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He was up at 8:30: “Mama!” They went and sat and nursed in their chair by the steam. Came back and had maple and brown sugar oatmeal for breakfast. Paul picked up the box of oatmeal and August asked “Are you just looking?” When Paul poured his milk he asked “Why that much milk?” I got his underwear out and joked about getting Carly’s instead. I then put it on his head and Carly’s while he had some milk, and he said put it on Uncle Paul’s head, so I did. I took him to the bathroom and we had fun avoiding the sprinkler both ways. Paul was walking the other way and I told august to tell him “Watch out for the sprinkler!” Back in camp he started to run to Carly and tripped over he corner of the tent. I said “soft grass” and as Carly picked him up he said “hard, hard, hard”.

A bit later Carly got him ready for bike riding. As they were going to the road she stubbed her toe and we switched. I took him for a lap around the campground. We had to go fast at one point to avoid a sprinkler. Got back and got his helmet, then we switched, with mom and Carly watching him and I went for a shower. While I was gone they rode a ways, but then August fell. Didn’t get too hurt. On the walk back a small dog came running at him and barking and he ran away from it. I got back and Carly went to brush her teeth. He was blowing bubbles in milk and asked for more with a song:

I want to blow more bub

I want to blow more bub

I want to blow more bub

I want to blow more bubbles

He then stole Paul’s chair: “Uncle Paul, I went to your chair. This is your chair and I’m sitting in your chair.” When he was done he was nice enough to put Paul’s book back on the seat. He brushed his teeth and repeated the tune as he had his brush stand on the tube:

Standing on the top of the

Standing on the top of the

Standing on the top of the tube

Carly got him dressed then August wanted to go in a car. He wanted Paul’s but he had gone to shower. We said that gramma and grampa might let him in the FJ Cruiser if he asked really nicely. He plugged his ears, nervous, and just whispered it. We got in the car and he played around. He asked why this car was different from the ones in the garage. I explained that this one was tougher and for rough roads and pulling things. He gen referred to them as “scratchy roads”, which I quite liked. Played for a few more minutes then Carly switched with me. They came out and then to the bathroom. When they came back he was walking around the campsite chanting “I want to go in uncle Paul’s car”. But we were heading for a walk. He also wanted uncle Paul to go through the sprinkler. I took him bike riding for a couple minutes, then we went for a walk towards the end of the lake.

Think we were gone about an hour, back at 12:10. Along the way we all saw a nice snake, and lots of lovely flowers. August got upset when we stopped to put on sunscreen, especially as he got some in his mouth. At the end of the lake we stopped for a family photo. August wanted to keep going – both along the road and along the trail that kept going. On the way back he spit water on the trail. Carly and I both Carrie him for portions, and in the stroller on the way back we were doing “faster, faster, faster!” On the way out, pre-sunscreen incident, he was humming his current walking tune. He also did bigger/smaller with Paul and Carly as they got closer and farther away.

Carly got out a snack of hummus and cucumber and carrots and crackers. She did the one cracker/one veggie game that’s worked well with him. I took him to the bathroom and on the way back we waited for a sprinkler to pass. Only it went about three feet further than its wet zone and got him wet. He thought it was funny though and we called it the “sneaky sprinkler.” We also saw a boy in a hammock and decided we should have one in Israel. Yesterday he had declared he wanted an SUV in Israel.

Back at camp Carly changed and then went down to float as August didn’t want to go. He played with the stick in he fireplace. He had been interested in the moldy berries that Carly had out in there. I asked what kind of sandwich he wanted and Paul suggested peanut butter and turkey. August, rather seriously, responded “I’m not a big fan – I don’t really like turkey.”

He ate his half sandwich, then asked Paul to play in his car. In there we saw the dead bee Paul mentioned, then we turned on the CD. It was Cloud Cult, track 14. I asked Paul to confirm and he said it was my CD and he didn’t know how it had gotten in there. Turns out it was a burned copy of Light Chasers. I have no memory of burning it, or giving it to Paul. August also spotted a rainbow in the spray of a sprinkler in the rear view mirror. I went and got a snickerdoodle and we shared it and discussed getting the recipe from gramma and making them in Israel. We then talked about what would happen if all he gauges on the dashboard went high, and we played around with the fan dials.

Carly got back from floating in the lake at 1:35. August got out and gave the keys back to Paul. We then got ready and headed into town. We went to the ice cream place and got ice cream. August wanted his own and he chose a cone with bubble gum ice cream. Carly had a coffee flavor, and I had black raspberry cheesecake. He got to try all three – his first taste of coffee. He was very excited about all of this. In the middle of eating, he needed to use the bathroom. Carly hurried him to the bathrooms across the street.

When he was done, mom got him to sit on the saddle chairs and she taught him “giddy up!” Carly and I then played mini golf and mom came along to help with August. August tried to golf a lot, and it went okay for awhile. But the people behind us were playing fast, and August was getting tired. We skipped the last several holes and went to 18.

From there we walked across the river and got to the playground at 3:30 and went straight to the swings. Carly and everyone else went down to the river. When I needed to fill his water he stayed in the swing and let me walk over and do it. Carly came back and we switched and I went and saw the river. Came back and pushed him more. When I left he had been very calm, not being pushed, making little sleeping noises. Mom was pushing when I got back and he wanted to be pushed high. As I pushed him he kept trying to spot everyone: “But I am wondering where Uncle Paul is.” Carly switched with me and I went to read. Over half done with Eleven Prague Corpses. I pushed him some more, we pushed again, then got going.

I had thought to walk a bit around town and go to the bookstore, but he was too tired. Carly had to carry him and when we got to the intersection they went to do some looking and go to the store. We went to our car and he promptly fell asleep just before 4:55.

We got back to the site and woke him up just ten minutes later. Nursed and woke up slowly and asked where everyone was. Then said he was hungry. Carly got out veggies and hummus and peanut butter. He asked if I liked carrots and I said I did. He asked “Not your favorite?” Afterwards, we walked down to rinse out some dishes and fill the water jug. When we got back my parents and Paul were there. We took August on a walk in the stroller around the last loop in the campground we hadn’t yet walked. He was clearly tired, but made it. At one point there was a duck stand in the middle of the road that flew to the side when we got close.

Back at camp a dinner of raviolis and hot dogs was ready. We ate, with Carly and I switching off for drip patrol. He ended up with a nice saucy face though. Clearly he liked the raviolis. Carly wiped it off a bit, but still quite visible. He wanted to ride his bike so she took him out. He wanted to do laps like the other kids riding their bikes. I went to the bathroom, but when I came back they were nursing. He hadn’t been able to ride with the other kids and got upset.

After awhile Carly suggested getti
ng some milk: “special camping milk” since she can’t heat it. He had been upset about this the first time until she changed the name. Now he’s excited about it. When Carly went to rinse some dishes, he wanted more milk. I have him some more, but told him not to tell mama. I also told him to not tell her about the snickerdoodle we had in Paul’s car earlier. When she came back he was really excited and jumping around, but he covered his mouth with both hands and said: “I’m going to keep it a secret…I’m keeping both secrets.” That has never happened before; he’s always happy to tell. It lasted several minutes until I said he could tell, and he whispered to her about the milk. He kept the second. Instead, he told her he had spilled the milk in uncle Paul’s car.

Paul headed out sometime after 7, back to Chelan. We warmed water and I held August while Carly washed his face and legs and feet. Some cute protestations, but he handled it. She took him in and he was asleep at 7:45.

He woke up at 8:20. We heard “I want to nurse” from the tent. Carly went in with him for awhile, then she came out and he just stayed in the tent. I went in and hung out with him for awhile, then we got out and I took him to the bathroom. On the way back I called him “my little Smokey ranger” and he laughed and said “I’m Zinnie…what a Smokey ranger is?” We came back and he was hungry, so I made us a piece of bread with jam and butter, which he didn’t want to hold because he didn’t want to get his hand sticky.

Carly headed to the showers while we ate that. She some back and the sausages and hash browns were ready. August liked them well enough, then had a few berries. He wanted in the car to play and found the black bottle of air freshener. I ended up teaching him how to use it and we squirted it together. He kept getting some on his hands and went and told Carly “My hands smell good.” Back in the car we listened more to the Posies CD at his request. My parents came over and August had fun talking to them out the windows. But then he politely told gramma “I want some privacy.” But he still wanted me in there with him. We kept playing and listening to music, and he started being a machine, moving his arms around, and said “I’m making power for the music. He wanted different music, so we put in the CD for Charles Vaughn’s Pylon Reveries, which we haven’t heard yet. Track 2 was kind of atmospheric and brooding and I said I liked it, and he said “Why, because it is a dark sound?”

Carly and I switched and I went and took a shower. I came back and got some coffee and August finally got out of the car, about 10:45. He wore gramma’s sunglasses, then ran over to visit the dog for a minute. He hung out with grampa and I went back to reading Eleven Prague Corpses. With grampa he asked what the bottle was that he was using and it was sunscreen with a Minion on it. Grampa said “Minions” and August corrected him: “One minion.” They played with the frisbee, then he wanted to read the Smokey Bear story, so I got the iPad, but he got distracted. He got his hand dirty in the dirt, and I washed that off, then Carly took him on his bike while I read for a bit.

I finished a story and went and met them as they finished a lap. Came back and they made a sandwich. We got going on a walk at 12:15. August talked about his sunglasses: “My heart sunglasses make things completely dark…my white and red ones are completely bright.”

We found the spot where the Heaton family had a house and looked at it as best we could, then kept walking. We got over to the second campground. He saw a donut float similar to ours: “That is a yummy donut that’s made of rubber?” Carly went in a few sprinklers to cool off, but he wasn’t too happy when I took us through one in the backpack. He saw a truck coming and going by us: “Bigger, bigger, bigger…smaller, smaller…It’s an optical illusion?” We stopped to reattach the drinking system hose so he could drink from it. We ended up sitting there for twenty minutes or so in the mist from a sprinkler. Mom and dad got a map of the campground and confirmed there was no playground. Carly found some horseshoes and threw those, then took him up to the bathroom. Got him in the backpack and we headed back.

He didn’t fall asleep on the way back. I took him over to the bathroom. He was looking pretty tired on the way back but he said he wasn’t going to take a nap. He and Carly nursed over by the stream, then he came and played with grampa. Dad put his leg up like a door, and I told August the magic word was ‘abracadabra’. So August kept going around in circles, using it and dad would move his leg. August asked if it was an electric machine, then he exercised dad’s leg to make the machine work better. They then found a caterpillar and looked at that, then I helped August set it free on a tree. We set up Paul’s tent after that, August helping with the poles and pretending they were vacuum cleaners.

About 2:30 we headed down to the beach. Carly went for a short float, but August wanted to play with everyone else’s toys and not ours or the abandoned ones. So we headed back to the campsite and got there a little before 3. Carly tried to nurse him again. No luck. She took him to the bathroom and we got in the car and went for a drive. We saw Paul driving in as we headed out. August fell asleep at 3:20 just after we had turned let on Chewuck. Turned around and we went back to camp. Opened the windows and Carly sat in the shade next to the car. I went and read a little and napped, and then we woke him up at 4:40.

Carly took him and nursed, and he came over to the table a little before five. Got a big grin when he saw that Paul was there. We got going about 5:30. Drove into town and got gas, then we went to the playground by the barn. My parents and Paul were already there. August went up on the play structure and played with some turning things with grampa, then I went down the slide with him. There was a boy just a month younger than him, and August went on the swing next to him. He loved this swing: “I go higher than the sky.” “This one I can never get out.” I pushed him at first, then gramma took over.

While on the swing he said: “I’m going to use a powerful vacuum cleaner to suck up those trees and leaves…rocks that couldn’t be carried by people” The last was a reference to my explanation of the glacial rocks that we saw along the Columbia.

We headed to the Old Schoolhouse Brewery for dinner. I got a mushroom burger to share with August. Before the food came I asked “How’d your face get dirty?” His reply: “I’m not going to tell you.” Carly tried to clean his face and he said “No more water! You’re wasting it.” When he got his juice: “Apple juice is WAY BETTER…better than the mango.” We enjoyed the restaurant. We sat right by the river and August asked if it was the one we saw at the dam. So we talked about tributaries, etc. I wandered into the restaurant with him once and he ended up using the bathroom. I had a couple of good allergy attacks but made it through.

We left at 8:10. Carly drove and I read Chickens Aren’t the Only Ones. My allergies were hitting me really badly. Back at the campsite, dad made a fire and we started marshmallows just before 9. He got to roast his own a couple times. Carly got to him first, so his preference for marshmallows is more roasted than mine.

He talked to Paul about how he requested milk, and referred to himself in the third person: “She gave me half a cup. He wanted it that way.” He blew bubbles in his milk and he talked about how no bubbles was Uncle DD’s rule. We saw the moon and was excited about it.

He then helped Carly wash out cups. We were then going to get him ready for bed, but Paul reminded us August could pour water on the fire. Paul said August had only mentioned it a dozen times. So he did that with dad’s help.

As we headed to bed he got a kiss from gramma and mentioned again how gramma could do real kisses, not just Skype kisses.

We read the Smokey story. He went back out with Carly for a minute. He saw a few stars this evening. Back in the tent they nursed, then read What Game Shall We Play? a couple times. He was finally asleep by 11:30.

Read ‘strawberry jam’ on a jar earlier in the day.

Carly was starting the wire transfer to pay for shipping to Israel when August got up at 9:10. So we switched and I finished the transfer.

Had some breakfast and I packed for camping, then Carly left on some errands: dropping off a lamp as a donation, t answering the title on our car, and taking our art to the Mail Boxes place to get it boxed up. August and I got going a bit later. I’d been calling Carly’s the Boeing errands and ours the fun ones. As we left at 10:35 he said “Yeah, but this is the fun errands.”

We walked to the visitor center and asked about a lost and found. They recommended the sheriff’s office. We went to the post office for customs forms and to check the mail, which was empty (dad had gone in to town already). We had a little adventure trying to find the wheelchair accessible entrance to the sheriff’s department but no luck. August walked in. And no luck with the sunglasses.

We walked back, and by Riverwak Park he asked “That’s where we saw uncle Paul?” Started to walk home, along the trail, but he wanted to see where mama rolled down the hill. So we ended up walking all the way to the end, past BC MacDonald’s, and taking the ramp and coming back along the lake. As we crossed the highway, someone in an old pickup truck said “Hi, Ryan!” I didn’t catch who it was.

As we got close to the house, I was running to get us out of the sun. August started singing Eine Kleine Nachtmusik quickly and said “The machine is working cuz we’re making a lot of power.” We we’re back at 11:25.

Back home, he put the handles on his bike with grampa. And he and Carly Skyped with Vivian and Cherie, etc. – Vivian took his photo and he did funny faces. Cherie said he learned that from Carly, who won’t take a photo with a straight face. But I take credit, as when I would do the morning photos for Carly, if I wanted him to look at the camera I would tell him to stick out his tongue. And the guy at the science center is when he started using his hands to make a funny face.

Anyway, Carly then headed back to Mail Boxes but didn’t really have luck in getting them to package our art. Downstairs August played with the vacuum cleaner. Kept asking “This is gramma’s old vacuum cleaner? But it still works?” Paul showed August all the attachments, and made it so it was “taller than uncle Paul” when August held it up.

We had a bit of a pillow fight in our room, then he and Carly nursed. We were all, but  specially my parents, getting ready for the camping trip all day. We finished up, grabbed a little to eat, and got going. August first walked under the back porch and petted Cynde in the bushes.

We left at 2:15, Carly driving. Carly got out the geese and crackers and when I put cheese on his cracker he said “So you can have some protein?” Before we got to Twisp, August got upset about not having a straw for my drink. Thought he might nap but never did. Got to the grocer store at 3:15. Did our shopping, then August spotted all the dead animals they had above the aisles, and the lion and warthog at the front.

Left there at 4, me driving. Played a Ken Stringfellow album, and August repeated one of the last lines to a song. He was then getting frustrated because he wanted us to be there “Are we there?”

We got to our campsite at the far end of the lake. We first set up our tent, and Carly got him riding his bike on his own. He did a little more with me, and had his first tumble on it going down a slight hill. I caught him. He helped with the other tent, then Carly took him to the bathroom. We saw a couple of fighter jets, and one flew by really low. He threw rocks over the stream with mom, then said “I’m going to get out of that.” Meaning the stuff along the edge of the stream. He was then excited by idea of food, repeating “Is it food time?” Mom gave him some of his drink. He got his Peter Rabbit cup and remembered he was upset by having a breakable cup earlier when this cup was already packed.

I noticed smoke coming from an empty fire pit, so before we ate we went and got water and August used a cup to pour water all over the embers. We then went and had hot dogs and berries and Sun Chips for dinner.

He played in the small piles of dirt several times, getting pretty dirty. The three of us walked down to the lake and threw rocks in. He saw a paddle board  and floaty with a woman and boy by them. He plugged his ears and said “Can I do that?” The boy’s name was Parker. He kept trying to step on things, so Carly tried to pick him up, which led to a fun chase across the grass. Once we got him he wanted a “Family hug”. He would ask for several more through the evening.

Got back to the site and he got in the dirt again. I took him to the bathroom. He’s used to the sensor toilets here. Washed his face and hands, but right outside he grabbed some dirt and wanted his hand washed again. Back at the site he played in the dirt some more and told Carly “Look how dirty I got.”

We set up the beds. The pump for my air bed wasn’t charged, so I was blowing it myself. The woman at the site next to us offered me the pump attached to her car.

August sat next to grampa in the chairs. Earlier today he gramma a big hug at some point.

8:45 Carly took him to ththe bathroom and washed him a bit

Zinnie machine shutting down noises

Tried for bed about 9. I had time to make tea and drink a cup before they came out. Carly made tea and I went to the bathroom. When I came back August was all excited and said “Bread, dada!” Carly had given in and given him a snickerdoodle.

They went back in at 9:30 and were reading the Spanish Spot book. It got really windy, so we had to put everything away. It calmed down a little at 9:40 and I let August come out. “It’s not blowing so hard.” He sat on the bench and talked with gramma about how liked the wind. “I like gramma. And I like grampa and uncle Paul and the kitties.”

I took him to the bathroom. Came back and found mama standing by the stream. He told her that his pupils were big. Did a family hug, then August was walking by the stream and conducting Eine Klein Nachtmusik. Gramma came back and he took her flashlight to look at the stream and found a pink flower in the grass with it. “It’s soft leaves, dada” when he found a mullin (sp?) with the flashlight.

Carly took him in and I went and got ready for bed. I came back and they were nursing. A few minutes later she thought he was asleep, but a few seconds later he popped up, asking to go find gramma and grampa. Carly went to the bathroom and he and I hung out, using a flashlight, for a few minutes: “Can I use it for a second?” She came back, he played with the flashlights for awhile longer, and she got out some Cheez-its. He was then saying “I can’t do anything” a lot, which was cute and funny, but he just kept staying awake. At about eleven he just started crawling all over me and the air mattress for several minutes. He did go to Carly, but a minute later said “Well, but I have a lot of energy.” We r ad the Smokey Bear book, which was nice as I had mentioned it earlier when we poured water on that campfire. He listened to the whole thing, and just as I was finishing he said he wanted to nurse. He went to Carly, but then played more with a flashlight. We left it on and set it next to me and we left it on for more light. He was finally asleep about 11:50.

Showing Paul his scrapes collection: 

He was up a little before 9. He and Carly went up and were playing with Legos. He was then sitting in the comfy chair and being indifferent to the breakfast choices I was giving him. Ended up agreeing to Cheerios and strawberries, although he didn’t eat a lot. He sat in the rolly chairs again today, saying “I like the rolls chair cuz this time it didn’t roll. Just a little.” My parents were going to breakfast at the Apple Couple with a couple that was in town. We met them, and she gave us a bag of popcorn that was grown by her cousin in town. They left at 10:30 and we got ready to go. August went in to explore their bedroom again, and jumped on it a bit more. He and Carly then ended up being lazy on the couch, flipping channels and sort of looking at the newspaper. Called that their ‘American experience’. Carly was trying to tease me about something, so I got August to say “I want to float and nurse.”

I clipped and filed August’s nails, he got a salt and vinegar chip from Paul, and we got to the park by noon. The parking lot was in the middle of filling up. Fifteen minutes later and we probably wouldn’t have gotten a spot. As such, there was a long line for the one pay machine. Carly and August headed down to the park and I stood. Took close to a half hour.

When I went down, they had just been playing in the shallows. He was standing on the beach, shirt off, with his sunglasses pushed around his stomach. August wanted Carly to carry him out to the dock. August stayed with me while Carly went for a float on donut floaty (which we had blown up earlier). After a few minute, he wanted to go too, so she came back in and got him just before 12:45. They floated for a good 20 minutes. He came back in just as I had a couple pages left in the first story of Eleven Prague Corpses, which I borrowed from Paul. We each ate a Larabar, and Carly got out ten minutes later. We hung around on the beach for awhile, and left at 1:25. August wanted Carly to float out to the dock with him, and she wouldn’t go that deep as he didn’t have a life vest. So while on shore I had pointed out another boy that was wearing one, and August agreed that he liked it. As we started walking up, that same boy walked by, and August reached out and touched it. August then helped Carly carry the float thing up the hill and they went to the bathroom. He then helped me carry it tot he car.

We headed to Walmart, where I bought a pair of clip-on sunglasses, and we got a lot of fruit and some hummus and crackers for camping. We were home at 2:10. He was relaxed in his car seat and I asked if he was sleepy. He said “I’m not sleepy, just tired.” He took his swimsuit off as soon as we were in the door. Awhile later I took him down and got his shorts on. Carly asked if he wanted a garden burger “Yeah. But I want the SAME cheese…what if everyone else wants CHEDDAR cheese?” In the kitchen he opened the utility drawer and repeated what I had said the other day: “Straight to the sharp things.”

Carly asked if he wanted mango, and he said “Mango time!” While at the table he said “I’m back to liking the rolly chairs. I don’t like the up and down chairs.” He then politely asked Carly “Can I have some of your water, please?” Out in the living room, he watched Paul pouring his soda, and was excited when it would fizz up. Then, he got to help mom give herself the vitamin shot that she takes. That was pretty exciting.

Mom got things set up for making snickerdoodles cookies, and I took him out to play in the Jag for a few minutes. When we came back in, he got up on the tall stool and helped her with the ingredients. They then formed the cookies. At first, he was just squishing them into the cinnamon sugar mix. But by the second or third round he was doing a good job of rolling them. Carly joked that the extra ingredient in the cookies was August spit, as he kept licking his hands and arms due to the cinnamon and sugar.

He had one small cookie when they were done, then managed to grab another cookie and take a bite of it. He was quite hyper, and said “I want to eat more bites so I’m more hyper.” We went outside to try to look for the cats. I had said he was too hyper and it would scare the cats, so he was suddenly very serious and quiet, and whispered to me as we went out. But before finding them my mom said we needed tortillas. I volunteered to go to the store and take August with me. First, he went to the bathroom. I said “It’s hot.” Him: “Yeah. Maybe we shouldn’t go camping.”

At Safeway, our list was the 3 Ts: tortilla, tomato, and tea (for Carly). Also, I told him we could get more of those fruit bars he had grabbed the first time. On the way he speculated about what other fruits they would have. He was right about raspberry and mango. The mango says it is spicy, but we got it to try. At checkout, he dropped his water bottle once. I then wondered if we needed a Discover Pass. We went out and put the groceries in the car and called my dad and Carly. Couldn’t find our pass from last year, and Carly said we needed milk. We went back in, him singing a “We need a Discover Pass” song, and he dropped his water bottle again while we waited at the customer service desk. That was being slow, so we went and got milk. He then dropped his glasses while we were paying, and the lady there joked about him dropping things – she had noticed the water bottle as well. We waited in line for a Discover Pass, but still stuck on one customer. Gave me time to look at the prices and website and realize we probably didn’t need one, so we headed home.

We were home at 5:50. He took the tea downstairs to Carly. He then was on the toilet and told her “Sometimes kitties pee in garbage cans.” Upstairs, she gave him warm milk, and he asked for a couple refills. They then ate more mango, but this one wasn’t as good. My parents got things ready for dinner, and when it was ready he told Carly it was dinner time. He didn’t eat much – said he wanted his garden burger from lunch, but didn’t eat much of it either time.

He watched bubbles in Paul’s cola again, then we gave him a bath after 8 – Carly started, and I finished wit his hair. Carly had just gotten a small towel for him, and he wore his small towel as a shawl and wanted to show mama. Down in the bedroom he put on his letter bracelet. I told Carly about him saying it was too hot to camp. He explained “I thought it had to be cold in order to do that.” He was hyper before bed, and tried to chase the cats upstairs. I took him outside and he helped deflate the floaty before needing to go to the bathroom “because I drank those liquids.” Took him in and he was asleep earlier, at 9:20.

Sunglasses: 

Helping carry: 

Licking his fingers: 

Waiting: 

Red crab: 

Blocking the TV: 

He slept all the way until 10. Carly then put on a green and yellow sweatshirt that he hadn’t worn yet and he liked it and wore it the rest of the morning. He had some English muffin and jam, then Paul was outside with him following the cats. August wanted his shoes on though so he came back in and gramma put on his shoes. I went back outside with him. We managed to pet both the cats, at least a little, and August had fun following them. Out back, we found really clear raccoon prints through the sand area.

He needed to use the bathroom so we went back in. I then got breakfast for him – toast and jam and yogurt and fruit. He had wandered outside with Carly now and she had seen the raccoon prints. When I told him food was ready he got really excited.

I showered and switched with Carly. Lots of playing with what became the “lake” in the sand/mud area. I couldn’t find my sunglasses, so spent a lot of time looking for those. No idea where they went. So we didn’t leave until 1:10. His seat was in the sun, so he was reluctant to get in it. When I did he wanted his water bottle and said “Maybe my water bottle will help me cool down.” Carly drove, and he and I read What Game Shall We Play? We were then just listening to music, and he asked what the line “what they managed to do” meant in the Oberst song “Uncanny”. He then wanted his heart sunglasses. Luckily, Carly had brought them.

In Pateros we parked and walked and found my parents and Paul. When he spotted them he started loudly chanting “Gramma and grampa and uncle Paul!” First order of business was the salmon lunch. Made our donations, then ate. August ate a lot: of the salmon, corn salad, bread, and of course cookies. He had chocolate chip from us, then my mom gave him some oatmeal raisin. He also really wanted some of my dad’s cookie. I made a joke about eating Paul’s cookie, saying “If I can reach it, I can eat it.” August totally picked up on the line, then started walking around the table, repeating it. He didn’t get any more cookie though. As we left lunch, there were two women in AmeriCorps shirts, and I heard one say to the other “Did you see his princess sunglasses? So cute.”

Next was watching a woman and man demonstrate the musical instruments: rainstick, elk feet, flutes, etc. Announcements came on, and August didn’t like that, so we kept going. Ended up looking at some beadwork, then going to the table where kids could make things out of beads. August and I made a bracelet and Carly went and sat under a tree and read. August wanted random letter beads, but then the first three we put on just happened to be CFA – Carly’s initials. So we did all of our initials, then the letter Q. Turned out quite nice. August was also really interested in what the boy next to him was doing, but also decided he really wanted the boy’s chair, and kept trying to climb in it with him. Carly went and got the other woman to help tie the bracelet, and as we left August asked the boy “Can I have your chair now?”

We got him in the stroller and all walked along the river. Not far, as he spotted the playground. Went over and stood by the structure for a minute, wearing his bracelet. A smaller girl came by, and August put his arm out in front of her. She hit him. Her aunt (I think it was) got her in trouble, and I talked to August and asked why he blocked her. He said “I don’t like that girl”. When I threatened a timeout he said “I like that girl! I like that girl!” He said a little ‘sorry’ then I let him play. He climbed to the top of the round thing once, but that was it. I took him to the bathroom, then he seemed ready to go. We said goodbye to the other three and started to walk back.

But then the couple that was at the musical instruments was playing music – him on guitar and her singing. Songs like “Blue suede shoes” and “sea cruise”. The three of us sat down and watched about five songs. We would clap after every song, and if other people weren’t August would say “They’re not clapping…everyone else is not clapping.”

We went to the bakery, and got a brownie and chocolate chip cookie for later and a venti iced latte for the ride back. I waited for the food, then Carly and August came back to fill their waters. When we were done with that, he saw Carly putting sugar in the latte and wanted to do it. When we wouldn’t let him and left he got upset: “I want to do all the things. I want to do MORE THINGS! I only got to do ONE THING!” We were headed home at 3:50.

There, he wanted to play in the car so Carly stayed with him. They had Josh Ritter on and he was having fun turning the music up and down. Mainly up. Mom and I blew up the pool. When we had it filling we tried to get August to walk over to us, but he didn’t want to walk through the sun: “I don’t want to go in the sun. It feels better in the shade.”

Downstairs, he was jumping on the bed on the ground. Carly left at 5:20 to go to the store to get some garden burgers and a few other things. He and I wandered into gramma and grampa’s bedroom and looked around, and he really wanted to climb on the bed. He got creative and stacked the cat beds as a stool. Not tall enough. He then started clearing the nightstand of books and stuff to try and use that. I gave in and helped him up. He jumped on the bed and looked at the pine cone pull on the fan and I taught him how that work. He slid off, then curled in a cat bed and asked  “Does this fit me?”

We were outside with the cats for a bit, petting them, and I mentioned Celeste. He said “She was hit by a car?” I was surprised, but figured someone had told him. I asked later and he and Carly had discussed it. Back inside I suggested we go get out the banjo and guitars. He was very excited: “Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!” He reacted once that way earlier, I think for the lunch. We went down and looked at those, tuning the banjo and hooking up the electric guitar to his iPad. A bit later dad came in and asked if it was time for burgers. He reacted excitedly again: “Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!” and kept telling people “It’s burger time!”

We got dinner ready. He watched the grill a bit. During dinner, dad rubbed something off his face, and August said “Thank you”. August ate a whole garden burger with a bun and pickles and cheese. He dipped it in the beans and ate a fair amount of those as well. Carly had given him some of one of the drinks, and when he wanted a refill she had me add milk, and she told him it was an Italian soda. That was a hit, and he kept offering it to other people, saying  “Do you want some of this drink?” He had a refill. As we ate, he asked “We goed outside cuz you know I don’t like the rolly chairs? Not at all.” When he was done eating, he was crawling on Carly, and made a bridge between her and mom: “Your connected to mama and gramma?” He also announced “Good dinner!”

After, he asked “Can I play with the flowers anymore?” Carly said no, and he explained that he liked the dirt better: “But that ones so much cooler.” He then had the claw hand thing and was getting frustrated he couldn’t pull it tight enough. I sat with him and held it and told him to use two hands and he did it several times. I commented on how loud the neighbors were being, with weed eaters, etc. He said “I don’t want to hear ANYTHING.” Then copied me several times: “I want to go to the city where it’s not so loud.” He then played with the claw hand with Paul. Paul was trying to get August’s toe, and August told him “I don’t want my toe owie again.” He then made imaginary coffee and cake for Carly, adding all sorts of interesting flavors.

The three of us went for our evening walk at 8:30. We sat in the park at a picnic table and ate our brownie and cookie. He made constant yum noises. We then went to use the bathroom, only to find they were locked. So we hurried over to Safeway. He took a long time in the bathroom, then we headed home, walking along the lake. We were
home after 9:30.

He pulled out all the bath/bed delay tactics: “But I’m hungry.” He climbed on the chair and got the sparkly bear for Carly, which is her favorite: “I got the sparkly one for you.” He also tried getting on the back of the couch, which he isn’t supposed to do because of the window, and which he did earlier. When I wouldn’t let him, he said “I can’t climb on anything.” He drank from the straw in the pink water bottle that I’d used earlier and told me “Yeah, but I want fresh water.” I gave him a bath, then he went down and watched Paul play Age of Empires. He kept going back in there, and Paul joked about him trying to avoid bedtime. Finally, he was asleep about 10:40.

Finished bracelet: 

Playground:

Clapping to the music: 

Jumping: 

Being a cat: 

Petting Cynde:

Brownie and cookie: 

Washing my legs: 

He was up for about a half hour at 4. He wanted water but Carly couldn’t find his water bottle. She used a straw from hers but he wasn’t happy that it wouldn’t reach the bottom and she had to hold it. He was then saying he wanted to leave the room, and I remember talking to him, but eventually she got him back to sleep.

He was then up at 9. Carly took a shower and I got him yogurt and berries for breakfast. But he was talking about big chunks of yogurt and was avoiding the berries. Carly and I took him on a walk at 10:20. We walked over to the Chelan Artisan Bakery. I reminded him to not put his fingers on the glass, and he identified hand prints where other people have. We got a strawberry tart thing and a mushroom cheese one. He was excited by them, and thought that the strawberries looked like blood, like on his toe wound, I think.

We walked back to Riverwalk Park. As we got there he said “I want gramma to go on a walk.” We sat on a bench in the shade and it was a little chilly. He said “I want my sweatshirt.” He saw a dog walking a ways away and said “Most doggies lick?” He stole my spot a couple times and said “Your spot is warmer.” He had his light coat on and it was because my spot was most in the sun, so we changed benches. Carly hadn’t gotten coffee at the bakery, just me, so August asked “When we get home you’re going to have coffee?” When he got down to the last bite, he excitedly said “Yum. Last bite.” As usual, he was worried about the bag blowing away. He gave me the last, last piece of bread. Carly said “Next time you need to say ‘Here you go, Scrap Boy’”. He replied “Oh, mama.”

We got home and he stayed outside with Carly while I got snacks together – crackers and cheese and strawberries. She helped him brush his teeth, then the rest of us got in the Jag at 12:30. Carly stayed in Chelan to work on stuff. August had chosen to use his vest in the car. He did pretty well with it through the day, but complained about it feeling tight a few times. My mom offered us Altoids. August has always just smelled mine in the past, but today he took one and started licking it. He had me break it in two, then ate the rest of it. He made little panting noises, but liked it. He wanted a little one once we got out of the car. Wanted his breath to be minty.

At Rocky Reach Dam we first went in and down to the fish ladder. Saw several fish. Then went across to the power station and he really liked the light bulb thing, where you turn the crank and try to light up all three light bulbs. We looked out at the generators and walked a bit further, to where you look out at the dam and fish pipe, etc. and talked about those. Then a guide, Bethany, came along and asked if we had any questions. I asked August if he had any, and he said yes. Then about the machine. We walked back to it, and he said something like “What the light bulbs do?” So she explained it again.

I had to carry him the whole way inside, as he was a bit afraid of the noise and the darkness down there. We walked through the history exhibits, him getting down to try turning the big ship wheel. We then saw Bethany again and confirmed that there used to be more exhibits, the electricity ones, beyond where the history ones end. We headed out, picking up our backpack that we’d had to leave at security.

We walked over towards the playground at 2:30. We played for a few minutes. He wanted a turn on the circle swing, and insisted there was room for two kids on it, but then when it was free he decided he didn’t want it. He wanted a snack, so we went up on the grass and he sat on my lap, eating crackers and cheese, and watched the other kids, and a few teenagers, playing on the playground.

We left at 3 and I took him to the bathroom. At the car there was a cat in the car next to us. We learned that the cat’s name is Leo. As we drove out, he told grampa “Don’t drive too fast.” It turns out that my mom and been telling August that when he was pretending to drive. He was also picking out the turn signal noises when grampa was going to turn. He then remembered wanting a mint later. He ate two, a small one and big one, and said “I wanted to make my breath minty STRONGER!”

We first went to the Chevy dealership. We looked around a bit, then talked to a dealer, but unfortunately they didn’t have any Sonics on lot. We then went to the tool store. Dad got a couple clamps for a table he’s working on. August wanted to ride in a cart, so I pushed him around a bit. Then got him out, and he found he could see himself in a CCTV over the entrance so he was dancing and spinning around. And my mom found one of those claw arm things for three bucks and he played with that.

From there we drove through Wenatchee and across the bridge to East Wenatchee and the mall, where we quickly went in to pick up my parents’ rings. Paul had gone off for a minute, so when we couldn’t see him August asked “What if it’s an optical illusion?”

We then headed over to Bob’s Restaurant and Distillery. We ordered teriyaki chicken with pineapple. He wanted to see them make his apple juice so we looked around a bit. When our drinks came his was in a paper drink cup. He wasn’t happy though when his coaster wouldn’t stick to the bottom of his cup like it did to our glasses. When the waitress came by to ask how our food was he said “tastes good”. Paul didn’t want his onion ring, so August ate it. Paul also didn’t eat his raw onions, which were covered with cheese. August also ate those, and said “I like these onions, but not the ones at home.” He also said “I want my breath to smell like the food.” I also mentioned that we had recently had onion rings somewhere, and he asked “at the airport?” Talking about eating the onions in cheese he said “I like things covered in cheese.” And “Drinking makes me a lot fuller.” Finally, when the waitress asked if we wanted dessert he heard and said “I want dessert!”

We were on our way home by 5:30. He had one mint and wanted another:  “Besides, my breath doesn’t smell THAT minty.” He asked a loot of what ifs on the way home: “what if you had cords plugged in you?” and was being rather creative: “I put milk in dada’s electronics.” We read three or four books on the iPad, a couple of those adapted classic books. We were home at 6:20.

Carly and August played out back for a long time in the sand, making a big sand castle/mountain with a moat. I was downstairs when Carly called down that it sounded like someone was yelling for help next door. It was from two doors down, and a man had collapsed. By the time I got over there, a man was on the ground and a couple people were performing CPR. I helped the boy get the dog in the house, then got out of the way and headed home. It turned out that they were able to resuscitate him.

Carly and I took August for a walk at 8. He ate a whole banana, then a little cracker and cheese. We saw Paul running through the park, which was exciting for August. I had dropped the strawberries, and Paul came back a second time a few seconds later as he had found them on the ground. Paul joked that we were going on a bubble gum ice cream run and August heard him and said he wanted ice cream. August did his walking while still in the stroller thing: “Its like a wheelchair.” Carly rolled down the hill, but August watched her and said he wanted to walk down. He looked in the lake at the bandstand and liked seeing it so deep: “Mama, see the deepness.” On the way back, we spotted Paul again, about a block away. August then kept asking “Where’s uncle Paul? Where’s uncle Paul?”

We got home, and Carly gave him a quick bath. Out on the couch, my dad was eating peanuts. August has never really eaten them as he hasn’t been interested. This time though he decided “I like peanuts!” He then pretended they each tasted different: “I’ll try a cooked peanut. This is a roasted peanut. This is a chocolate peanut. Striped
chocolate. And this is covered in ketchup…covered in chocolate.” Took him downstairs after that and he was asleep at 10.

Car vest: 

Rocky Reach Dam fish ladder: 

Looking out at the dam: 

Out at the playground: 

Paul’s sunglasses: 

He slept until 9:30. Almost 13 hours. Carly went to take a shower. I asked if he wanted yogurt and berries for breakfast and he chanted “Yeah, yeah, yeah!” While he ate, mom and I talked about the UW student who drowned in the lake. August overheard and kept asking questions, namely “Why they were getting in trouble?”

Carly watched him while I took a shower. They went outside and he was spitting a lot from his water bottle. I then sorted mail while they played sink or float with water in the big metal tub. Carly and I switched so that she could get some food. He first suggested floating a lantern, but was then afraid it would break it. So I assured him it wouldn’t and I got the lantern and we tried it. Dad got closer with the weed eater and he doesn’t like the sound, so we went around front.

August went inside and spotted Iris. He then slowly and carefully followed her around the house – first to the dining room table, then downstairs. I had no idea where she had gone downstairs, but he quickly spotted her sitting on a chair under the dining room table down there. He quietly played with some of the toys in a basket while we gave her some space.

Carly and I spent much of the morning going through our stuff in the garage and doing other things (finishing with mail, preparing my phone to send back). Couldn’t find my clear glass mugs, but found plenty of other stuff. For most of the time August was with my mom. She explained a lot of the tools to him, then they spent a lot of time in the Jag explaining things. He was asking constant ‘What that is?’ and ‘Why?’ questions. They went out to the tub of water for awhile and he ate a bit more yogurt at one point. He ended back out with her, then with grampa in the Jag again. A little before 1 I came through and he wanted me to get in the car. He then wanted Carly to get in the back seat. At 1:15 she went in and got him a lunch of tofu and corn. He had fun dipping them in yogurt to eat.

The three of us then got ready to go run some errands and go to the park. We talked about his mystery toe wound and he had me speculating on how it happened. As we went and he climbed in the car he said a good “Oofta”. We first went and dropped some of our stuff off at the second hand store. Then drove to the post office where Carly went in and asked about shipping boxes to Israel. Finally to the Mailboxes store, where she did the same and dropped off some clothes she had to return and my iPhone. August and I walked over to the Variety Store and Carly caught up. We got him a backup pair of sunglasses. Red ones again. He wasn’t excited by them (not purple heart sunglasses), but they will do.

We went and parked at Don Morse Park. I convinced him to wear his hat, then left them playing at the playground and I went over to get a haircut. It was closed without explanation, and when I walked back I found them down on the beach. August was throwing sand in the lake and Carly was wading. I put sunscreen on him and he ran up on the sand to avoid me. He didn’t really get in the water until we were ready to leave and he wanted the sand off his feet. So Carly set him in the water with his sandals on and he liked it.

We walked over to the Lakeview Drive-in, me carrying him because he didn’t have his shoes on. They got a cone of bubble gum ice cream and I got a garden burger. We sat outside and ate those, then walked back to our car and headed home, getting here at 3:45.

He was hungry, so had Ritz crackers (first time, I think) and cheese and strawberries as a snack. My mom was then vacuuming, and it had the rotating part  in it that you can see. He followed her around, watching, right up close but with his fingers in his ears. I left for a haircut about 4:30, going to the barber shop right downtown. Took awhile to get my haircut, as there was a short line. While I was getting my haircut she asked if I was from around here, then when I said we had been living in South Korea, she said “Oh, so you know the guy who drowned?” I got back from my haircut at 5:30.

August played in more mud, then helped me try to pump up the bike tires and played with the lock. He then went back to spitting out ice. Back inside, he said

“What’s that? Ice?” and reached in and grabbed ice from my mom’s glass. He then tricked her again, saying he was just going to cover her glass and reached in and grabbed ice instead.

Then a long game of following and petting the cats began. We looked for them out front and he was able to pe Cynde a couple times. He dumped the water out of the watering can from earlier and said “You like playing in water?”

We went in for dinner, then he went out front with Carly and more petting of cats. We all ended up out there. Paul and dad went with him around the corner, and Cynde would attack Paul or dad when they petted her tummy, but left August alone. He turned the handle on the boat, then excitedly came up the back stairs and told me about it. But then he was suddenly nervous that he didn’t know where mama was. We went and found her, then he wanted  to find cats again. We put on his shoes and he followed Cynde around the side of the house with Paul. They were able to pet Iris as well for the first time. We did one more car finding expedition after that and used a stick to play with Iris. Disappeared around the front with Paul again then came back and we sat in the grass. He sat on my lap and “Dada loves you so much?…And gramma and grampa love you so much? And uncle Paul? Everybody likes you? Why?” I said “Because you’re nice.” He replied “No, I’m mean.”

He was with Carly for a bit, then we were about to go for a walk around the block but he decided he was hungry. Carly got him berries and grapes for a snack and as he went to the table he said. “I want this chair because I don’t like rolly chairs.” Earlier I had put his food in front of the folding chair and he said “You did this chair cuz you knew I didn’t like rolly chairs?” He ate a bunch of fruit, then we went for a walk after 8:30. He saw a dog standing still across the street and asked “Is that a real dog?” We walked over close to the bridge and he wanted out and was walking on his own, but then fell on the edge of the the sidewalk. He didn’t cry, but was upset/frustrated by it. We tried asking him about it, but he said “No. Dada fell. (Lip noise).”

Back home, he really got upset over the idea of a bath, as he didn’t want water to touch the cut that he had received on his big toe. Eventually, I got him calmed down and we sat on the inside of the tub and filled it with a little water and scooped water through the bath toys. We took quite awhile playing, and managed to get him washed. Off to bed after that and he was asleep a little before 10.

Sink or float: 

Playing in the car: 

Hat: 

Ice cream: 

He woke up during the night and asked to go to the bathroom.

He and Carly came out a little after 9 in the morning. Carly took a shower and we went upstairs and said good morning. Dad showed him the cats out the window. August made buzzing noises with his mouth and said “I’m a bee out of buzzes.” He played around with the magnifying glass, then wanted to go outside. But then he decided he was hungry and was singing a song about it. Got him some Cheerios, but then he wanted to hang up the lanterns. First he said he would hang up the lanterns first, then eat, but then he tried to delegate “”Dada do it and I’ll eat.” We hung them up together then went back inside. A couple times he finished my sentences. “Maybe we can find a bowl more…” “interesting.”

I took a shower and they spent much of the time eating ice chips. Carly started a load of laundry and August decided he didn’t like the sound of the washing machine. The three of us then headed to Safeway. Carly got the big cart with the little car at the front of it and August liked riding around in it. As we rode around, August reached out and grabbed a blueberry pomegranate almond snack bar, then turned around and put it through the bars into the cart. I let him keep it. We got back from Safeway at 12:10. I had said we could sit out back and eat the bar when we got home. He remembered his blueberry bar “I want to sit on the porch and eat it.” He then said “I don’t like…” to Paul and mom. We talked to him about that. He then wanted to eat ice, so we got him a bowl and he stood on the back porch and ate it with a spoon. He was then being Grouchy Smurf “I don’t like ice. I don’t like strollers. I don’t like the mushroom thing.” He then spit ice chips on the plants.

He needed to use the bathroom so we went in, and he headed downstairs, where he decided he liked the sound of the dryer. But then my mom started a load of towels. When he saw her loading the washer he closed the door on her. Back upstairs, Carly had cut up watermelon so he had some of that. Carly was cutting up veggies for the barbecue and he was looking under the sink and spilled some dish soap, so Carly took him down for a timeout. I took over for the rest of the veggies. He was hungry, and seemed to be feeling much better after he had a lunch of spaghetti and meatballs. Carly took him outside to shuck the corn, but he didn’t like standing or sitting in the grass. I think it’s going to turn out that he actually prefers the fake grass to real grass. He wanted some raw corn, so I went inside and broke off some kernels for him and he ate them all.

We went downstairs and started to make a fort out of blankets. He reused a line he heard Thatcher say: “It’s not a very good fort.” He was then sitting on the couch, and said “I want to sit with dada.” We sat on the couch together for several minutes. Carly asked if I was hungry, as she was going to finish up the spaghetti. August said “But I’m hungry.” We then started heading upstairs, but he just lay on the stairs for awhile. Seemed rather sleepy.

He and I eventually headed out to the garages. He was asking about the mess of cat litter where they come out of the litter box again, and I thought we might find a hand vac that he could use on it. We ended up upstairs above the garage and explored there for quite awhile. He found the Dilbert characters and played with them, then put them back on the shelf on his own. There’s a painted green chair that my dad is working on and he ran to that and seemed to smell it, then was climbing on it and resting his head on it. I suggested he tell grampa that he liked the green chair, and rather a good time later, when we went in, he said “I like the green chair you’re working on, Grampa.” Carly came and found and as we talked about our stored stuff up there, and what we can ship or get rid of. Carly looked at some of the stuff my dad had done and was working on and said she wished she had practical abilities. August said “Yeah. I want to have practical abilities like that, too.”

Mom and Dad got home and we went in. We filled his water bottle with ice and made a good mess on the floor. He was then out on the front porch with Carly, spitting water on the porch and grass. We got ready to go on a walk, and he kept spitting on the grass as I carried him to the stroller out back. He kept spitting as Carly pushed him down the alley: “I like spitting in the gravel.” We saw a firetruck putting up its ladder as we walked by the fire station. At the bathrooms we refilled his water, but he was upset we couldn’t add ice and he wanted to go home. I calmed him down by saying there were fun things to come on our walk. He was intrigued enough.

We went around the corner to the ice cream place. He said he wanted all of them, but landed on a chocolate brownie flavor that I then got. Carly got bubble gum. We went back to the park and sat in the grass and ate. He kept asking Carly “That’s bubble gum ice cream?” When asked which was his favorite, he kept saying “Both”. He sneezed as he was eating a cone and said  “Maybe I sneezed because of the cone.”

We then walked to the playground at the elementary school, getting there at 4:30. Paul headed on to the house. It was getting really windy. He went up on the play structure, then called for the three of us to come play with him. I went up for a bit, then mom and I walked over to see the new entrance to the community gym and Carly stayed with him. I told him what we were doing, and he was fine with it, although he confirmed that mama was staying with him. Back at the playground he was sliding rocks down the slide. Carly headed home and he was fine staying with mom and me. He had a rock in his shoe, but instead of getting it out started putting more in. Mom said he wouldn’t put rocks in his shoe, and he repeated it: “August would never put rocks in his shoe.”

We headed home a few minutes after Carly. We got home at 5. Mom got out a milk crate for him to use as a stool. August got to spray it off: “Its pretty much clean.” Mom then made the mistake of getting too close, and he sprayed her. Twice. Carly and I barbecued, and he was playing in the dirt. He did just fine for awhile, and mom and I both talked to him about leaving the flowers alone, but then he pulled one off. Carly took him in for awhile. Dinner turned out well, although we had to eat inside due to all the wind. We had barbecued chicken, portobellos, peppers, asparagus, and tofu. During dinner I took him to the bathroom, and we were spotting all the pine cones. He then pointed out pine cones out in the rest of the house a couple times.

He then sat outside with Carly and did more spitting. Mom and dad brought out his bike, and he happily put on his helmet and tried it out. Dad lowered the seat for him, then mom and I pushed him around the deck and patio. He wanted to go someplace with more room right now, but after several minutes was fine going inside.

Went downstairs and saw Paul watching Saunders soccer. August watched a bit, then went and purposefully stood in front of the TV and turned around and grinned at Paul. Got him out of the way, and then he said “Maybe they’re trying to get a goal.” Carly then took him to his bath at 7:50. Got him ready for bed, and he was asleep at 8:40.

Eating ice: 

Spitting in the gravel: 

Ice cream and wiping his arm: 

Rocks down the slide on the windy playground: 

Washing off the milk crate: 

I’m gonna spray dada: 

Mist chant and rainbow: 

Getting his bike: 

On his bike 1: 

Hat

Safeway cart

Fort

Green chair

Ice cream

Cone

Playground

Spitting

Blocking the view

Looking at the cats

Hat: 

Safeway: 

Liking the green chair: 

Ice cream cone: 

Playground: 

Helmet and spitting: 

Blocking the TV: 

He was up a little before 8, He waited in the hall and played with his bracelet until Thatcher and Kayla came out of Derek and Andrea’s room. They played on the railing of the stairs and then all took turns feeding Eddy, scooping up food and carrying it in the scoop out to her bowl. August helped Kayla carry hers without spilling it. Andrea headed to work.

I took a shower and they played outside. August tried Thatcher’s balance bike then they played in the dirt. We all got ready to go and drove to the top of the trail a couple blocks away. We walked down to the playground at Carkeek Park. Along the way August followed Thatcher, wanting to look at and touch everything he did. We paused to play on a big rock for a few minutes before continuing on.

Down at the playground they went on the teeter totter thing for a few minutes, then over to the swings. August had to wait for a few minutes, then wanted to swing and swing. Thatcher wanted to go to the beach so I asked “Do you want to go to the beach?” “No. I want to swing. The swings are nice. Not as nice as the other swings.” He practiced pumping, as Thatcher was, then was twisting on the swing when he saw Thatcher doing it. Thatcher left, and eventually August wanted to find him and Kayla. They were up at the salmon playground area. We went up there, and Thatcher showed August a secret path and hole in the ground area. Thatcher went to the bathroom, then we were needing to head back as Kayla was ready for a nap. August was really liking the hole though and was reluctant to leave. We left a little before 11.

It was a slow walk back, as they looked at everything. We got back to the house at 11:20. We played outside for a bit; he would use the sidewalk chalk to make a mark on the ground, then use the hose to wash it off the ground.

We finished packing up and were ready to leave about 12:30. August and Thatcher were playing together really well though by the vent by the back door. We let them play for a few minutes more until August got a bit distracted.

We left at 12:40. He and Carly were reading the illustrated Little House book that Stephanie and Ruby had given us. He said he wanted to do that. That is, build a house out of wood. “First you have to cut it.” As we left the gas station, he started repeatedly asking “Are we there?” Carly and I switched in Gold Bar and I read Richard Scarry’s Best Counting Book Ever. He got a little cranky again when he got tired and said he wanted us to switch. But he fell asleep at 3:10. We got to Leavenworth at 3:15 and Carly went in to get us some food at McDonald’s. Ate at the car and kept going, me driving again.

August woke up around 4:15, I think and we got to Chelan by 4:40. Went in and said hi to everyone and saw the cats and started exploring. Dad had found YouTube videos showing how to get to the cabin air filter, so we opened the glove box and found the mouse nest. August watched on, and dad went and got the shop vac and August plugged his ears and watched him vacuum it out. August got in the driver’s seat at one point and mom asked if he was driving. He said “No. But I’m learning to drive.”

We went to Walmart and went back to automotive and got a filter. A guy named Thomas helped us find it, and he was making funny faces and acting like a chicken for August, which made him laugh. Went back and put in the filter. I found the Legos downstairs and brought them up and we played with those a bit. Carly wondered how old some of the partially built structures were.

He was really excited about dinner, and ate a good amount of spaghetti and meatballs. He had milk in the Peter Rabbit cup, and really liked the Parmesan cheese. He thought it looked like flour, so he also wanted to try flour on his spaghetti. Carly went and put some on (he had wondered what was in the larger canisters earlier) and he said he liked it. He got an after dinner chocolate as well.

He’s curious about what people are doing. At one point he asked Paul: What you doing? And to Grampa: Where you going? We wandered the backyard, and he remembered the wire flowers and asked Grampa made those?

Out in the front porch he watched the cats from the porch and had fun spitting off of it. We went and saw his tree, and mom pointed out the shells on the log and he deduced it was squirrels eating them. He was playing a bit in the sand and I left him with gramma and grampa. He said it was okay. He sang a song about grampa sweeping the deck. A few minutes later he was nervous when he couldn’t find me and came inside. He told mom he could go downstairs on his own.

We decided to go for an evening walk. Before we left Jeopardy was on the TV. He asked “Why we watching that? What we doing?” I realized Carly was sitting out back, waiting for us. He looked at the front door and asked “What if we go out that door?” We walked down to Riverwalk Park. He didn’t realize that Paul and gramma were coming with us and was a bit rude to them, making it clear that he wanted just Mama and Dada and Zinnie time. They walked behind, then peeled off and went to check the mail. The three of us stopped at the bathrooms and drinking fountains. He pushed the buttons for the drinking fountains and then Paul and mom found us close to there. Walked back along the shore path. By the library August got the idea of staying in the stroller, buckled in, and trying to walk himself forward. We gave him a few minutes with that, then got going home.

At home mom lit the crackling candle for him, then we all had some cake. When asked what he wanted for his piece he just kept insisting on all of it. I then gave him a bath. He was stomping to Eine Kleine Nachtmusik. Got his hair washed, which was full of sand, probably from throwing it in the sand area earlier, but maybe also from the dirt with Thatcher.

Downstairs, he went into Paul’s room and asked what he was doing. He found a bundle in the hall and asked what it was. It was Paul’s laundry basket, so we decided to put it together. He helped with that, and we decided to use it while we are here. Carly asked if he was ready to nurse, and he said he didn’t like nursing anymore – he’s caught on that that means going to bed. She tried getting him to bed about ten. He wanted warm milk, so I got him some. He finished it and wanted more: “I want more because I’m not falling asleep. More milk will make me fall asleep.” We wouldn’t get him more, but he nursed and fell asleep about 10:20.

Vacuuming out the mouse nest: 

Legos: 

Sitting by his tree:

Evening walk: 

When I went to bed last night he was asleep sideways across the bed where my head would normally go. So I put my pillow below him and had to sort of angle sideways to get my feet on the bed.

He was up a little after 7. He immediately wanted to find Carly. I woke up with him, and told him she was downstairs. I was quickly trying to get dressed and was sneezing as I realized that Carly was actually in the shower, and August was downstairs talking to Andrea and getting upset that he couldn’t find mama. I hurried down, and he was quite upset, especially when I wouldn’t let him go upstairs, as he was noisy and Thatcher was still asleep. Luckily, Andrea had made biscuits, and eventually he was tempted by a biscuit with honey and the jam that Carly had made on it and he calmed down. In fact, when Carly did show up he didn’t get all that excited.

August played on the couch with Andrea and Kayla. Andrea did This little piggie on Kayla and he liked hat but didn’t let her do it to him. They Kayla was tickling August and trying to get the bee on his shirt. They read Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you see? August had me ask them if they wanted to go up to the playroom. But Kayla was looking at another book. We stayed downstairs a bit longer then went upstairs to the playroom. Kayla was up soon after with Derek.

August was talking to Derek when Carly left to return the vacuum cleaner (she had done part of Andrea’s car this morning) and got upset. He wanted to go outside and convinced me to put on our shoes by pointing to the stroller outside. But once we went out the door he just started playing and wouldn’t get in the stroller. We played in the dirt, etc. then when Carly got home I took a shower. August brushed his teeth, then all the kids were playing in the play room. I said he red glasses were probably his favorite toy. He said “and the instrument (car)…and also the monster (that you feed).”

We headed to Stephanie’s just after 10. They greeted us on the porch and August played with a tent pole, using it as a crane. Inside we played for a few minutes with some puzzles (he put the pieces in the clock puzzle) and in the house toys area. Of the kitchen stuff he said “yeah. It’s so interesting.” August and Cedar played together with a toy phone. August was getting allergic, rubbing his eyes, so we headed outside.

There, Ruby showed us the amazing box she has decorated as the home for one of her dolls, with all sorts of things (like a covered wagon and a whaling boat) inspired by stories they’ve read. Then a delivery person brought a big box. It was a math curriculum they had ordered. That provided most of the entertainment for the rest of our visit, after August had worn Ruby’s slippers. The main two things we played with together was a math weight scale and these boards on which you use rubber bands to make shapes.

We headed out just after noon. Two hours had gone quickly. August fell asleep and napped from 12:50 to 2:00. After he woke up he was really in a good mood and talking a lot. He said “Maybe when we go faster it makes me sneeze. And when we go slower it makes me yawn…”

We arrived at Steve and Claremay’s house at 3:15. Steve was asleep on the couch, so we went up to the toy room with Claremay and August played with the toys. He pushed the button on the little oven/stove thing that used to be at Chuck and Cherie’s house and said “I’m grinding beans.” Which he had learned at Derek and Andrea’s, not to mention at 8st Coffee.

We then went outside for awhile. He dropped rocks off the side at one point and we went down to pick them up. I had some cider and he wanted a taste. He swirled it around in his mouth to taste it and then commented that it was more apple-y. Claremay prepared some snacks, and he of course most liked the cookies. He grabbed a piece of mine at one point and ate it and said “I’m eating it because dada is not eating it.” He walked around with shoes on his hands, but then hit Claremay. Saw the mountain, and played in the yard a bit with Carly. It was now just after 4 and Steve came out. August went in with Claremay and got a plate of food, and also came out with a huckleberry jelly bean.

He snuck back inside, and I went in because I was feeling allergic. I heard the tinkle of glass, then he came around the corner with a licorice jelly bean and gave it to me. I let him have it though and he ate it in two bites. He walked around the living room pondering it and decided he liked it.  Outside, he ate a few bites of cantaloupe and seemed to like it well enough. He was getting tired of visiting people and started to say “I don’t like you.” So we went inside. He went back outside after a few minutes though, and I lay down on the downstairs couch for a few minutes as I was feeling quite allergic.

We went back inside and he played with the green soccer ball, rolling around on it: “I wanted to listen to the music. The music reminds me of balls. The music reminds me of this ball.” He then delivered licorice jelly beans to Carly and Steve. He kept wanting more licrorice and we were discussing how not being able to have something makes people want it more. However, he managed to grab extra jelly beans and said “I like extras.”

One of us took him to the bathroom, then he went and asked Claremay what she was doing in kitchen. He ran to Carly and said, on his own, “Got my mama.” He and I then played with the hose. He managed to spray me with the hose. Twice. I said “Althausers” as they are known for their water fights. He responded with “Nimans”. He stole another licorice after giving one to Steve: “Really got extra. Now I shouldn’t have any more.”

We then had dinner. Barbecue chicken and apple sauce, which August really, really liked. August and Carly then used the binoculars for several minutes.

We went to the living room and he rolled around with the ball more and played with the fisherman rocking statue that Chuck and Cherie had brought back from Europe. He was then out front with Carly and stepped on the beauty bark and apparently (we were never actually sure) got a sliver. His first, and it was quite traumatic: “Don’t touch it. Don’t look at it…Don’t do anything.” “Not anything will help.” “I just want to put it on the flowers.” And on like that for several minutes. I got a bucket and Carly filled it with water. August by this point was dramatically walking around, tiptoeing on one foot with a shoe on the other: “Now it feels better…half better.” He wore their reading glasses as he hobbled around. Carly pretended to have a sliver and put her foot in the water. He liked that, but wouldn’t do it himself.

At one point Carly tripped him, then he wanted to do it again. He played with the old style telephone, holding it to his ear and talking through the mouth piece. He played around, getting into as much as he could in the living room (glass things, coasters), then gave good high fives to Steve and Claremay before we left.

We left at 7:20. He was tired and exhausted, and got really upset when we wanted the windows up and took control of the windows from him. He continued to be upset until we stopped at a rest area an hour later. We had tried everything along the way, and he would calm down for a second, then get upset again. Finally, due to exhaustion and talking through our plan for the rest of the evening, he calmed down soon before we got to the rest area. Our plan had us stopping at the rest area, nursing, then driving to the house, getting blueberry yogurt drink, and playing with the instrument car in the playroom. He said at one point he wanted more added to the plan, but of course it didn’t matter. After the rest stop he calmed down, then fell asleep in the car at 9:00. I carried him into the house at 9:20 and lay him on the bed and Carly changed him into a diaper in his sleep.

In talking to Derek later I found out that we had eaten at the same fish and chips place in Yellowknife
. I’ve mentioned that place to a few other people, but didn’t really expect to find someone else that knew about it.

Biscuits: 

Phone: 

Hiding the sliver: 

Reading glasses: 

Telephone: 

High fives: