screen door. Carly had carefully cleaned the room after the earlier sand incident. I got him out now to find a bunch of grass in the bed. She vacuumed that while I dealt with August. Carly and I were both in the bathroom for his bath. He was doing a great job of letting Carly wash him, including his hair, until I said something about it and then he started whining again. Back in the bedroom, Colin, who hadn’t had a bath yet, ran in, climbed on the mattress on the floor, and intentionally wiped his diaper area with the sheet. So funny, but now time to wash the sheet.

Carly took a shower. Vivian wouldn’t let August go upstairs. When she did, she was bossing him around and I told her she needed to stay away from August and guided her away from August. She got upset – I think she interpreted it as she couldn’t play with August at all any more. Jeff showed August his office, but then we headed downstairs. August and so read the Sid the Science Kid book about germs twice (now five times on the day), then Maisy Cleans Up. Vivian stuck her head out at the stairs and we invited her down. I suggested she could choose the next book, and she chose Miss Bindergarten, which August says he didn’t like. “I’ve read it too many times.” (We’ve read it once, but August had been asking why Vivian doesn’t like the Maisy book and I suggested she had read it too many times). We read that, then started on the Little Clifford Graduation book.

Vivian and August both said they were thirsty. Vivian got a cup of water and let August drink from it. When he had trouble with it and wanted a straw, she went and got one for him. He started to blow bubbles in it and we told him to stop. He asked why and I said because that gets germs in someone else’s water. He then heard Vivian telling Cassie that he was blowing his germs in the water. He looked at me and got a very sad look on his face, exclaimed “I got my germs…” and broke out crying before he could finish his sentence. He was both incredibly tired and we had read that germs book five times. He was asleep around 9:15.

After I came out, Vivian was waiting for me on the couch. We finished reading the Clifford book, but I said I needed to get ready for bed, so no books after that. She was sore with me, and wouldn’t say goodnight or thank you when Cassie asked her to. A bit later Carly and I were sitting in the play room and she came in and interacted a bit with Carly, but ignored me. When she came back a second time she did come and give me a hug, but didn’t say a word. All four of them came down a bit later though for a snack as no one was falling asleep. I got Jeff to tell his whole Ukraine story and about the stuffed cat toys with testicles. So funny. Could be a Moth podcast story.

RC car: 

Pink shoe: 

Park: 

Feeding August green beans: 

Hanging out in the yard: 

Naked time: 

Kazoo and bite mark: 

Less bad dreams last night. But I did hear him clearly say “It’s mine” awhile before I got up. He was the first kid up, at 8:07. The others were down shortly. Oatmeal for breakfast. Cherie and I were being silly and August was laughing and said “I don’t want to laugh or I’ll spit my food.” We then gave him conflicting advice on either not laughing or not eating. Vivian watched a new show. She didn’t want August to watch at first. He finished his breakfast then went back and she was more accommodating.

August was the first to get antsy and want to go outside. He found Vivian’s umbrella and played with it, then August and I played outside. We found the pink bottle, which had been missing, and sprayed things. We piled into two vehicles and left for downtown Bangor and the farmer’s market. Parked at 10:30 and walked to the little square in town. Say a couple of dogs along the way, including a Norwegian ridgeback.

First stop was the fire truck, where they got plastic hats and got to sit in the truck. Then to get cookies. August went to Carly and said “Mama you can share my chocolate cookie.” August complained about not having free samples that he liked. He refused to try cheese with me, and was upset when the beer ones were only for adults. He had fun climbing on the cannons though, then we ended up at a big puddle and the kids took off their shoes and played in it. I got a cold brewed coffee that was really, really good. August and I went and put a few dollars in the guitar case for the musician. He was playingsongs like “Hotel California”. August didn’t want his feet on the sunny pavement so I held him sideways to put the money in. We then talked about where the electricity came from and how all the cords worked.

Back to the puddle for a couple minutes, then it was decided we were headed home. Beets, basil, and a few other things had been purchased. There had been talk of a park earlier, so the kids were a little upset that we were just heading home. Vivian and August had held hands much of the way there, and Vivian kept asking August to get down out of my arms so they could hold hands on the way back. Did that at the end.

We were back before noon. August played in the car for a few minutes then I carried him in and we had some leftover pizza for lunch. They were then playing really well on the bed, which was impressive because the three of them were being pretty rough, hiding under the blanket and attacking each other and pulling it around. That ended though when Vivian grabbed my pillow and declared it hers. August of course then wanted that same pillow. Vivian then declared the window hers as well when August wanted to see out. I declared we were done playing on the bed. August nursed for a bit, then Vivian had laid out the blue towel like a red carpet to our door, but pulled it away right before August stepped on it, then grabbed the green towel, held it up, and declared that hers as well.

A bit later they all went out. August was pulling Colin as he sat in the red plastic wagon. They then went to the garage and were riding bikes. I went out as they were playing upstairs. I had to stop August from trying to throw his shoes down the stairs. They then wanted to slide down the stairs on their bottoms. They had done this once the other day and August was scarily fast. We said they couldn’t race, but at the end August did the last few fast and Vivian was upset she didn’t win. They then did it again, but despite making it clear to them that they couldn’t race, they both started going fast. I grabbed August up before he got to the bottom and Vivian was upset that she didn’t win again. I joked to Jeff that it was like illegal street racing.

I had also been spending an insane amount of time trying to renew our cell phones for another month and finally got that done. Back inside it wasn’t clear if the two of them were getting along nicely or not. August got too close to her as she wrote on the whiteboard and she picked him up, like she does with Colin, and went and set him on a chair. Cassie told he she couldn’t do it, but Cassie also asked August “Do you like it when Vivian picks you up?” He thought and said “Umm, I don’t like this chair.” Cassie and I cracked up.

Colin didn’t go down for a nap, so Cassie decided she’d take him along to the park as well. The three of us took the three kids to Weona Park again. Cassie and I took the three kids on the carousel. As we left, August pointed out the giraffes and Vivian, him, and I decided we’d ride those next time. Then to the playground. They chased Carly around a bit. Cassie suggested we go get slurpees, so we walked across the street to get those, Vivian and August holding hands. We came back and August and I sat at a picnic table and he drank some of my cider drink and more of his slurpee and went back to play. I sat and read for awhile. After a bit they all went to the bathroom, then headed to the stage. I headed over to the stage a few minutes later but found August crying. Colin had bit him, probably while August was giving him a hug. August nursed, and kept pointing and saying “Leave”.

So we all left. He and Vivian were both upset we didn’t do the carousel again, then he was upset we were leaving. We all stopped at the bank and he was upset about stopping. And then I had told Vivian she didn’t need another mint, and when he asked he was again really sad because I said no.

Got back to the house at 4:30. We did a family hug at one point. Carly helped a little with dinner, but then she had to take over with August and Vivian when I skyped with my parents. August wasn’t in a Skyping mood. I gave my parents a tour as we skyped and they saw a bunny out in the lawn and saw the garage. When I was done Vivian and August were fighting about a broken little gear thing in the garage. Carly had been working on getting them to share, letting the other person go first when they are having snacks in the car, and has had some success, but it will take awhile.

Back inside Colin appeared to be about to bite him again and Cassie yelled. She assured August she wasn’t yelling at him, but that, and/or realizing Colin was about to bite him, did it and August was upset. He went into the bedroom with Carly and they nursed and watched Sarah and Duck. Some well-needed quiet time. Vivian, meanwhile, thought they were taking too long and wrote a note, with Cassie helping spell it, saying “You’re taking too long” and slid it under the door. I got out the iPad keyboard and had Colin and Vivian play with it for awhile, then played with Colin in the Duplo area.

They came out for dinner, which was delicious. Cassie had made pesto. Cherie had done beets, which August decide he liked and ate several of. Carly and August had alone time again and I had the game of figuring out how to put all the leftovers in the fridge.

Carly and I then took August in the stroller for a walk around the lake and got back to the house at 7:10. Cherie had made two apple pies and they were eating pie as when we returned. August and I sat at the counter and he said that apple was his favorite pie. Also, he’s been loving the combo fork and spoon (they’re at opposite ends) and said “I really like fork spoons.”

They were outside with Carly for a bit and Vivian bit an apple that had fallen to the ground. Vivian and Colin went to pick apples with Cassie, and August wanted to pick one too. As we went to get his shoes he said “I want to pick an apple but first I want to but my shoes on cuz I don’t like the feel of the grass…cuz with shoes on I don’t have the feel of it.”

I gave August his bath and Vivian got in as well. He discovered a small but tender scrape on his ankle and didn’t want to get it wet, so stood with his left leg over the side of the bath. But eventually he had it in the water and Vivian was counting to see how long he had kept it in (Carly had suggested this to him, saying that she and Cassie had done that when they we
re kids). But then Vivian was sitting on the edge of the tub with a foot on the ground. August wanted to do it, but he just isn’t tall enough and I explained that. He got really sad and started crying. Got him out, dried him, and took him to Carly. He was asleep at 8:30. He then kept rolling off the bed. At one point he just had his head off, then rolled off onto the floor completely. And at some point early in the night he was sort of kicking the closet door in his sleep.

Fire truck: 

Cannon: 

walking back to the car: 

Carousel: 

Slurpees: 

Walk along the drained lake: 

Apple picking: 

And more fireworks: 

On the carousel:  

At Weona Park: 

Colin and bubbles: 

Surprised by Vivian: 

Lollipop: 

Floatation devices: 

In the car: 

In the gazebo: 

Popsicles: 

Reading time: 

More reading: 

Watching a show: 

Wagon: 

Weona Park again: 

Admiring Vivian’s shoe: 

Headed to the puddle: 

Fireworks: 

Getting pushed: 

Glowsticks: 

More fireworks: 

Columcille: 

He seemed to have a lot of bad dreams last night, although it wasn’t clear what any of them were about. I was downstairs by the kitchen when Vivian and Colin woke up and opened the window above me. “Hello!” Colin kept calling. August was then up at 8. He came out, then retreated a bit from the attention. I held him while he woke up. For breakfast he didn’t like Cherie’s oatmeal, instead requesting oatmeal with milk in it. He was then doing a lot of coveting: wanting the chair Cassie was in, the bathroom when Vivian was in it.

We got ready and left just after 9:30. Everyone but Jeff and Cassie. We took Vivian in our car and Chuck and Cherie had Colin. Got to Freefall Trampoline Park about 10:10. I took August to the bathroom, then we got jumping at 10:30. A lot of jumping and sliding. I stayed with them for awhile, then Carly took him into a big climbing structure thing and I sat and read for awhile. They went back out and he fell at some point. They then came over to the foam cube area and I rejoined them. Vivian and Colin were using the foam cubes to make a square on a trampoline. She had finished the square, but then all the other kids around started playing in/around it and she got upset. It turned into a sort of cube fight, of which August took part. He told Carly “Mama, go in here. It’s soooo fun!” We went and did some more jumping before our time was over at 11:30. He and Colin were jumping and sliding down some ramps.

We left, stopping to stomp in a puddle. Carly drove on the way home. August sang a “Guess who’s here” song. Not sure where that came from. He politely asked “Would you please turn up the music so I can hear it?” But then kept repeating it. We were listening to CSNY’s Deja Vu today. The song at the moment was “Helpless”.

We got back to the house at 12:20. August found a big dead moth on the porch and got the room and started sweeping it off the porch. Vivian saw it and got upset and sad and was crying. Then Cherie came up and, not knowing what Vivian was crying about, stepped right on the moth. Vivian got more upset and Cherie suggested they say a prayer. Vivian didn’t likes that and wagged her finger at Cherie.

Inside Cherie cut pickles as a snack. Things stayed rocky between him and Vivian for awhile. Vivian was blocking from the pickles at one point. Eventually though they were playing in the bedroom with Carly. I heard August asking for a cousin hug. They were then outside for a few minutes spraying water. August came in and sat a toy popsicle and wanted a real one. He went up to Cherie and politely asked “Could I please have a popsicle?” We said yes and he and Vivian both chose lime. He immediately headed out to the front porch where they had eaten them yesterday. I asked if that was the popsicle eating area and he said yes “I don’t want to get inside messy.” Vivian and August sat in the front doorway eating their popsicles for several minutes, discussing why they like lime and who knows what else, as it rained outside. A very peaceful moment.

They did some more playing, then came in with Carly for hot chocolate. Not sure how that came up. A nice sharing moment: Vivian went and got her turtle towel and seemed to flaunt it at first. But Cherie talked Vivian into sharing it, then Vivian gave it to August, then they took turns and were happy.

I went and laid down for awhile – I was woken by mosquito bites and some sneezing last night, and August’s bad dreams. August used the bathroom, but seemed addicted to the toilet. He was on it for 45 minutes to an hour. Exasperating, actually, as I didn’t want to hang out in the bathroom, or keep getting called in for drippies or whatever. When he was finally out he went out with Carly to find Vivian. Think they were in the motor home for some time. Colin came down at 3:40. I was in the bedroom working on the blog and had some music going. The deathly silent house was getting to me. Anyway, Colin came in and danced to Daft Punk’s “Technologic” as it was playing. He then figured out how to choose different songs and would listen to one for awhile, maybe dance, then choose another song. We played night night, then he spotted papa and tata (August) out the window at the grape arbor. By the time we went out to go to them, they came over to the back porch.

Vivian and August did music apps together for quite awhile. They started wanting to take turns, but I talked about how August knew how to use them, and he could show her things and they could work together, and they did a pretty good job, both with Figure and then mainly Musyc.

Carly and I decided to take the two of them into town to get pizza for dinner. August wasn’t moving when I was trying to get him to the bathroom, but as soon as Vivian called first and ran in he said “I wanted to go first! I really, really, really, really, really, really need to go to the bathroom.” Once in there, Carly had some difficulty getting him off the toilet again.

We drove into town and parked near Bono Pizza. Ordered a veggie, a mushroom and olive, and a cheese. We then walked east through town and went to the CVS pharmacy. Carly got something, and I stayed with the kids while they played with some massagers. We then walked back west, checking out the coffee shops (3 of them), a mural, etc. August liked the lines we made when we drove through the puddles in the stroller, so we started hitting every puddle.

Got back and had pizza for dinner. He ate most of a mushroom and olive piece on his own. He then crawled under the table while everyone else ate and just sat there for a bit. He was under Vivian’s chair, which she objected to, so I swept the floor with him, and then Vivian pulled him around by the legs. The three red chairs got lined up and Vivian climbed over them. We told them no standing, and August said they were for sitting and said it was like a bus. So each kid sat in a chair and Cherie sang Wheels on the Bus. August was staring at Cherie with an odd look while she sang, and she started laughing. August, seemingly trying to figure out why she was laughing, asked “You’re not good at singing?” It turned into a train, and into a train song.

They then went to the bedroom, where Colin played night night, and the other two kept giving him cousin hugs. Colin started to say “no” quite clearly.  A little after 7 they were playing outside with the hose. Mainly August was filling Colin’s dump truck and Colin was dumping it out. August also realized that when the pressure was low when he lifted the hose up it stopped spraying water for a few seconds. We discussed that phenomenon. He also drank from the hose and said it was really good water. I got him to say ‘yummy cool wawa’. Vivian told him it was ice cream time, but he said he needed to finish drinking water first. August mainly had the peanut butter crunch time.

Then there were fireworks again. When Colin stole a bunch of used matches, threw them in his wagon, and ran off Vivian followed him. August wouldn’t follow though because he’d have to walk in the grass. He would walk on the the pokey rocks part of the sidewalk each time to get to the fireworks area so he doesn’t go on the grass. But he also didn’t want his shoes on because Vivian didn’t have hers on. August really liked the snakes, and asked to do those: “After we do this loud one can we please do another snake?” And he kept turning to Carly after the fireworks and asking “Did you like that one? Did you see it?”

We went in for a bath at 8:30. Let me hold him and he rested his head on my shoulder for a couple minutes while the bath filled. Vivian took her bath first though and August sat on the toilet for a long time. Carly washed him and it went easy enough, then he played for several minutes. I read paper books for them, letting them all choose books: Maisy Cleans Up, Miss Bindergarten Gets Ready for Kindergarten, Clifford Jr. Graduation Day, and Sid the Science Kid The Trouble with Germs. He was asleep about 9:2
0.

My best joke of the day, when talking about the rainy weather: I didnt fly 5000 miles, then 3000 miles, just to feel like I only flew 5000 miles. Jeff’s best joke was when Colin filled the back of his tricycle with fireworks that he poured out of a box, then he took off. He joked about it being a trike bomb and Colin was off for a checkpoint.

Photos! 

jumping: 

Colin jumping: 

Cousin hug: 

Filling: 

Drinkjng from the hose: 

Reading books: 

Colin was up first, at 7. He wanted me to sit next to him whil he ate, then pulled me by the foot to play with Duplos. Vivian was out at 8:10, and August came out at 8:15, followed by Carly. Colin ran to greet Carly with a hug, then when she sat on the floor he ran eight circles around her. Vivian and August played a bit, then went to see the picture of all of us on the beach that Jeff had drawn for Vivian on the whiteboard.

August tried playing with her by scooting under her chair, which she didn’t like. I talked to both of them, saying they needed to suggest ways to play together, as that was what August was trying to do. They settled on board games, but then argued about which game and which color. I clapped out and Carly took over. They played Tic Tac Toe and I heard everyone laughing – they were both red so that August could win. Or something. Very funny though.

They had pancakes for breakfast. August finished his first and wanted a second, but when I heated it he wandered off and played with Colin and Vivian for a bit outside, then watched videos about toilets with Carly (for some reason). And they interrupted Chuck working at one point: “Opa! Opa! Opa!”

Then I reheated his pancake again and he was eating it as I went to take a shower. I came out to find them playing with Chuck. They had drawn pictures too and August drew a mountain with a person on top an a person climbing it. August got corn out of the freezer and he and Vivian both really wanted some. I made it, but then they were off using the copier to make copies of their art.

August then went upstairs with Cherie. He wanted private time up there. Of course, Vivian ended up there as well and they all played. I went up after a bit and Cherie and I threw stuffed animals at the two of them in the tent. Vivian then asked Cherie to read Miss Suzy, then they read Let’s Go Rock Collecting. August wasn’t really interested in the books, so I played wi him, then we all got ready to play at the park.

We left at 11, after I borrowed two cds from Cheri. CSNY’s Deja Vu and a Melissa Ethridge CD she bought while in Memphis. We listened to the latter today, and the kids both liked it. August asked if he smelled Pepsi, and indeed he did, as Carly had just opened a Pepsi.

We got to Stroudsburg Borough Park and went to the playground. There was one of those rolling slides, and after helping him down it a couple times he did it on his own several times. He also went across the shaky bridge, which required big steps. I said “You got it” when he did the end by himself. He then needed help at the beginning, which was downhill, and said “I got it but I just need some help getting across.” Vivian did a lot of the monkey bars, and went on the swings with Carly. Up on the play structure, August started calling me “Ryan!” and called “Ryan, I need help!” Also, August really had fun doing the log rolling toy, with me holding him, while Vivian and Carly went in the splash pad.

August then wanted to go over to the pool. We only brought his pair of the floats, so made him agree to take turns with them with Vivian. Once they were both agreed we headed over. Vivian used them first, and August tried out a life vest for awhile. However, August changed his mind about the pool once we got there. It seemed to be that he wanted it really shallow, like the beach. But he was also concerned about getting water on his scrapes. Up at the big pool, he liked watching Vivian and the other kids slide down the slides into the water. Carly would catch Vivian.

Carly and Vivian got out and we had lunch. August had switched to the floats, as Vivian had also wanted a life vest. When Vivian put her towel around her August wanted it. In fact he wanted to buy the exact towel: the exact size, the exact softness, with the exact same animals (turtles) on it. They went back to the pool. August wanted his water bottle, which we had left in the car. So he and I walked out to it. He looked back at the pool and saw Carly. He said “I see that mama. That mama is my mama.”

I got him int othe shallow pool up to his ankles once, and he sat on the edge and splashed for a few seconds, but that was it. Mainly, we spent a lot of time talking about how the pool filtering system works, how perspiration works, etc. We left at 1:40 with the plan to go to another park. But August wanted the same park. In fact he said something like “All the parks I have not been to I don’t like.” I think it was Vivian that settled on going to both, the one we were just at and a new park. So we went back to the playground and set a timer for 20 minutes. I was spinning them on the tire swing and my finger got stuck in a hole where the chain is attached to the tire. Didn’t break my finger, but hurt a bit and brought the swing to a halt. Vivian and August bonked heads, which hurt him. He nursed. He called Carly “Ata!” a couple times as well. Carly took him to the bathroom, then he got distracted by mud. Vivian and I met them near the car and the drew in the mud. August suggested “Paint me with dirt!”

We left at 2. August said something in the car and Carly said “What’d you say?” August seemed annoyed she didn’t hear her: “Nothing. Pphhh.”

We drove Bryant Park, the small park we have seen several times. A little play structure, which they played on a bit at the beginning, a grass area, little library, and a pagoda. Carly got out the ball, and we kicked that back and forth when the kids wouldn’t let us in the pagoda. We went to get their water bottles from the car and they found it hilarious when I intentionally handed them the wrong water bottles. They were putting water on their heads (August in particularly was incredibly sweaty from the humid day). August’s did work so well for that. Vivian used her cap as a cup and August wanted to do the same. Some point in there he said “I want to do everything that Vivian does.” She was also sitting on a bench at one point, looking at a book. August was also on the bench, trying to get her attention to play. Got some of it on video, but missed the main part of it.

They went on the pagoda and Carly and I sat and read. They were rehearsing. They then put on a dance performance for us. At the end, they had both climbed up on the railing and Carly hadn’t noticed how August climbed up on it, rather precariously. She was on her phone, texting with Cassie and doing some research for our possible camping trip. I had them call her Botswana Cassie, then as we left August was calling to her “Don’t leave, Botswana Cassie!”

I took a right out of the park and we drove through the nice neighborhood. Both the kids noticed what we were doing and August asked if he’d been here before. Drive back to the house was mainly uneventful until near the end. Vivian had wanted the music up and August commented again on how he liked my music and I reminded them they should tell Oma. But the August started singing his own song. Vivian immediately started screeching in protest, to which August responded by simply singing louder and louder. He kept doing it and we had to threaten him with a consequence when we got back.

We were home just after 3. August did some digging with Colin. Cherie had bought fruit pospicles and Vivian got a lime one for August. He was quite happy with it. Vivian had some drama with hers, but August did fine with his. Until he wanted a second one and the answer was no. Cherie then took them all out to light some tank fireworks she had bought. Vivian and August are now apparently fireworks snobs, as they commented on how the fireworks weren’t really loud and didn’t do a lot.

Vivian and Colin came in and were watching a show on a computer on the couch. Cassie said something about not putting their dirty feet on the couch, and August decided he wanted dirty feet too. He headed outside, telling Cherie something about wanting to get his feet dirty so he couldn’t go on the couch, which was hilarious. I went out with him and let him get hi
s feet dirty. It was starting to rain a bit. We went in the bathroom and washed off his feet, and he got one of the spray bottles. He took it out on the side deck and was shaking his head around and spitting.

Vivian and Colin went over to the garage with Cherie. August and I went a bit later. He kept spraying and spitting water for several minutes, and when it was close to empty he kindly asked “Could you fill it up? It is almost empty.” I pointed out he had been so nice with his tone and explanation that he didn’t even need a ‘please’. Over at the garage they went up and down the stairs, then were throwing rocks at a garbage can Cherie had set up. Colin had been talking to me about the rain, and I was picking him up and spinning him in the rain. August liked that too. They had been riding bikes, but August had started to turn demanding and needy: he followed Colin through a couple of bike changes, always wanting the one Colin had. Then Chuck showed up with a big umbrella. One of them. Vivian had it, then August wanted it. Vivian went inside and came back out with a pink umbrella which he wanted even more. At that point I picked him up and we went inside.

I asked him why he was being demanding. What happened? He replied “I broke…rocks got in me.” Carly was cooking dinner, spaghetti, which involved cooking mushrooms. I carried him to the bathroom, bu as we passed he said “The mushrooms are not cooking well” I said that mama knew what she was doing and he argued “yeah but they won’t be really, really, really yummy.” He then tried to watch a show with Vivian, who was lying on the couch. But he was pressing against her and bothering her. Took him back to the kitchen area and he played with Chuck and Colin. He gave Colin a few big cousin hugs. Later, Colin would return the hugs before bedtime. Chuck showed him the magic trick of pretending to eat a Duplo.

We ate dinner. Spaghetti was a hit, as the kids all ate a lot. The last thing ready was a wonderful loaf of bread that Cherie had bought and heated in the oven. The kids were dipping it in sauce and eating it. August confused us all: “I really don’t like the bread…if there is crust I will dip it in sauce and eat it. If there is not crust I will eat it right away.” I asked him to clarify whether he liked it or not, and he stuck with not liking it. He gave me a serious look and said “I really don’t like the bread.” Then he finished his second piece. Vivian was also funny, trying to convince him that he should still eat it (even as he was), saying: “you need to eat your crust so you don’t get sick.” Funny both because she doesn’t eat crusts, usually, and because it sounds like dubious medical advice. Also, August was giving some to Colin, and Cassie was talking to Colin: “Say thank you.” August: “Thank you…you mean not you?” He then wanted to feed Colin more: “I want more bread to give to Colin.”

After dinner, they played outside on the porch with Carly while Chuck, Cherie, and I cleaned up. They did the tea game, where Vivian and August expanded the sort of gross things they could put in the tea. Colin was then pouring water out of a little tea pot onto the concrete and then dancing in it as he watched himself in the window. August poured water on the wood part, and Colin was pointing and saying “Uh-oh” as they aren’t supposed to get water there.

August got half of a plastic shell stuck in the water table thing and was upset. He thought we couldn’t get it out: “They don’t have ANY screwdrivers.” We went and got a screwdriver (I had him ask Cassie if they had any), then I got it out by just shaking it.

It ended up with just me outside with Colin for awhile. I pushed him back and forth across the grass in the yellow car, him squealing. I suggested we could play in the front as Jeff could be home soon. He said no, but then we looked up and saw Jeff’s car. So I pushed Colin around to the front on the car. He jumped off when he spotted fireflies, but then found Jeff.

Then it was just me and August on the back porch. He was drinking a bunch of water from the spray bottle. I squirted him, but it sprayed harder than I thought and I hit him in the back, not the feet. He was startled, but then wanted a spray fight. We only had one bottle though, so he suggested sharing. So he would spray me in the head, had me the spray bottle, I would spray him, etc.

We went in when he needed the bathroom.Cassie walked in and he asked her “What you doing?” A couple minutes later Carly and Vivian were also in the bathroom, I think to start washing Vivian’s hair, and I heard him pleading “I want privacyyyyy.”

Back outside on the back porch, the three kids were getting Jeff’s shirt dirty with dissolved packing material. Kind of looked like soapy water. Then it was ice cream time. August was insanely happy when he saw them getting out ice cream. Carly was sitting in the middle of the kitchen floor again, helping Colin with his ice cream. Colin ran more circles around her. When August was done with his ice cream he ran around her too and said “This is my ice cream circle!” They were then all hyper. First he was hyper with Opa, then he was singing a “Where is Vivian?” song. He and Vivian were then in the bedroom together, being hyper. Colin joined them after awhile.

I gave August his bath, and it was the easiest bath every. Washing his hair was simple. He even thought he had a little soap on his face and turned on the cold water and put his face under the water. We noticed he had a decent little mark on his forehead from bumping heads. Cherie was in with us, and explained to him how the well water worked. We also played with the torpedo bath toys, which I’d never seen before. Once he was completely rinsed I left and he kept playing and talking to Cherie. He got his foot cold, then warm. Meanwhile, Carly played in the bedroom with Vivian and Colin.

All out in the living room, Carly read stories from my iPad for all three of them. Think they read Peppa Pig Gets a Cold, 1-2-3 Peas, Goodnight Already!, and Harold and the Purple Crayon. It was then time for bed, and he was asleep about 9:00.

August came out just before 7:30, and right after the other two. The house filled up quickly. Jeff made pancakes for breakfast. August almost fell off the stool at one point but caught himself. He had a pancake, then said he wanted more. Chuck asked what his favorite part was and he said “Syrup!”

He got down to play with all the Duplo trucks Colin and I had made: “Which one do I like best?” “I’m playing with this one because I like this one.”

Jeff made pancakes for breakfast. Carly helped August with his first one, then I got him his second. I asked for guidance on how he wanted it cut and whether he wanted syrup on his pancake, or on the side for dipping: “Last time I told mama to put syrup ON my pancake.”

The three kids, after negotiating which stickers he could play with, then played with stickers and play dough at the table for quite awhile.I took a shower. When I came out August and Vivian were playing on the beds with Bluie and Green Monster and debating who got Bluie. August then got to brush his teeth using Vivian’s watermelon toothpaste and spit it out. August was then on the toilet and Colin was playing in the sink. When August got off I was putting his clothes on. With August’s shirt still off, Colin tried to give him a hug. August objected: “No! You are making me freeze! I want hand gloves!” August then ran all the way through the house, Colin chasing him. When he got out to the Duplo area, his shorts fell down and Colin caught him.  Very funny. I then had Colin and Vivian give him a big hug and I called it a ‘cousin hug’.

They played in on the beds again and August called for a “cousin hug” a couple times. Vivian got her metal slinky, then Colin wanted a slinky. Then August did. August ended up with the big one and Colin ended up with the little purple one and they were all happy. They played with those for quite awhile, Vivian and August rolling them down the stairs, ending upon the beds where August had the purple one and was bothering Vivian with it and said it was a hair cutting machine. Vivian wanted Carly to do the tea thing, but Carly said she wanted to save that for bath time. Vivian left and closed the door roughly. Turned out she was upset about the tea thing.

August started playing with the rocket shooter thing (he calls it a plane). They played together. After awhile though Vivian went upstairs. Wasn’t clear why. August wanted to go upstairs but I wouldn’t let him. August was then humming Yankee Doodle through the shooter thing “I’m trying to interrupt Vivian…maybe if I try playing again.” “In a nice way?” “No. In a mean way.” We talked about how he liked playing with Vivian but was frustrated she wasn’t coming downstairs. “Maybe if I play with something loud.” I suggested we go for a walk or something but he didn’t like my ideas. “I want to make Vivian like me.” He got a big smile when she came down and said “Boo!”

At 11:45 we loaded the cars. We had Vivian with us in the red Corolla. August announced “I want to look for Subarus on the way.” Much of the first part of our trip consisted of variations on this conversation, on repeat:

Vivian: “Ata, can I have some crackers? Please?”

August: “Ata, can I have some crackers? Please?”

Vivian: “Can I have crackers first, please?”

Carly then played Sarah and Duck on the iPad and had it wedged between the two front seats so both kids could see it. I commented on how cartoons are so much nicer when they have a nice British accent and calming voices to listen to (like Puffin Rock or Sarah and Duck) as opposed to things like Pororo. I then asked August if he could start saying “S’pose” like Sarah does. At first he said no, but I kept repeating it, then he started saying it.

Carly looked for a park to stop at along the way, but met with failure. It was a patch of grass with two garbage cans in front. We then stumbled upon the Edison Public Library a little before 1:30, which was perfect. Carly headed in with Vivian. August wanted to practice buckling himself in the car seat and saying a lovely “I want to buckle myself” song. And then managed to do all the buckles. We went to the bathroom, then Carly and Vivian read much of Johnny Castleseed. Auspicious, as it taught them how to build a sand castle. And they rode the PAC-Man shaped cushions on their sides. And Carly did a “Rocky, rocky, rocky like a chimpanzee” chant with him on a cushion. I found a bunch of Bill Peet books, but not the Merle book, which I recently ordered for August, and read/looked at a book called The Boy and the Airplane by Mark Pett.

They climbed on the cushions some more, went to the bathroom again, and we left at 1:45. As we drove away August saw a guy outside that he said looked like Opa. We thought because of his build and hair, but August also said because of the red shirt.

We continued on to Sandyhook, watching some more Sarah and Duck. August was calm and zoning out as we got there:

August: Where’s my shoe?

Vivian: Its on your foot…Aaaand one’s on your hand.

We arrived at 2:40. We were the last ones there. Chuck and Cherie had left early to spend some more time exploring, and Jeff and Cassie hadn’t stopped, presumably with Colin taking a nap. We met them at parking lot B and got dressed and suncreened up. August preferred the spray, but just barely. He didn’t make it easy for Carly. We walked to the east, to the inland beach. Had a lovely time, but wish I’d been able to experience the Atlantic beach. Also, neither Carly or I realized it was a National Parks site, with a historic area and everything. Would have liked to gotten there a couple hours earlier so we could have checked all of that out.

Anyway, we stopped at the first beach to set stuff down while Jeff and Cassie walked on and found a perfect spot. August threw some sand in the water and waded a bit. We then walked northward, where a sort of pond area was connected to the bay with a little tidal stream that we spent a lot of time in. But as we got there, August and I the last, August said he needed the bathroom. Carly and I discussed which of us would take him, and he wanted me, which rarely happens, because he said “Mama has too much sunscreen.” She took him anyway, and he kept talking about how she felt like she had too much sunscreen on.

I helped Jeff set up the tent in the rather heavy wind. We got that situated so that it wouldn’t be collapsed by the wind. I read a little of my book while Carly played with August in the stream. She had the floats on him for a minute, then he wanted them off. They then wandered up to the tidal lake, where Vivian was swimming. Carly came back for the floats again, and after a couple minutes I went up with them. Waded around a bit, and got August to let me hold him in the water a bit, but not up to his waist. He said “If the robot gets deeper, it will break down.” And then he would do his breaking down noise and stop moving. I said I fixed the robot and put on a waterproof coating. He thought about that and said “Yeah but I put on rainbow paint on it and it is sticky and the robot stopped moving.”

Carly headed back, and did a little reading as well. We then made our way back along the tidal stream and stopped at one point and dug in the sand with Colin and Vivian. Colin managed to get me, dropping sand down my neck. August was antagonizing Vivian by stepping in the hole she was digging, but really just wanted to play with her. When she left, Cassie play-acted with him, and told him what to say if Vivian doesn’t want to play with him and he practiced saying “Then I’ll go play over here” or something like that.

Carly had headed over to the shore on the bay, where the tidal stream comes out, which was where Vivian now was and to see what the people were catching in the nets (small fish). It was now around 5 or so. I took August over there. Vivian had gone back to the camp, but then came and joined us. August let me
hold him high, and wade out into the water. So I had him and Vivian. She wanted to keep going out deeper, and so did August (who wasn’t getting wet at all). We only ever got up to a couple inches below my waist (my shirt didn’t get wet) and Vivian could easily stand. But it felt quite a ways out. There were a couple of 13 or so year old boys who came by us. They started splashing a little and got August a bit in the face. August handled it well, and I politely asked them to avoid splashing August. August liked watching them, and kept talking about them, and when they went by us at one point August said “No splash fights.”

We waded back in a bit, then August let me set him back down, and we started getting him in further and further, Me spinning him in circles around me with his legs in the water. Basically, we got to the point where when I spun him he started to feel the floating feeling from the floats, and when he stood he was comfortable in water up to his waist. I pointed out both those things and gave him a high five while he stood in the water and talked about how next time we could build on that.

Sometime when we were out there one of the many orange Coast Guard helicopters flew overhead and August, knowing that Colin liked them, called across the beach “Helicopter, Colin!” Near the end, as we were walking up the stream towards Carly, one flew low, and August kept calling to mama and wanted to make sure she saw the low helicopter. Finally, Vivian made a detour to a shallow pool. August during this whole last experience kept finding shells for mama and giving them to her. I commented that that might become a thing in Israel and she could make a little shell garden.

As we packed up to go he helped take out tent poles and played with one as a vacuum cleaner. He was sitting on the sand and said “I want to come here next time.” Also, as we had walked up, me holding him and him quite wet, he noted that he was drying off fast because of the wind because of evaporation. I asked Carly if they had talked about it earlier, and she said they had, but that he had been the one that brought up evaporation. I know we’ve discussed it in the past, but not much.

We left the beach at 6:00 and walked to the showers and car. The kids weren’t interested in making any of that go quickly. August and I ended up singing a duet to each other about what we were doing next or something along the way. Managed to rinse much of August off in the showers and get us changed. He started screaming when I first started to hold him up for the shower. I thought it was because he thought I was going to put him right under it, but realized it was because my hands were wet.

In the car Vivian grabbed her iPad from the trunk and declared she was going to play it. I grabbed it out of her hands before August could see it, then got his out and got him to agree that they’d each play with their own iPads. That worked well enough, although he did talk about trading and taking turns a bit. At one point he said he didn’t want hers, but then Vivian declared she wanted it and suddenly she wanted it. Vivian said “I said that so he’d want it.”

They were hungry and ate a lot of the snacks on the way to the restaurant. August got tired of them though and declared “All the things you’ve got, I don’t like.” We got to the Kebab Paradise at 7:30. August was a little hyper, but not bad. When Carly took him to the bathroom he seemed to read the word ‘private’ on a door, as he told her he wanted to go to the private one. We got a variety of dishes, a few of which turned out to be too spicy for the kids. Or for anyone except me. We also got a couple of mango lassees (sp?) which were a big hit. As we finished, I took August outside to look around and Vivian came with. We went and looked at some flowers and they smelled them, then went for a little walk. Vivian ran ahead to another group of flowers and August tried to follow, but tripped on the sidewalk and took a hard fall. Luckily, pretty flat, so the impact was distributed over his entire body. He had a little scrape on his left knee and right arm, although it was his right palm that seemed to bother him the most.

We walked around a little more as I held August, then met the rest as they came out of the restaurant. Vivian rode back with Jeff and Cassie as August was going to fall asleep in the car. They nursed in the back, then we left at 8:25. As we drove, I sang him a few songs until he made his lip noise, wanting me to stop. He was then singing to himself, and as Carly leaned over to him it turned into a “I love you so much” song. She joined in. She told him he should fall asleep, but he said no, he wanted fireworks and said it was dark enough for fireworks. They pretended to light fireworks in the car. He nodded off at 9:15.

We took more of a backroads route home, and had a bucolic drive north and across the Delaware at Belvidere. Carly and I liked that town and figured we’d make it a day trip one of these days. We were home at 10 and Carly carried him in to bed. He didn’t stir a bit. We put things away, had tea, and read a bit and were asleep a bit later than we’ve been recently, a little past 11. 

August and Carly came out a little before 7. He sat on the butter chair stool for several minutes and said hi to Jeff when he got up. He then came and played with toys by my feet before lying on the floor for awhile. All of them got up and had oatmeal for breakfast, then I took a shower. They took turns closing the gate to upstairs and then were playing in the bedroom. Vivian and August negotiated over going in th closet alone. August took Green Mknster and Marshy in for a minute and said he was having private time.

Chuck made an egg for Vivian. August wanted one, of course, but it was the last. Cassie and Colin got out Candyland. August initially said “I don’t like boardgames.” But then “I want to play it. Can I play it?” So his first real board game experience, as Cassie taught him to play. Colin’s speech teacher got here, and Cherie took Vivian and August out to the motor home. I hung out and watched the therapist play with Colin, in part because when I left after a minute Colin came and brought me back.

Carly and I left with Vivian and August at  9:40, headed to Stroudsburg to drop a couple packages off and then go to the library. Vivian does a “Firefly friends!” game, calling to her firefly friends out the window of the car. Only she keeps arguing that August hasn’t met the firefly friends yet, so he isn’t allowed to say the ‘friends’ part when he calls out.

We first stopped at the post office, where Carly ran in and the kids played on the railing of the ramp and the railings on the stairs. Although there were six railings on the stairs, they were often wanting the same one, and August suggesting they set a timer on one led Vivian to decide she was done and go get in the car. Vivian was excited today as she was buckling herself into her booster seat.

Then a quick stop at a FedEx place. We stayed in the car while Carly went in and we played I Spy. Then to the library. Got there about 10:30 and the children’s librarian told us there was a nature show run by a woman with animal costumes going on in the back room. So we went back there. August didn’t want to stay, so Carly went back with him. Vivian had a seat on the ground with the other kids. It was an interactive thing with the woman calling up kids and a few adults. Right away she called me up to be the skunk. Luckily, I didn’t have much to do. When that story was over (about fire in the forest), Vivian wanted to go, so we went and found Carly and August.

They played with some toys, then the library started to get busy, especially after that show finished. I read a funny Doctor Ted book to the two kids, then August was off playing with other toys and kids. I read a children’s book version of the Abbott and Costello skit Who’s on First, then Vivian and I read Dream Big Little Pig! by Kristy Yamaguchi and Poo in the Zoo. I also read Duffy and the Devil by Zemach and a book called Town is by the Sea. We left at 11:45. A game that Vivian and August can both agree on is looking for Subarus. He suggests it even, although I’m not sure he actually knows what he’s looking for.

At home I made Boca Burgers for August and Carly, and we cooked some mushrooms for him and sliced some pickles. He didn’t eat nearly as much burger as yesterday.

Cherie and I then took the two of them (Colin was asleep) on a trip to get eggs, letting Carly have some alone time. Vivian was again trying to forbid August from saying “firefly friends”.  We first went to the farm where they usually get eggs. Before we got out of the car I told August he had to be quiet and careful with the chickens. When I went to get him out of his car seat he barely moved. So I lifted him out, and realized he was whispering. He whispered the whole time. So adorable. Turned out there were no people there. So we walked around a bit and saw the chickens and guinea hens and the pigeons on the roof. An old, fat beagle came over. Vivian said its name was Molly. August let me put him down to see the dog, but he was pretty unsure of it, even though it moved really slowly.

So we got back in the car and headed on up the road, stopping at a second place where Cherie had seen a sign for eggs. We all got out and went to the serve yourself refrigerator. Cherie got a couple dozen, and they were mixed colors – green and blue and brown and white. The kids both wanted green – back in the car, when Vivian said she was going to have the green ones, August let out a howl of despair before being assured that wouldn’t happen. Before we left, they stood at the gate, looking at the gaggle of loud yippie dogs barking at them. August stood farther back before I pointed out that they were behind a gate and couldn’t get to him.

From there we continued on up the road to the mysterious Bangor Big Chair. We helped them up and then they climbed on it. August had fun saying “I can see all the way to New Jersey.” The front lip of the chair is 5 or 6 feet, and they could hold my hands and jump down. Did that a few times, admired the view of the nuclear pant in New Jersey, then we got going. As we were leaving, I think, and getting in the car, Vivian said “I can’t stand to listen to your questions. I never have so many.”

In the car on the way back they argued about the eggs, then Cherie suggested she make French toast tomorrow. So then they started arguing who loved French toast more. Cherie made the mistake/comically brilliant decision to introduce ‘infinity’ into the argument. I contributed by suggesting that their love of French toast, no mater how many infinities, was still short of my love of pie. When Vivian pressed on, I got her to say that she loved French toast more than pie, cookies, and candy.

We were back before 2:10. They both wanted to use the outhouse, so took turns. On our way in August spotted Cassie and thought she was mama. Inside, a package had arrived for Vivian. It was an electrical experiment kit. August was upset for a second that it wasn’t for him, but then Carly came along. August then explained that it was something for Vivian. They used it for a few minutes with Cassie, but August’s frustration was returning. Didn’t matter though as Colin was waking up so the kit needed to go away.

Carly, August, and I then made a grocery shopping trip to Weis. Rather cold inside, and Carly mentioned a sweatshirt. August decided he wanted his sweatshirt, which we didn’t have. So we split up, with me taking August and the cart to a warmer portion of the store. August really wanted food from the seafood section when he saw it, and lamented not having any meat in PA: “I really like meat!” We went and picked out bread and he convinced me to get him out of the cart. He had taken his shoes of already. He climbed around on the outside of the cart and held on while we rolled. We then found Carly and all went to choose ice cream flavors. The talkative section of the store as two people talked to us about ice cream flavors. Finally, we also bought swim floats for August – pink, as they were the last ones, but likely what he would have chosen anyway.

In the checkout line, August spotted multi-colored Tic Tacs and said they looked like pills. I said they were mints, and he wanted to get them. A long sentence: “The ones at home aren’t colorful but the ones at the store are so I want to buy them.” Carly realized we had forgotten Boca Burgers so she went back inside while we put the groceries in the car. When she came back he showed her the white spot on the bottom of his shoe: “Mama, here’s bird poop on my shoe.” Carly drove home and August was excited that he could see her drive. But he also wanted to kick her seat, arguing that it wasn’t as fun to kick my seat. On the way home he asked for Smokey out and played with him as he used a funny choice to talk about seeing the house and motor home.

Back at the hose at 4:10. Vivian spotted him from the motor home this time and he hid behind his hands from her. We went into the motor home and he told Cherie “I wa
nt a to play the harmonico.” After a bit he needed to use the bathroom, so we went inside. Played outside for awhile with Carly and Vivian but apparently took some of Vivian’s pop-its and popped them. Carly came in with him for a timeout. He and I then talked about it and he had a lot to say about it. Apparently he felt that she had more, although Carly said it was the reverse and that Vivian was actually in the process of counting them all out when he did it.

August went back out and I went back in to work on the blog. Colin came in and climbed on my back as I was on the bed. Played there for awhile, then I was drawing trucks for him, cement mixers, etc., on the whiteboard. Carly and August went on a little walk in the stroller but were back after 10 or 15 minutes.

Cassie had made chili and rice and broccoli for dinner. Carly got food for the three kids and I got their drinks. We all ate out on the porch. Colin put his drink on the arm of August’s chair and August said “That’s okay. I just don’t want you to eat my food.” Colin spotted two bunnies, so he and Vivian were off chasing bunnies. Probably part of the reason he didn’t eat much dinner, then ate a ton of broccoli from Cherie’s plate later. The three kids then spent a long time playing on the toys in the grass, from the little plastic play gym and slide, to the push car and wagon, etc. They were really climbing all over them. At one point August climbed up the slide: “This is easy to climb…(slides backwards)…No it’s not!” Over by the old outhouse, August stood on the stones, but then Vivian was lifting him up, carrying him out in the grass, and setting him down so he had to walk on the grass and get used to it. Quite funny, especially as he wrapped his legs around Vivian and she had to set him down on his back once. When I wouldn’t pick him up either he ran all the way back to the steps to get on the porch.

August came in with Carly to get his shoes, so we were then at the front of the porch and all went out to the motor home. They sucked down juice drinks there, then all three played night night on the bed. Cherie needed to take a shower, so we left at 6:50. As we headed out Jeff got home and August said “It’s uncle Jeff.” We spent some time hanging on the branches. Competitive at first:

August: “I want to be the highest. I want to be the lowest.”

Me: “How bout you just have fun.”

August: “No.”

I hung August from a higher branch, still holding him, and August was excited: “We maked mama really nervous!”

Then more fireworks. Carly started with some snakes. August was then dirty and wanted to wash his hands. Colin handled the dirtiness by just getting more dirty, and walking behind my back and holding up his hand on one side of me and saying “Dirty!” then walking to the other side and repeating, etc. He also managed to wipe his hands on all of us. Vivian and August decided they would watch the loud ones through the window, and after it went off would ask “all done?” using sign language. They would then run out, choose the next firework, then run back inside. Repeat.

Back inside August took a long, long time on the toilet. The blueberries had worked (all the kids had eaten a bunch of blueberries right before dinner, which is especially unusual for Colin). August had a long and very funny talk as he sat there, about things in the bathroom (he called it a “foot bathtub” and talked about how it could walk around on its own) and outside (a lot of talk about the ice cream, and whether he could have the coffee one, and what would happen if he ate a lot of caffeine or all of the ice cream).

We had gotten four flavors: coffee, cherry cheesecake, peanut butter crunch, and salted caramel. August and I both had the first three. I just gave him a little of the coffee, which was more than the other kids got. He finagled some of my ice cream from me, arguing he liked the crunch bits in the peanut butter one and then that his was all melted and he wanted unmelted ice cream.

Carly did a bath again as Vivian wanted the tea party thing again. More hilarity, as August and Vivian would tell her they pooped or peed in the tea. The bath was at 8, then we went into the bedroom. Vivian sent an ‘I love you’ note under the door. I let her in to say goodnight. After she left, I mentioned we hadn’t read any stories tonight. Despite barely participating yesterday, he started sobbing, wanting to do stories. Very, very tired. He was asleep at 8:40. I did read a few stories to Vivian and Colin after that: George Catches a Cold, The Little Red Hen (chosen by Colin), In Mary’s Garden (was afraid Vivian wouldn’t like that one, but they both did), Peppa’s Ballet Lesson, and lastly Bedtime for Peppa.