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We drove out to Roy today to visit Sam and her family. August slept until 8:30, and we were headed down the driveway about 9:30. That’s pretty quick for us, but August had time to walk around the house, playing with two of the stacking cups from the bath.

We got to their house right at 11. We made it there without watching any videos on the iPad. We were greeted by Sam in the yard and the two kids sitting on rocking chairs on the front porch. August was instantly excited by the rocking chairs, and his excitement would continue through the entire visit. In particular he loved the chickens, which he found scary up close, but managed to touch once before saying ‘all done, all done’, a hammer, which he instantly recognized as a hammer and used to pound on the concrete, and a small red chair, which we took over by and inside the house, and which he kept practicing sitting in. He also ate well: he liked the tuna sandwich, and tried some of the homemade venison sausage.

And Madison and Tony entertained him and us by showing us their work site, Madison’s garden, and a bunch of their toys. I was particularly amused when Madison showed me the tomato plants and told me she had to find and eat all of the ripe tomatoes so that her mom couldn’t get any.

An added bonus was Sam’s parents showing up for much of the visit, and her husband Pete showing up for the last few minutes.

At 1 it was time for all the kids to take a nap. Tony and August in particular were getting ramped up and starting to feed on one another. In the car, August and I started watching the “Take Me to Church” video, and by the third viewing he was asleep.

We stopped in Rainier at the cookie shop and bought 3 cookies. August slept through that, and kept sleeping for a little over an hour. Carly took a slightly longer way home because of it, and he slept until she stopped in the driveway. As soon as the car stopped moving, but with the motor still on, his eyes popped open.

At the house, we took some time to play while Carly got things ready to mail. He wanted to sit on the bench guarding the big flower plant, and he wanted Cherie to sit in the chair next to him. He kept talking about the flower plant and generally playing around on the bench. That lasted quite a while, then we went outside, where we smelled both the mint (which we’ve smelled before) and the lemon balm (which Cherie just showed us).

We left and tried to go to the post office in Galvin, but realized too late that it closes at 4. So we then went to the hospital, where we visited Steve, Carly’s grandfather. We were happy to see him doing well, and hopefully we will be able to visit them back at their house tomorrow. While Carly was talking to her grandparents, August and I went out in the hall for a few minutes, where he was fascinated by the industrial fan being used to dry the carpet after they were done cleaning them. He was afraid of it at first, but was eventually touching the case.

From there, we drove to Safeway and went to the shipping store next to it (where August spent his time smelling the fake flowers on the pens, and made me smell them as well), then went to Safeway to get a few things we wanted to take back to Korea. I also grabbed a container of raspberries, as those were the one berry that August was really eating yesterday and we were out of them back at the house.

We went back to the house and ate dinner: salad, beets and greens, and tamales that Cherie had picked up at the Centralia farmer’s market. August had eaten 6 raspberries in the car on the way home, and he now ate several beets and a good amount of tamale.

After dinner, August ‘helped’ Chuck wash his car. He loved the spraying of the car, and liked putting his hands in the sudsy water and playing with the suds.

We then all went for a walk down the road. August was excited about the backpack, in theory, but hated getting in it. He warmed up after a few minutes as Cherie started singing him songs. We walked down the road, past the nature area (Carly doesn’t want me in any nature areas right before our flights, given my history), and back. Cherie sang him “The Ants Go Marching…” I’ve sung it to him, but months ago. Now, he was picking up the words as she was singing. On the way back, we stopped and picked a few blackberries along the side of the road. August ate a few.

Back at the house, Cherie and Chuck stayed outside with me and August and we did some sidewalk chalk, working together to make a nice picture of a house, thunderstorm, dog, tree, and river. August, of course, helped out. Cherie went in, and we let August play with the hose. He liked getting our feet wet. Chuck then had a screwdriver and hit it against the basketball hoop pole to make a noise. August liked this, and liked holding the screwdriver.

Back inside, August ate a little apple crisp (mainly he liked using his finger to get the ice cream in my empty bowl). He then started walking forwards and backwards on his own, saying ‘forwards’ and ‘backwards’. These joined three other new words for the day: ‘hammer’ (when he recognized the hammer on the ground at Sam’s), ‘necklace’ (referring to Cherie’s necklace), and ‘danger’ (which Carly and Cherie have been teaching him).

Before he went to sleep, Carly was singing him the “Momma loves August” song. In it, you can replace ‘momma’ with other people. Today, August started calling out who should come next. He named pretty much all of the family members.

Back in Centralia: 

Admiring the fan at Centralia Hospital: 

Smelling the fake flowers: 

Carwash: 

On a walk: 

Back from a walk: 

I had a pretty full calendar, for me at least, as in the morning I had a 9:30 appointment at the Apple Store in U Village, and at 3 I had an appointment with our insurance agent in Chehalis. So I left the house early and made it to U Village 20 minutes early. Enough time to get a little walk in and see how the shopping center has changed since I’ve lived around there. A mild success at the Apple Store, although they weren’t able to replace the dying batter on my phone today.

I got back to the house to find it empty. I texted Derek to find that they had gone on a walk. I walked and met them halfway and walked back with them. At the house, August kept pointing to a wet glove of Thatcher’s and saying a word. I think it was ‘yellow’, but I’m not entirely sure.

We left at 11, and stopped at Ken’s Market for lunch, sitting on their high stools to eat, with August on my lap. From there we drove to Centralia, only stopping briefly to drop off Glecy’s keys at her friend’s house in Lacey. August took a nap on the way down, and woke up when Carly stopped the car in Centralia.

We unloaded the car, and I ran off for my meeting in Chehalis. While I was gone, August scraped an elbow for the first time by tripping over the hose while he was using it.

When I got back, they were downstairs. I sat on the couch with Carly, and we watched August just play by himself for close to 10 minutes.

I took him up to change his diaper, then let him sit on the counter with his feet in the sink while I washed his hands. He then proceeded to play with the water and I used the opportunity to comb the knots out of his hair. It didn’t seem to bother him as long as he had his water to play with. When I got the comb wet, he decided he was interested in playing with it, and he tried combing his own hair.

Before dinner, August made a game of pulling a scrunchie off of Cherie’s wrist, and after dinner I took him for a walk in the backpack. A good sign was that he let me place him in the backpack. But he got upset when I started doing the straps. He cried for a coupe minutes, but calmed as we got up to River Heights Road. We went to the right about a quarter mile. He had calmed down, but decided that was enough. So we turned around. He started to cheer up, and played with the hose for the hydration system, giving it to me to take a drink, and attacking my ear with it. We kept walking past the turnoff to the house, and went around the corner, walked by Brenda’s old house, and then came back.

We did some more playing outside, then I took him up for a bath. I didn’t get in with him. He did fine on his own, but didn’t sit down at all. Although standing allows him to play with the items on the ledge above the tub.

He had a lot of energy and was silly before bedtime. Took 3 attempts to get him to sleep. Before the last one we took him down to the basement and played, mainly with the noisy ball toy. Carly went up and took a shower. After a few minutes he decided he was done, and started saying ‘all done’ and going up the stairs. He was truly done this time, and went quickly to bed, although Carly said he still tried popping up from nursing once and saying ‘all done’.

Driving to Centralia: 

Centralia: 

Eating berriers:

Still playing: 

We had to hurry to get ready in morning and get on the road by 9. But there was still time for August to play with the toy syringe I refound in a box yesterday, and to show him a young buck that was out in the yard. 

The drive north went smoothly. August made it fine thanks to singing a lot of songs, a quick break at the rest area north of Tacoma, and snacking on banana brew and broccoli. 

Our first stop in Seattle was REI, where I bought a child carrier backpack and supplies. While I did that, Carly took him to play in the children’s area and to nurse. 

We then drove out to log boom park in Lake Forest Park. August fell asleep right after we left, so when we got to the park we sat in the car and read. When Carly’s friend Colleen showed up, she got out to go visit and I stayed with August. 

He woke up after about an hour. I tried putting him in the new backpack, but he wasn’t having that. So I took him over to Carly and Colleen and her daughter Vivian. We walked down by the water, and my friend Peter and his son Micah showed up a few minutes later. 

It was just a few minutes before it started pouring. So we all headed over to Third Place Books. 

There, I watched August most of the time while Carly visited with Colleen and then her friend Carolyn, who showed up at 4. She took him in between, however, and near the end when I ate dinner. 

August really liked the big chess set they have, and Micah played with the pieces with him. August also played in the toy area, where at one point he really focused on the big Lego-type blocks and managed to put several pieces together by himself. 

After a quick walk through of the actually book store, we left a few minutes after 6 and headed to Derek and Andrea’s house. August was excited to see them all, although Eddy scared him a bit by being too rambunctious. He and Thatcher played with play dough together, as well as with the vacuum cleaner. 

We took August out on a short walk in the backpack. At first he allowed us to put him in it, but he didn’t like the straps and started crying. He was unhappy for a block, but calmed down and seemed to enjoy it well enough by the end. 

Back at the house, he snacked on apple and cheese that Thatcher gave him, and some of the fresh smoked salmon that Derek had just made. 

Carly gave him a bath and he was asleep around 9:30. 

His latest new words include ‘girl’, ‘chair’, and ‘feather’. He twice pointed to girls in TPB and said ‘girl’. He also used ‘chair’ there and Carolyn heard him say feather. I didn’t hear that, but he said it when I was teaching him ‘feather’ at the beach the other day. There were also multiple times during the day where he would very clearly attempt to use a word, but I couldn’t figure out what he was trying to say. In particular this happened with a parrot finger puppet we looked at in the book store. He used three separate words that I didn’t catch. One may have been ‘cockatoo’, which I had taught him at the zoo in Seoul.

Log Boom Park: 

Third Place Books: 

Thatcher’s house: 

Kind of a rainy day, so not a lot of outings today. But we made it to Shaeffer Park with Chuck and Cherie for a nice outing and took August for a short walk in the stroller(!) – the first time he’s been in a stroller for months. 

Carly and August slept in quite late (close to 9, I think) and August seemed a little off – he did a lot of nursing and clinging throughout the day, although less so as the day went on. 

In the morning Carly made a smoothie, which meant that August wanted to watch the blender, and then walked around with the lid to the blender for awhile. We played downstairs with the fan (he likes making noise into it. Or, more correctly, he likes me to make noise into it, and will pull my head close to the fan so I will do it), then he came back up and had fun watching videos on the blog with Cherie. He particularly liked the video of him using the vacuum cleaner, and she played it again and again.

Carly took him out on the deck, and he spotted two deer. He held onto the railing and made noise at the deer for a few minutes. I got the last few seconds on video, and then he went off saying ‘mama’ and ‘oma’ – I think because he wanted them to see the deer as well. He then wanted to sit at the table outside and play with his tea can for a few minutes.

From there we went down to the carport and played with bubbles and water. He used the squirt gun things by pointing them to the ground and pushing down on the handle to squirt out the water on the ground. I then changed him, and by that point Cherie had started skyping with Vivian and Cassie. August was thrilled to see Vivian again.

After lunch, we all went to Shaeffer Park, the first time August and I have been there. It is a nice park, with a beach on the Skookumchuck and about a half mile of trails through some really nice trees. For a half hour or so, Cherie played with August along the water, and then they walked up by the playground and picnic area. Carly and Chuck lounged and chatted on a picnic table that had been placed in the river. Cherie and August found some old fireworks in the grass, and August quickly picked up the word ‘firework’. She carried them in her pocket for the rest of the time we were in the park and would take them out when he said ‘firework’.

Then we all went across the bridge and walked the loop out in the forest. As we finished up, it started to rain and we hurried back to the start of the loop and stood under trees until the rain stopped. Cherie and Chuck had been entertaining August by saying ‘aagh’ and putting up their arms, etc. and we continued that and Carly chased him around us as we waited.

We walked back to the car, only to find that August wasn’t really ready to leave yet – he wanted to go back into the park. I let him play for a minute, then we left. On the way back, he really wanted the banana. He hasn’t eaten a ton of banana lately, so we were surprised when he wanted to hold it himself, and he ate over half of it.

After a few minutes at the house, Carly put him in the stroller and we went for a little walk. He enjoyed it for awhile, and as we passed the entrance to the nature area on the road, he made it clear we were supposed to go that way. Kind of surprised us that he picked up on that. But the stroller is a small one and doesn’t do well in the gravel, so after a minute of bumping in the gravel he wanted to turn around. We headed back, and he decided he was done with the stroller, and so he walked back from where Tall Cedar meets River Heights, helping push the stroller along the way, and then pushing it around (and into Chuck’s car) back in the driveway.

We sorted baby clothes (thank you, Andrea!) to take back to Korea. August tried on one hat for a few seconds, but wouldn’t try on any more. Then I took August downstairs to eat some banana bread and play again while Carly started to do some initial packing.

We all gathered for dinner (Ahi, spinach, and salad), but August wasn’t wanting to sit down. So Carly took him down to the carport for awhile and I ate first. When I was done I got him and we skyped with my parents. He was thrilled to see Gramma and Grampa again, which actually made talking difficult, but was very fun to see.

Another walkabout outside led us back through Chuck and Cherie’s room, where there is a ball that acts as a doorstop. He wanted the ball, so I suggested we get the one in our backpack. We got it out, then August started saying ‘fuv uhh’ again and again. At first I thought he was saying ‘flower’, then, as he walked back to the entryway, I thought he meant ‘outside’. But then he went back to the same pocket and pointed in and kept saying it. Then it clicked: he wanted the shovel that we used to keep in there. So we went down to the carport and to the sandbox and got the orange shovel. He was content with that, but then went back to the backpack and started saying it again and getting frustrated. He even put the shovel back in the pocket. The only thing I could think of is that he also wanted his blue shovel, which we couldn’t find.

At any rate, it was clear he was tired, so Carly took him for a bath. She sat with him for a couple minutes, but he then played by himself again.

In addition to his new words for firework and shovel, he also said ‘grass’ while pointing to grass at the park.

Schaeffer Park: 

Headed home: 

Walk with the stroller: 

August woke up with a lot of energy. Just a couple minutes after waking up, he was down with Cherie happily playing with an old deck of cards, dumping them out and picking them back up and making a lot of noise.

She had to go teach a yoga class, and we were going to leave for Olympia before she returned. However, that changed as I was sitting here at the living room table and looked up to see a Stellar’s jay come flying in the door. Carly stood at the entrance to the steps with August in her hands for a few minutes. He thought it was great fun to watch the bird flying around, and kept asking for ‘more’. She took him downstairs, and after about 20 minutes of chasing the bird around the living room and kitchen, upstairs and down, I cornered it behind the couch in the corner and used pillows to block its escape and the window screens to direct it towards the open window, and then a broom to give it a slight nudge that sent it flying up and out of the window.

Anyway, that and other delays meant we didn’t leave until after 11:30. We first drove up to the BECU at Lacey to make our annual $2000 contribution to August’s Coverdell account. What should have been a 5 minute visit turned into more than 20, as the guy who set it up last summer apparently didn’t know the difference between a CD and an IRA. Luckily, BECU has these little kid toys on handheld boards, and those kept him pretty entertained. Carly did take him outside for the last few minutes. Oh, and when Carly was depositing checks/cash in the ATM, August liked the noise it made when it took in a check and would ask for ‘more’.

We then drove to Olympia and parked around the corner from the camera shop so I could pick up the cassettes I’d had transferred to CD. While riding with August in the backseat, I’ve found that he has ticklish palms: a little press with a finger on the palm of a hand will send him into fits and giggles.

After picking up the cassettes/CDs, we went for a walk along the waterfront, walking north from the playground area to the dock and observation tower up close to the market. August walked around the area close to the tower for several minutes, showing himself to be surprisingly adept at spotting each cigarette butt on the ground. Carly and I ended up trying to cover them up with our feet whenever he got close to one. He also revealed he’s still fascinated by drains, especially when there is water under them. A group with several school age girls went by while we were there. They were quite loud and running around. As they went by, August signed ‘more’ and wanted to follow them when they left. And he liked to stop and look at/smell the flower boxes the city has along the walk. There was one in particular, on the way up, where he stood on the bench and studied them for several minutes. 

Before we left, we stopped back by the playground for a few minutes for bathroom and changing purposes. He also nursed and had some banana bread. He then played in the playground for a few minutes, holding banana bread in one hand, and playing with wood chips with the other. It confused one adult into thinking I was letting him eat wood chips, until she realized it was actually food he was holding. 

He was having a grand time in the car as we got back to Centralia, talking up a storm. As we pulled into the driveway and stopped, he got really quiet and stared out the window. We played in the driveway for a good long time. He’s gotten pretty good at using the hose, and now walks around with it, painting circles in the air.

He played around in the house for awhile, and then I took him up for his bath. We had fun in the bath, but he wouldn’t sit on his own today. Anytime I stood up, he would stand up.

His latest new words are ‘berry’ and ‘all done’. He said ‘berry’ while pointing to the berries in Cherie’s oatmeal, and he’s started to say ‘all done’ when he is finished with something. He’ll give the ‘all done’ sign (waving two hands) and say ‘all done’ in the same voice he uses for ‘bye bye’.

The bird adventure: 

Waiting at BECU: 

Olympia: 

Covering cigarette butts: 

Snacking: 

Heading back to Centralia: 

The house: 

Managing to taste a little coffee: 

Second beach, at the point: 

A very nice woman volunteered to take our photo, without us asking: 

Touching things: 

Salty toes: 

Back in Centralia. Still more water:

Evening silly: 

In the tub by himself: 

A big day for the little boy. It was his first trip to the ocean, meaning his first look at the ocean, his first playing in the surf, his first sandcastle, etc. And he ended the day by taking his first bath alone in the tub. 

In the morning, as Carly and I got ready to go, he went in with Cherie while she dried her hair. She saw a hair on the floor and opened the cabinet and put it in the garbage. He spent the next several minutes mimicking her, picking things up off the floor, opening the door, and throwing them away.

We targeted to leave at 9am and, miraculously, we were on the road a few minutes before that. August did a lot of waving and saying of bye bye to Cherie before we left, and immediately started acting tired – rubbing his eyes and yawning and doing some crying – but he never fell asleep. Instead, he just relaxed and looked out the windows much of the way there. I was actually able to get some reading done.

When we got to Ocean Shores we first went to the state park. We stopped at a picnic table and ate lunch, then went to the bathroom. We then walked down to the beach. It is a longish walk down and I was holding August in my arms. As we approached the ocean he started pointing out at the waves. It was his first glimpse of the ocean.

First, we played in the sand. Carly first drew lines in it, then we were scooping it into buckets. After a few minutes of this, we walked into the surf. This is where August got really excited. After the first wave hit he immediately asked for more and started walking out towards the water. We continued to play at the beach there for a good half hour. Finally, he was probably getting tired as he started to wave to the ocean and say ‘bye bye’. So we packed up, walked back to the car, and changed him in the shade of a bush before driving away.

We drove into town and found a coffee shop, Coastal Grounds. Carly nursed him in the car, then I put him in the carrier. He didn’t make a peep during the transfer. We each got a coffee and sat on a couch in the back. I read the McPhee book, Annals of a Former World, that I borrowed from Steve and Claremay. When he woke up an hour later he played in the coffee shop for a couple minutes, then we headed to Point Brown/the North Jetty. There, we mainly played in the sand. Only this time we used the buckets to make sand castles. August found this amazing, although after getting excited about each one he would immediately destroy it. August and I then went and played in the surf and Carly made a big sand castle, complete with a moat that started to fill with water as the tide came in. August learned what ‘seaweed’, ‘jelly fish’, ‘feather’, and ‘shell’ are, and would do his pointing thing where he would point to one, I would say the name, he would point to another, etc.

We put August in the carrier and walked over to the jetty to look into Grays Harbor. We then turned around and walked along the beach, headed north. We saw a piece of wood covered with moving…things… that August – all of us – were fascinated by. We turned around and walked back and finished our walk as Carly’s sandcastle was entirely swept away.

We tried to go to the Oyhut Wildlife Recreation Area next, but only found a ‘waterfowl hunting’ area. That didn’t look very promising, and it was past 4 by this point, so we just headed out. We stopped at a teriyaki restaurant in Aberdeen for dinner. He sat in a high chair and liked my orange chicken, although he was less fond of Carly’s teriyaki chicken. We headed home from there, having to pull over once to change his shirt as he grabbed a water bottle from me and poured water over himself.

Back at the house, I stayed outside with him for awhile. He was intrigued by Chuck using a rake and other tools and we ended up sweeping parts of the garage and driveway with a big push broom. He had more evening silly time as Chuck and Cherie played cribbage. He started to crash, so Carly took him up for a bath. She started in the bath with him, but after awhile she got out and he was happy for the first time in the bath by himself. Quite the end to a day of firsts.

 

On the way there: 

Pointing out to the waves as we walk out to the ocean: 

Looking at the dead jellyfish. Or something: 

Waving goodbye to the ocean: 

In the morning I was playing with him downstairs with the vacuum cleaner that wasn’t plugged in. He kept pointing to the top of the machine and saying ‘hot’. So I touched it and pretended it was hot and said ‘ouch’, pulling my hand away quickly. He thought this was great and did it himself. When he was done playing downstairs, he started crawling up the stairs. He then stood up, turned to me, and in a high, squeaky voice said ‘Dada, bye bye’ and gave me his two hand parade wave. So adorable.

Back upstairs Cherie gave him an empty cinnamon container to play with, which he loved smelling and playing with. Cherie let him try her mixture of oatmeal and yogurt, but he did not like it at all and gave her all sorts of faces and kept trying to wipe his mouth. I went outside with him where we did more pouring, and he spotted a bird in the driveway and kept pointing to it.

Around 11:30 we left to pickup Carly’s contacts at Walmart and then go to a park. But while August and I were waiting in the car for Carly at Walmart, he decided to take an early nap. So we drove back to the house and he napped.

Soon after he woke up, Derek, Andrea, and Thatcher showed up on their way back north to Seattle. I only saw them for a minute, as I had an appointment to meet with our insurance agent. While I was gone they played outside.

When I got back, they had just left. August was in his chair, drinking milk from a little juice box and playing with a second cinnamon container. He figured out that if he squeezed the milk box milk would shoot out the straw. So that was the end of that. I went outside with him again and we ended up doing some more pouring of bubble mix back and forth.

In the afternoon Carly and I successfully took him to Stan Hedwall Park. On the way there, the song “Wine Lips” by Lydia Loveless had been playing. At the end of it he pointed to the speakers and signed ‘more’. We listened to it several times. He is also getting a little particular about making sure the laces on his shoes are clipped – or it is just a game, or a bit of both. So in the car he would want me to clip his shoe, then he would undo it and ask again.

At the park we found a spot to go down by the river and I took him wading in the Newaukum River. Carly saw some frogs in a pond, and I asked him if he wanted to see the gaegulis. He took off, wanting to wade across the entire river. I’m not sure how deep he would have gotten if I wasn’t holding him, but he made it close to his waist. It was the deepest he has waded. I brought him back to the shore and to the pond, but then he was upset when I wouldn’t let him wade in the pond. So we went back to the pond, where he played in the soft mud and threw several handfuls of it. He then got cold and was ready to leave and started walking back up the trail himself. We changed him before leaving and headed to Centralia.

In Centralia we got a latte to share at The Station, then walked through downtown. We went into the used kids store and they had a couple baby backpack carriers. We put August in one so I could try it out. This required taking him away from the toys and putting him into this new thing. He was not happy about it at all. So that went quickly. We walked up to the little park by Hubbub, where Carly nursed him. We then walked back to our car and headed home.

At the house he ate a pretty good dinner. Cherie had a tofu chicken patties and he really liked that. He also ate a lot of watermelon. Before bed we were in the other small bedroom upstairs. He walked over to the lamp, grabbed the cord, and said ‘cord’. Also, there is a paper butterfly hanging from the ceiling that he has been calling a ‘bee’ for the last couple of days. Finally, he also can say the word ‘blow’ when playing with the fan.

Newaukum River: 

Back home for dinner: 

Sorry, these photos are out of order. Too much work to put them right: 

Silliness in the car. He is looking through my sweatshirt: 

A boy and his bubbles: 

At the park: 

Dinner with Opa: 

It was Cassie, Vivian, and Colin’s last full day in Centralia as they fly out early tomorrow morning. We made the most of it by going to a park together and then going to the usual Tuesday dinner at Steve and Claremay’s.

In the morning, after I helped Cherie transfer a DVD to her computer, we watched some of her old home movies from the 50s. August watched a little, but wanted to go out and play with bubbles. We started on the deck, but ended up downstairs, where we made a game of pouring bubble mix from one container into another. His new word is now ‘pour’, which he can say very well. We ended up back in the house where Carly fed him some oatmeal. I gave him an empty tea tin, which he liked smelling, and then played with. He played with Vivi for awhile and Carly made him french toast. Vivian was then walking around, eating a carrot, so he wanted one as well. I gave him a baby carrot which he ate a little of before losing interest.

August took an early nap, waking up a little after noon. Carly, Cassie, and I then took the kids to Anderson Park, just south of Centralia. We pretty much had the playground to ourselves until one couple with two kids showed up. That was nice as it gave Vivian someone else to play with, and the dad pushed them on the merry go round. When August saw Vivian on the merry go round, he started calling ‘Vivi, Vivi, Vivi!’ 

Cassie, Carly, and I competed to balance on the border around the playground, which Cassie predictably won. Both August and Vivian spent some time on the slide: Vivian going down it, and August throwing wood chips on it and pounding on it, and getting excited when Carly went down it. August also loved the drinking fountains, as there was a really low one that he could reach and push the button for. Before we left, Carly and I took the two oldest kids on a walk around the perimeter of the park on an unsuccessful attempt to find an easy way down to the water.

From the park we went straight to Steve and Claremay’s. We were a little early, so we were first downstairs with Steve, where he told us about his collection of old duck hunting decoys and let me borrow the John McPhee book Annals of the Former World. There was plenty of food, as always (tacos, this time) and after dinner the kids were mainly playing with balloons (but no water this time). August got in the game and I blew up a few for him and Vivian. Someone called for a family photo, and after that Carly ended up on balloon duty, blowing up balloons for August, Hattie, and Vivian.

Back at the house, Cassie and Vivian finished packing and headed to bed. August had been up since just after noon, so was heading for an early bed time, but he had one last burst of energy, being silly with Cherie down by the kitchen. It was clear that he can say ‘Gwi’ for ear, making that his third clearly Korean word (along with ‘gaeguli’ for frog and ‘sagwa’ for apple – I am also pretty sure he can say ‘ahge’ for baby). He was also attempting to jump (he’d seen Vivian doing it a lot on the bed) but his feet wouldn’t come off the ground. 

Cherie headed to bed and Carly gave him a quick bath, after which he went quickly to sleep.

 

Morning: 

Getting coffee at Market Street in Chehalis: 

Anderson Park: 

You can hear August saying ‘Vivi, Vivi…’: 

What Colin was doing through much of this: 

Tuesday dinner: 

Evening silliness: 

When he woke up, he was watch hung himself in the mirror, doing the fingers/lip thing he learned from Vivian. Then, there was an apple next to the bed. He saw it and said ‘Sagwa. Heavy’. He came downstairs and watched Cherie drying her hair with a hairdryer. 

Sam visited with her two kids, Madison and Tony, in the late morning. They mainly played downstairs together with the usual toys (including the noisy ball toy). August decided at one point to start showing off his tummy by pulling his shirt up. 

After Sam and her kids left, we all went downtown to the yogurt place and met up with Chuck as a little celebration of Carly and Cassie’s birthday. We got to eat at a table in the foyer of the theater and August, of course, liked his taste of frozen yogurt and got a straw to play with. In fact, a woman brought him and Vivian cups of water as well. He drank some and played with the rest. 

Chuck and Cherie left from there, and the rest of us drove to Chehalis and went to Penny Playground. It is a really nice playground and there was a lot to do. August sat in a toddler swing and then played with Carly. Meanwhile, I watched Vivian and pushed her on the swing. I got to go around the play structure a bit with August, then we were back with Carly and Colin as Cassie was with Vivian. 

August was having fun dropping handfuls of rocks on Carly and on his head, then a scary little girl came by and told August not to take her scooter. She promptly left it against a pole and August kept wanting to go get it. He was enjoying the wind and would blow air himself to show it was windy. And he really liked dropping the little rocks on his head. 

Back home. Playing with bubbles, pots and spatula, more vacuuming. I ended up downstairs with August and Vivian for quite awhile. He vacuumed, but then was intrigued by the bedroom. He was looking for Eddy, who is no longer here, but was hesitant to go in. Eventually, we ended up in the room and Vivian taught him about jumping on the bed. He can’t jump yet, but he can try. We had a lot of fun with that and August mastered sliding off the side of the tall bed. 

We ate dinner out on the deck. Cherie brought out the cake she had baked and Vivian had frosted for Carly and Cassie and August got to have some. He liked it, but didn’t go crazy for it. 

After dinner he was running around the far end of the deck, saying over and over what sounds more clearly like ‘no-no area’. I ended up watching Vivian as she spit water from a cup onto the ground (a game she learned from Carly) and Carly gave August a bath. 

He is saying ‘hi’ to people more often, and often waves. He had a new wave that looks more like a parade wave. After his bath I took him downstairs wrapped in a towel. Cherie sang him the ‘I love you…’ song (with signs) for the first time and he kept saying/signing ‘more’. Finally I told him we needed to go and he started waving and saying ‘bye bye’. 

He fell asleep a little after 8. Not a surprise since he woke up a little after 6 and from a nap a little after noon. 

Birthday yogurt: 

Penny Playground: 

Back home: 

Birthday cake: