This Is Our Blog

August slept the entire night in the big bed with me. Generally sideways, curled or stretched on top of the cover. Four times he sort of got up and asked for Mama. The first time he stood up and started walking across the bed, tripping on me ad falling on my stomach. He then lay back down and fell asleep. I repayed him a few minutes later when he said something and I started to roll towards him, not knowing he was sitting up. I elbowed him in the forehead. He put his hands on his forehead, curled up on his knees with his face on the floor, and fell right back to sleep. Twice more he said “Mama” but I just told him to lay back down and he did.

He woke up right after me at 6:40. Carly was feeling well enough that he could hang out with her. he played the Earth app and later watched Sarah and Duck. He thought he deserved cinnamon sugar toast as a treat for sleeping through the night with me, so I brought him a piece, then a second.

Before we left he was doing a funny “googey-goo’ dance and song. Carly didn’t want her picture taken so she pulled the covers up. He hid under it with her and sang his song. After he did the dance for me out on the floor I suggested he show it to his teachers. He said “I don’t know. Pretty baby-like.” And “Well I call it the baby dance.”

We left at 8. we saw a black and white cat by the gate and I talked about how I heard a cat fight last night and he asked why they would fight. He suggested “Maybe cats just don’t like sharing. Like me, right?” On the way to school he had me ask his machine inside him more questions, like how many seeds there are in Israel, how much garbage is dropped on the ground.

We got to school

Tech department and the “That was easy” button. In the classroom he started building with the colored stick blocks, then there was lightning and thunder. They all went out, and Marion made mint tea with mint from the garden. August insisted on a straw so we got the one from his water bottle. We sat outside for 15 minutes or so watching the rain and having tea. Back inside August went back to the sticks and Selma and Hanako joined him.

During morning meeting they read the birthday book that Candy had brought. They were talking about museums and August said “I know museums. They have OLD things from the PAST.”

They had snack inside due to the rain. There was pizza bread that PKA made. August insisted on eating his with a fork, although it was hardly necessary. He saved the rest of it for lunch.

After lunch they went to the small playground and got out the toys. He wanted me to spot him on the hoppity horse and . Ended up playing with the ramp thing and putting random things down it. Then switched back to the big playground. He played on the teeter-totter with a teacher and kids, then we pushed kids on the round swing together. He wasn’t happy about my phone call with Seth, which only lasted about 5 minutes, and started hitting my chair with a big piece of wood.

Then, Nicholas found some slugs and we looked at them with him. Marion came over and was teaching them about slugs and picked one up and showed them how slugs breathe through a hole on the side of their body. August ended up holding the slug. He then was picking blueberries and playing kitchen with Reia. I was able to sit and read The Paper Bag Princess with Selma, who asked me to read it.

They then went in and Marion read a story. Then did a little art. A few flowers had been set on the table as inspiration and I suggested to August that he could draw a flower. He got the idea of drawing the shapes of them, and he drew a couple in his notebook that they have for him, changing the colors to be purple and red flowers. Reia then came over and wanted to use scissors. She started cutting up her notebook and I got them scrap paper to use instead. August said, in his Waze voice, “Careful, sharp scissors reported ahead.”

The class then sat around the whiteboard with Anna and talked about beekeepers and their trip tomorrow. Marion then had everyone trying the ricotta cheese that she and some of the other kids had made yesterday.

August started talking about the slug and said “Why was that slug totally adorable?” Then, reading my mind, he said “Could you say ‘only August could think a slug is adorable’.” Maaian then took the 5 kids that have joined the class since the beginning of the year out and took another photo for the yearbook. He tried to do a silly face at first.

For lunch he ate the rest of the pizza bread and insisted on a fork again. He was then eating grapes, but told me it was “solid purple air…it grows on chains. So it’s not grapes. Purple biological air.” At the end of lunch Blanka took grass and was putting it on her hair so August started doing it to himself.

Then in for rest time. He told me “You should turn my volume and movement settings down.” I read Seven Little Mice Go to School, poems, Max the Brave, and Chimp & Bunny, to August and other kids. The video story was a book about Joshua Bell, a violinist, called The Man with the Violin. Then one that was Marsupial something, then Little Oink. He and Reia were then looking out at the playground and pointing at it, and he followed her around, playing.

Outside at 2 he played on the seesaw with Reia and others. We then helped push kids on the round swing. He wanted to go over to the kitchen but he didn’t like a blueberry making his hand dirty. He went to try to do clay but they hadn’t put extra out. He ran up to me and said he was tired. Picked him up and he probably his head on my shoulder for a couple months. I asked if it was because there wasn’t clay and he said “No, I’m just tired.” Ori spotted a ladybug so they watched it crawl through the grass.

They called them over for a second snack of apple and strawberries. He ate several pieces of apple. Then, a little progress as he went outside on his own while I put books away.

After school he went to the bathroom and asked me “What does metamorphasize mean?” We walked home and I sang Cada Semilla for the first time in a long time. We were home by 3:30. He was hungry so I got him an enchilada. He started eating it and said “I’ll get you, cheese.” He then got frustrated trying to get it on his fork without it falling off the plate.

We were then talking about our real dinner, going over to the mall for pizza. He said “Let’s do that after we check in Mama.” We went up to check on her and the first thing he said about the slug was “I got yellow slime on my hand.” Not what she had wanted to hear. She had had to turn on her show when she heard us talking about food downstairs. He then did more of his funny dance from this morning. And he asked me “How are things elastic?”

We left at 4:20 and went to the mall. He wanted pizza first. We got one slice of cheese and one with onions. Their two slice options. And a watermelon juice. He liked the garlic powder mix and the oregano. And then it happened: he wanted a second piece. He is no longer a one slice of pizza date. So we got another slice of cheese and refilled the watermelon juice.

Carly texted, asking if she should pick us up. At the same moment, August pointed up at the skylights and asked “Do you think it’s pouring outside?”

We played in the indoor play area, playing the pattern colors game where he runs from one color to another. And he had an invention: “I have the unsickininator…I’m as sick as mama.” That last sentence surprised me because it seemed backwards in a couple ways. We worked on handstands, then he was doing bigger and bigger forward rolls, copying another kid. He called it an “Unstoppable forward roll”. Finally, there was a little kid running around going “Whoooaaa!” August didn’t understand at first until I said he was just having fun. So then August ran around like that as well.

I eventually pulled him away and we went to Tiv Taam. Just picked out yogurt flavors he would like
(strawberry cheesecake, strawberry, and peach) and got a loaf of bread. I was looking for snack things that might work for lunch and found sweet potato chips, then he spotted the rice cracker mix that he ate with Cherie so we got that. When we were leaving at 6 it was raining, but just slightly. We put on our coats and made it home okay. No need to get picked up.

At home he went upstairs with me to take the lint out of the dryer, which he really likes to do. We then said hi to Carly, who was still laying in bed. We went and filled his bath. He said “Let’s get in my bath.” Which really struck home how much his opinion of baths has changed. He played with the bar of soap and had a good bath. Asked lots and lots of questions. He was still sitting in the bath after the water was all out.

He went in to Carly for a bit. He wanted her to keep taking sips of her drink to stay hydrated. She mentioned cutting his hair and he said “But I LIKE long hair.” She asked why and he said “Because it’s so beautiful.”

Downstairs we talked about something and he said “Well even I can do that with my everything breathing lungs…even pollution…and I can breathe up smoke.” I let him try a sweet potato chip. He said he liked it, then immediately bit his tongue. Then declared “I’m not gonna eat potato chips anymore.” He recovered enough to drink some honey milk.

Went upstairs and got him ready for bed and we read two chapters of the Magic Treehouse book. He asked if their country (Ireland) is still dangerous and we talked about how things have changed. He asked if any other countries weren’t safe and we talked about the war in Syria. Also, I had bent a page as a bookmark. He saw the bent page on the library book and didn’t like it at all. I had to go get a bookmark to mark our new page.

Carly was feeling just well enough to put him to sleep, so I left them at 7:50. He fell asleep soon after that. Carly later moved back to the other room to sleep on the sofa bed again.

What a night. Carly went to bed okay, but got sick like I had been. 

It was a rough morning getting out of the house with so little sleep. And August was not understanding at first when he couldn’t nurse and be with mama. But it was clearly the best thing to get him out of the house so she could rest. We left at 8. He was asking me questions about how hair gel works and mohawks. From Carly’s middle school books. He was a Google Earth machine and more “what colors…what things feel like…what materials they are made out of…” On our walk he had system that could count how many garbage cans there were in the world, etc. Basically, it was a super Google, able to answer any question I could think of. And we talked about particles.

We forgot to put his bike at the rack and parked it behind the preschool building instead. We got there at 8:30. He did a series of watercolor paintings, more sure of his technique now: “Yeah! It’s so ABSTRACT colors!” One of the kids brought over a bird book and we read it a couple times. He was really not into morning meeting today, and basically sat on my lap the whole time: “I can’t do it!” “Can we not do preschool today?”

They went out for snack. He mainly ate just bread, but I was  able to get him to eat a tiny bit of carrot. On the playground there was a lot of chasing going on and he didn’t like it. So he sat with me. Near the end he wanted to go over to the kitchen area and sweep like he saw someone else doing, but then he was sad because he thought they were almost done and there wouldn’t be anything for him to sweep.

Went up to the movement class. Another mysterious transition and new class for him. Think he’ll get much more comfortable when he knows the classes and teachers and schedule. But got him in the circle after a bit, and with Mariam’s help. He was intrigued by the big bag that the teacher had. They did some creative visualizing, and he said when they share he said “I see magical flowers that don’t need air or water or nutrients!” She then brought out the monster puppet, Leonard. A big blue puppet. August really liked it and liked shaking its hand, but didn’t want a hug, opting for a high-five. When the teacher asked where he was from he said “South America!” Don’t know if he was just being creative (he does like South America) or if he was combining South Korea with America.

After that they went down to the regular playground. But they quickly shifted PKB to the smaller play area at the other end of the building. They opened the storage sheds and got out all sorts of toys. August was excited about that. There were those hippity hop things, cup stilts, and best of all the tubes and balls that attach to the magnet board on the wall. He tried the other things, but mainly played with those. Jiyeok ended up playing with him and they played together really well, changing the paths, and handing balls to each other. This after August first accused him of not sharing. Very fun to see.

They went inside and read a Kevin Henkes book called Birds. Then out to lunch. He didn’t eat much of his sandwich. Convinced him to eat a good number of grapes with the reverse psychology thing. He was telling me “Just chewing air!” During rest time I read Corduroy Goed to School. A discussion came up of good things to eat, as August ate his dry Cheerios. He argued “nope. Eating Cheerioes is the best in the Earth ever.” We read some New Kid on the Block, the Jack Perlutsky poetry collection I brought to school for Poem in Your Pocket Day on Friday. Took August in to the bathroom and he had some difficulty with the soap machine: “What’s wrong with that soap machine? Do your job!” for video story time they watched Carla’s Sandwich again and I Need My Monster.

Then kind of a crazy time before Candy’s birthday party. They did the meeting part of the birthday celebration. August wasn’t too into it and moved his photo to the ‘gone’ column to be home with mama. But they danced to the “I Can Dance” song, which we had heard at Selma’s party and I just bought a few days ago, and he got into that. And of course he was into the snacks. Namely the two kinds of cookies and then the cake. He was still going and managed a bite of my cake as well.

We then went out on the playground. I was pushing Blanka and a couple of other kids on the swing. She is quiet, but when I mentioned something being awesome she smiled and said “Awesome.” Derin was also on the swing and telling me a constant, unending story about a rocket, while meanwhile August, on the ground, was trying to get my attention by talking about seeing. Derin interrupted his own story to say “Hes talking a lot.” The funniest moment of the day.

After school we went up to coding class. They did some coloring, which seemed rather pointless, then played on iPads. The class doesn’t seem too necessary now, but we’ll keep it up until the end of the year. After class he was out looking at the block area and accidentally knocked over a tower. he got sad/scared he was in trouble and said “It’s okay.”

We talked about Carly being sick and how we wanted to give her rest time. He suggested we go to the big playground. Went there and played for 20 or 30 minutes. I was tired, and he said “I’m lucky I’m not tired.” And “Why are you yawning?” For several weeks now whenever he makes up a large number it always ends with 888. He was running a store and said “Shopkeeper…on the dirty floor. It hasn’t been cleaned for a year. I keep calling and calling but nobody comes.” I bought ice cream from his shop (on the slide0 and he said “I remember the time we had ice cream with Gramma and grampa…in a cone…Gramma let me have some of hers.” That was in Chelan. And we talked about what ‘available’ and ‘unavailable’ mean.

We got walking at 4:40. He claimed “I’m the unstoppable litter boy.” And “I can make so much wind with my turbine I can knock over the universe.” He was then humming the “I Can Dance” song. He wanted to stop at our playground to give her more time to rest. But I wanted to check on her so we kept going and were home after 5. Checked on her and made a short grocery list: Gatorade, Sprite, tissues, water bottles. He convinced me to go to the playground before the store. “How do I have so much energy? I could walk to the mall!”

We needed to go to the big Tiv Taam though, so after playing at the playground for a bit we were driving at 5:25. “Love You to the Sky” came on and he got excited: “Thats what it’s from!” It’s his two-times mystery song. He also talked about electricity after talking about the water cycle: “I have an electricity cycle in me. I keep using it over and over.”

We got to Tiv Taam and parked. He did a great job crossing the parking lot. He wanted to play at the playground, so we did for a bit. Playground #3 on the afternoon. A little kid kept giving him chips. He then played the prize game on the rocking thing. I was coming up with prizes, but ran out of ideas. He said “200 penises?” I asked why, and he said “Just if one pops off.”

We did our shopping and he did a great job helping. Got everything on our list and a few other things. Lots of traffic on the way home. We talked about our plans for home. We were home at 6:50. When he went to see Carly he asked “What color is your throw up?” We went downstairs and he started talking about Nicholas:”Why’s he sneak around a lot?” I had promised August a popsicle since we ran out of time to go get pizza. We discussed why Nicholas had problems sometimes and discussed introverts and extroverts. August says he is an extrovert. August then switched to archeology: “Does the ground ever run out of things for people to discover?” For healthier fare he started with a spoonful of peanut butter. But then he almost gagged on it. He was done with eating. So a popsicle was basically his dinner. He didn’t mind talking about it thoug
h: “Can you make peanut butter for me by chewing peanuts?”

Carly told me how she had talked to him about ‘nausea’ and ‘chills’ – two new words for him that probably could have used when he was sick but couldn’t communicate how he feels. I gave him a bath and he played with the “soap machine” (the old soap bottle with a little soap in it to make bubbles).

I tried to get him honey milk but he was upset about Carly being sick. She said she was feeling a bit better and tried to put him to sleep. Before she came in though he was worried: “What will I do if you and mama are both sick?” She came in and I left them at 8:20. She told him “I missed you.” He replied “Does that mean it is good that I’m here?”

He didn’t fall asleep though and I was up at 8:35. He was hungry (no surprise) and ate some Cheerios and apple. I sang him two songs (Imaginary Bars and Idaho) and he was asleep on the big bed just after 9.

He was up at 6:10. Watched Sarah and Duck, and he had me do some Duplo inventions  before we left. He was hesitant about going and asked “Can we go to preschool just some of the time?” We left at 7:50. He had us stop along the way to watch bees on some interesting flowers. Took a photo of the flowers so we could try to identify them later.

Got to preschool and he was undecided what to at first. Nicholas came over to him and told him some sort of secret. Still trying to decide what to do he told me it was my choice. He wanted to play with clay but they were doing one person at a time.

We experimented with the different train/car/boats and putting them down the ramp. We did a long ramp piece at first, then a shorter triangle piece. He noticed how when it was steep they would hit and fall over.

For morning meeting he stuck close to me. They were introducing a new song, and it turned out to me Do-Re-Mi and he started singing along to the words as he knows them. One of the kids suggested the Daddy Finger song, which they didn’t know. August recognized the tune from Cherie and started singing “Where is Thumbkin”. We went out for snack and August sat on a chair full of water from the rain. Dried it off and changed him into his red shorts. Ate a good snack of corn and pickles. He was being clingy and I couldn’t go get my book without him getting upset.

Out on the playground he played on the car, then was dropping a trio of leaves (a tool) and noticed that it acted like a parachute and also spun “Why do you think they do that?” He then went over and played at the kitchen area.

Next was music class. He liked that and got well involved, particularly with Wheels on the Bus. They also listened to parts of Peter and the Wolf, which the high school band is performing later. He kept coming over to me, saying he was tired, but kept going back.

They went back to the playground 11. He played in the bushes by himself, then showed Bar the blueberries then went and cooked with them.

Inside one of the teachers read If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, then they planned the party tomorrow for Candy’s party. August sat in the circle this time but said “I don’t like you being so far away.” I was about six feet away in a chair. After that he used watercolor to paint a card for Candy’s birthday. His first time really with watercolors and he was frustrated with the watery colors at first so I got a paper towel and taught him how to dry his brush.

He got his laminated attendance photo and we looked at all of them. He said “Nicholas is funny.” Got out the mattresses, then went out for lunch. He had some of the noodle thing but of course sort of choked on a bite. Luckily didn’t throw up. Ended up mainly eating Cheerios and apple.

He was tired and at rest time he actually rested a fair amount. He found he could climb into a cubby (he insists we call them “boxes” instead for some reason) and curl up in there. I read the book Max the Brave and he ate Cheerios as he rested. Then read Seven Little Mice Go to School. For video storytime they watched Me and My Cat, which was really funny, and then Rent Party Jazz, which was really good but didn’t hold their attention too well.

They went down to Playball with Dion. He started playing at first and I made my big mistake. I went the short distance to the classroom to get my iPad. He got upset when he noticed I was gone, then didn’t do anymore of the Playball class. Back inside Mariam read Giraffes Can’t Dance. It was time to go home. He wanted to fill his water bottle and the water cooler ran out. He wondered where they fill it up from so we went out and asked Anna to solve the mystery. I talked to her about the field trip on Thursday and they said I could chaperone.

After 3 we went across to Bat-Chen and had our first Hebrew lesson in quite awhile. She read a coupe books to him and they played ball. And watched a good song on YouTube, השפן הקטן – שירים לילדים קטנים

She also gave him some chocolate twice during the lesson, so he’ll always enjoy going to Hebrew lessons. We went up to the library and he played with the stuffed animals a bit. We stopped at the bathroom by the library and he was slamming the door to the pipe area shut. I asked him to stop but then had to threaten a consequence. He was upset about the idea of a timeout on his own when Carly called. I was assuring him he hadn’t gotten that consequence yet.

Carly came over and we walked home together. He steered just fine, as usual, until we got to our park, at which point he was running into posts and being a magnet, attaching to them. Home at 4:40. Carly had brought home a package from Cherie. He said “Oma never sent me a present before, right?” We reminded him of the magnet set. It was a cook quick-drying towel. They decided to do an experiment, getting it wet and putting it outside. August chose to use a hand towel as the comparison and they got that wet and put them both outside.

Inside he told her “Nurse first since I’m so cute.” Before his bath, that was. He said “Oma lets me do a bubble bath on the floor.” Carly pointed out it was only pretend.

Carly gave him his bath and washed his hair. Brave of her. We used the hairdryer to dry it, then he and I hung out together on the couch for a minute. He claimed that Cherie had given him a real bath while she was here. Don’t think that actually happened, although she may have hung out with him while he played in his bath.

We had dinner, and as he sat at the table he ate some cabbage. He got it stuck or something and gagged and threw up. He was shocked himself: “Why’d I do that? I’m not sick.”

Played with Duplos for awhile, then was hungry again. Carly made him oatmeal and mangoes. He tried to convince me there was no sugar: “Just sand in this oatmeal…just mixtures of sand in the honey bottle.” He was talking about his cubby at school, which he insists is a box, and said “Cubby…eh, box.” I said I caught him calling it a cubby. He said “You didn’t hear that! I put your headphones on.” He ate his oatmeal and asked about asteroids, meteors, and meteorites.

Carly took him upstairs. He played with the water and spray bottle in the sink and hummed “Animal Life”. He then decided to give me a consequence, because why not?

I took him in and flossed his teeth and brushed them. We then read the first 4 or so chapters of the Magic Treehouse book(#15, I think). He got hungry after a chapter and I got him some Cheerios. The tag on the shirt was then bothering him so I got scissors. Carly switched about 8 and he was asleep after 8:15.

He was twirling his hair today quite a bit, to the extent that when we headed home I noticed a sort of braid from where he had been twirling it.

Music class – Wheels on the Bus: 

Pretty cool: Light table ramp: Hebrew lesson: Checking on the towel drying experiment: 

Giving me a consequence and humming Animal Life: 

Sometime around 4 he woke up with Carly and wasn’t going back to sleep. He climbed up on the bed and lay next to me sometime before 4:30. He did a great job of laying with his head on the pillow, silent and still for quite awhile. Eventually he went down with Carly again for awhile, then back up with me. He then started saying he was hungry. Eventually, I went down and got some Cheerios and his water bottle. He sat down next to Carly and ate them, then set both up on the bed and finished them next to me. He was laying down and I really thought he’d go back to sleep. We had him get back down on the lower bed again as there wasn’t a mattress protector on the big bed. But after awhile he started talking more. At one point he kept asking Carly to go take a shower.

Eventually, about 6, Carly got up with him. He had enchilada (sans red sauce) and they went out in the “fresh and rosy fingered” morning and took care of the yard. I think they were out there a good 20 to 30 minutes. I had gotten up and had tea, then they came in about 7:20. He went to the bathroom and washed his hands, then we played with the Duplos, adding to our last alligator cage.

We switched to an alligator tower, but apparently the alligators just kept jumping off the tower and dying. August got up and ran over to Carly saying “You didn’t let me nurse much last night.” Carly was a bit incredulous. Carly went and made a sandwich, and August wanted me to make a pretend cake. Chocolate and bubble gum. I said I chewed the gum to soften it for the cake. Our cakes got sillier from that point.

Back to Duplos. We trapped the alligator under the overturned Duplo container, then were playing with the animals on it. August talked about how he had put the animals in the box things with Opa and that Opa had really liked it. He went over to Carly again and was a cat that she wasn’t allergic to (earlier he had asked what dander was). He now said he had to tails; “One out my back and one out my head.”

I went upstairs and took a shower. When I came down they were outside making blue slime. I did the rest of the dishes from last night and cleaned the kitchen. I went out and sat at the table. August noted I had come out and said “We’re having a pretty good time!” He also said “That’s really satisfying!” a couple times. Carly pointed out the nice clouds today and he said but they were just white. He pointed to one that he said had some pink. He talked about how he could see like every animal: “like unicorns, and dogs…” Then a special vision: “I call it high-tech vision…It just makes you see things in different colors. Like clouds in blue, and fences in pink.”

They had made two batches and August asked to make more. She said this was enough for now: “Mama, this is NOT it for now cuz I love making slime.”

They finished up and went inside. She got him cleaned up and changed. I did the dishes and washed the table. Upstairs I heard him say “The more I walk, the smarter I get…even the more I MOVE, the smarter I get.” This was as he went into the bathroom, so he included when he shook his penis.

We got going and left at 10:30. “Why does each flower have a different number of petals?” “Why doesn’t some highways have a speed limit?…Wait, can you go as slow as you want?”

We stopped at the outside play area. Carly went in to shop. I played with him and he had me pilot the airplane. We flew different places and August said “I’m gonna do a stopover.” There was a toddler around and it walked towards August a few times. August was being afraid of it: “What if that baby gets me? WHAT if he thinks I’m a baby toy? How can I show him I’m not a toy?” He saw Rebar and wanted a smoothie. I said no as I was planning to make one when we got home. He said “I bet mama will say yes.” But then right away “Uh-oh, she might say no.” We ended up in one of the houses and were there when Carly got back. He had wanted to play with her at the indoor area, but it was being used by a group. She played with him outside and they did the running game where she tells him what to touch next. She said herself once and he came running to her. It reminded her of when he used to run to her like that when she came home from work in Korea.

We walked home. I noticed that almost all of the maybe-wild carrot flowers were covered with these little black beetles. He had been tired at the mall, and was yawning and rubbing his eyes at home, so Carly took him upstairs. No nap though, and after awhile they came down and I made a banana and peanut butter smoothie. August and I had fun joking, telling Carly it wasn’t going to be very good but then whispering to each other how good it was going to be. He drank his smoothie and said “Mama, teach me something.” She asked what he wanted to learn. He thought and said “Why things are brittle. Leonardo da Vinci pictures.” They looked at a lot of da Vinci stuff, then went outside to pick dead leaves of the plant. To Carly he said “You said ‘stupid’ is a bad word, so that means you said ‘stupid’, right?”

Back inside Carly was tired but he was hyper. He went to the bathroom. To win arguments now he says”But still, enshumgedorflug.” His word for a number bigger than infinity. He’s been saying this quite a bit.

I got him to head out with me and we got to the playground before 1:40. He looked ready to sleep at any moment and went and curled up on the shaky platform thing. He let me do a little recycling, as far as the cardboard. I tried to go to plastic but only got a few things in before he called me back. He perked up a bit and we did pull-ups and “swing-ups”, which is when he hangs by his arms and swings his legs up. He tried to sit on a turning thing and almost fell off when it turned. He said “Stupid spinny thing” I said “You can’t say that. Your name isn’t Andy or Terry.” He then said “I can change my name!…Boop!…I have everything Andy and Terry have…a Punch and Judy puppet show…” And when I said you also had to be in a book he said he had a machine that would make him into a book.

We lay together in the round swing and he had me go buy things from the spider store. We then went to do plastic recycling. He was too tired to do any of it, and instead lay down on the sidewalk for a couple minutes. He then got up and put leaves over some ant holes to confuse the ants.

We got home and he was hungry and said he wanted some of the cauliflower and cabbage that Carly had made. We went outside, but he decided he didn’t want to eat it. Carly had also made a package of mushroom noodle thing and got him some of that instead.

I took him upstairs and he played with the squirt bottle in the sink and I gave him a sponge bath while he did that and put clean pajamas on him. We then played with the guitar and garage band. I was doing chord progressions and he would strum.

We went downstairs about 4 and he and Carly played with the slime. They then skyped with Vivian to show her the slime. And Carly had a really full conversation with Vivian about school. Vivian told her about math class and how they are now doing shapes, and she told her about how Colin is starting swim lessons. We saw a glimpse of what is probably to come this summer as August was being really competitive with her. When she told him his answer to a math problem was wrong he argued with her, and when she told us that the tooth fairy is real August categorically disagreed, repeating “Nope”. He said the same thing about Santa Claus. Vivian was funny though when she told us that they had seen the tooth fairy at a fair or something and Jeff was convinced. In more arguing mode August said he changed his age to 7 so he’d be older than Vivian. After the call we talked to him about how he needs to not be so competitive with her this summer.

He asked why people can have peanut allergic reactions so we watched a SciShow video on allergies, then several SciShow Kids videos on space top
ics (galaxies, dwarf planets) and also eyebrows and why do floods happen. He finally ate some peanut butter and honey sandwich and drank about half of the leftover smoothie from earlier. Carly took him upstairs and got him ready. I said goodnight at 8:25 and he was asleep by 8:30.

He woke up a few times through the night, but overall got a lot of sleep. He dry heaved at 6, then woke up closer to 7 and then around 7:40, each time Carly getting him back to sleep. At 8:25 we heard him turn the fan off in the bedroom, then he called “Dada!” Carly went up and got him. Downstairs he curled up on the rug, but when I asked if he was better, the same, or worse than yesterday he clearly gave the thumbs up for better. He stayed on the bed, lying down and quiet, with Carly getting him to drink some Gatorade. At 9:30 he was perking up. Carly got him one of the last of the shortbread cookies and he was sitting up, joking “Let’s tell dada nothing’s going on over here.” When he was done he said “Crumbs of air here.” And he made a machine that turned daytime into nighttime. He was looking better as he sat and looked out the window as Carly went out to enjoy the wind.

After a bit I went upstairs to take a shower. When I came back down, about 10:30, he was asleep. He slept all the way until 1:05 when he woke up, sat up, and called “Mama!” She came over and he lay back down, but when she asked how it was going he whispered “Good.” He was looking at her buttons and asked “Can you teach me how to buckle those buttons?” He ate a little chocolate after having some water. When I said I smelled something he hid his hand, then they joked they were just eating carrots. Muddy carrots. Small muddy carrots.

Carly then made him toast with honey and she popped popcorn. He said it was carrot toast and popped carrots. I read him Tigger Comes to the Forest, some poems, the piglet Does a Very Grand Thing. He ate the rest of the popcorn and wanted more. “Dada, I have a Nink…It eats ink and leaves for breakfast.” Seuss reference there. Carly popped more and I read more of the story. Finished it and read some more poems and then the story An Enchanted Place. We paused as Carly started making a list and he wanted za’atar on the popcorn. He found an ant over on the rug. We shared a pita and hummus and Carly headed to the store. He was back to normal talking speed, talking about there being nine nonnillion species of ants, appliances that need 220 volts, and flowers that smell like lemon and keep the ants away.

He asked how many senses there are so we went to YouTube. We watched a Dr. Binocs video about senses, then SciShow Kids videos on archeology and paleontology and dinosaurs. He then said he was tired and paused it. He lay on the couch for awhile but then decided he wanted to watch Sarah and Duck. He asked if we could buy another season and I agreed as we hadn’t bought one when we talked about it on the Jordan trip. We bought season 3 and he watched about 5 of them before Carly got home about 4:50. I put the groceries at while she played with August. She got started making enchiladas and August and I played with Duplos. I would make a “cool invention” but it would tip over or something and he would fix it for me.

We made several cages for the alligator, who kept chomping. He said he was tired, and a bit after six I got his bath started. We went upstairs and he went to the bathroom. But when he was done he said “Dada, I’m tired…Can we skip a bath?” I got him to do a most basic bath with him standing on the floor. Took him in to the grey couch bed upstairs to get his pajamas on. He started humming one of his old mystery songs and neither of us could remember if we ever solved it and figured out what the song was.

Downstairs we finished reading the An Enchanted Place story which turned out to be very timely with August starting school. We started Rabbit Has a Busy Day. He kept saying he was hungry but rejected everything. Carly was getting closer with the spinach enchiladas. She got some for him but it was too spicy for him. So she made some without the spicy sauce and just the cheese part. He ate some of that, then I took him upstairs to brush his teeth for bed. We did that, but then he said he was still hungry. Got him some of the cheese and spinach mixture and he ate that, then we brushed his teeth one more time.

Carly came up and he was asleep around 7:40.

He was up once before 7 and Carly got him back to sleep. He then got up at 7:10 and then threw up at the top of the stairs. I had just sent an email to his teachers, a minute too early, saying we might be in late if he woke up feeling okay. Carly had already decided to stay home for the first half of the day as my stomach still wasn’t back to normal, hurting when I moved much.

He finished an episode of The Magic School Bus Rides Again, where they are satellites in space, then crawled down on the carpet. Carly made us toast with cinnamon and sugar, but the second he tried to eat it he threw up.

A bit later we skyped with my parents. He didn’t move much or say anything, but he was amused by their story of the squirrel that is angry at them for taking away the cushions. Carly read him The Sneetches and he spent more time on the floor. Thought he might fall asleep. She was going to start reading him Monster Party, but he threw up again, a little before 9. they then read Monster Party and Welcome to the Symphony.

He took a long nap, from about 9:30 to 12:15. When he woke up she read him Wild About Books. He said something about it being funny that the animals had to write their letters and not type. He said if he had to do that he would use his own letters: “My language use funny lines and shapes…see?” They read Picasso’s Trousers, but then he threw up again. He got quiet and still again. They next read Paddington. He went to the bathroom, but threw up again right after. I read One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish, Because I Had a Teacher, and then the first page of the Children’s Illustrated Dictionary to him. Cary laughed at my suggestion that reading the dictionary aloud could be a good tradition when he is sick. But the first page was good as it had words like ‘abdomen’ and ‘ache’. He then said (via thumbs up) that he wanted to try to go back to sleep. Carly lay back down with him for awhile.

She read part of The Tapper Twins Go to War, a 6th grade book, to him. Then he threw up again, this time getting the sheet. I changed the sheets and carly went up to do laundry. I sang to him, then read Marie Curie, Puff the Magic Dragon, and the second page of the dictionary. He wanted me to read The King’s Stilts. Read about half, then they nursed and he fell asleep a little before 3:40.

He was awake at 5:10. Drank some lemonade and started talking: “I like lemon treats…just lemon drinks and lemon treats…I know lemon treats exist, right?” I went upstairs and when I came down he was talking about “The case or your missing clip.” he meant that sort of paper clip that he’s been playing with this week. He got quiet again. Carly asked if we should listen to music and he did thumbs up for yes. I put on a Milk Carton Kids album that we hadn’t heard. Eventually they did some more reading of the middle school book. 

The sun was starting to go down. I asked if he wanted me to carry him outside. He sat up and gave me a thumbs up. I took him outside for ten or fifteen minutes. It was the best part of the day. We listened to birds and smelled the flowers as I held him. I sang songs like When Johnny Comes Marching Home. Carly came out and watered the flowers.

Back inside he threw up again. Carly got herself some dinner. He wanted me to lay down next to him. We listened to Pink Floyd’s Wish You Were Here. Then read some of Where the Sidewalk Ends. Carly told him some stories of when she was a kid, then he said he wanted to go to bed.

We got him to the bathroom, then upstairs, where he threw up one more time. It was about a quarter to 8 when I left them. Carly came down at 8:05 with his water, saying she thought it was going to take awhile. He threw up about 8:20, then fell asleep about 8:40.

Earlier, when I was reading to him,  we heard the ice cream truck for the first time in a long time. He was sad because he couldn’t get any. Put his head down and pretended to sleep. He threw up again after 9:20.

He threw up twice during the night: one before midnight, and once after. He was then up around 7. Carly put him on the grey couch upstairs. When I got up a bit later they had just started watching Brother Bear. We went downstairs and he watched Magic School Bus. Carly left a quarter to 10 to go to the pharmacy and big Tiv Taam.

While she was gone we played with the balloon, then read Dr. Seuss. We read The King’s Stilts. He drank some orange juice and had me play a little Seuss Band. He then asked “How can you see color?” We watched a SciShow Kids video on how we can see color and then he watched a couple other SciShow Kids videos about amazing animals.

Carly was home before 11:30. She had bought a bunch of Gatorades and medicine and a pedialyte sort of thing. He requested a smoothie, so she made a strawberry and mango smoothie. He also had some of the Pedialyte. Eventually he had 5 drinks lined up on the table, including orange juice, Gatorade, and water.

I went up and took a shower. They went outside and made slime. He had a lot of fun doin that, then they came inside and he had some toast. He was humming a Seuss Band song and giggling. He was copying how I was resting my right leg on my left knee as I lay on the couch and asked how I did that. He then noy d that he didn’t have five drinks anymore. He mentioned that I was drinking a drink (Gatorade) and Carly asked if he wanted some. He chose to have blue.

We read The Sneetches and Other Stories, then moved to the iPad for more Seuss: Fox in Socks and The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins.

August had been laughing a lot through the first two books and the beginning of the last book, but then got quiet and very cuddly. When we finished he looked ready for a nap. He did some coughing but didn’t throw up. When Carly came down and asked if they should go upstairs and try to nap he gave her a thumbs up.

She took him up just after 3 and they fell asleep together. She was down sometime later, then went and woke him up about 4:30. He was sniffly and sneezy and drowsy when she brought him down. We took his temperature under his arm as he seemed warm. 37.2. She put on The Magic School Bus for him.

He turned it off after awhile. He was blowing his nose well the other day, but was resistant to it now. Carly finally got him to do it a bit. He had some toast and was humming and sniffling and eating. They then started reading The 52-Story Treehouse. He pointed out when she had read the word ‘stupid’. But then he said “I will not give you a consequence. Only dada can get a consequence.” I told him this injustice was going on the blog.

I took over reading after a few chapters. We read a few more, then he was asking about the colors and flavors of Gatorade. He then made up flavors: “Inflatable tube man flavor… I’ve heard of it. At Mulberry School.” We read The King’s Stilts again, then The Bear, the Rabbit, and the Zinniga-Zanniga.

Carly went up and got his bath ready. I held him for a few minutes. Seemed about ready to fall asleep in my arms. He had a nice bath though. Took him in and got him ready and I said goodnight at 8:20. He was asleep soon after.

He was up about 6:15 and came and cuddled next to me on the bed. He then had me carry him down to Carly. I was feeling much better. I went and took a shower. When I came down he was eating oatmeal and playing with his blue clay. He had made an arch on his own. He told me that yesterday he had made a zoo entrance. And he asked what ‘interlocked’ means. “There’s other breaking forces beside pull, push, crush…twist.”

He watched Magic School Bus and then remembered, as I mentioned preschool, I was going to leave and was worried about that. Before we left he wanted to play for a minute. He played with the magnets and made a magnet person. He then did the chant from The 52-Story Treehouse:

“Its gourmet, we’re gonna eat it for lunch! Human soup! Human soup!”

We left at 7:50. Outside he said “It smells like fertilizer out here.” He then had a stick, he said, out of his belly button that makes the smell go away.

We got to his class at 8:10. He went and played with clay. Then had to go out to get his picture taken with the other new students. He gave a good grin. Back inside he returned to the clay and I went in th nearby staff room to type (and rest). He came in a couple times to check on me, but would then go back out to the clay. He came in each time he finished a sculpture: the first was abstract, then a machine that made light, then a cookie machine that made chocolate chip and marshmallow cookies. With honey and marmalade.

When they called meeting time he knew what was coming and immediately got upset. I tried to tell him I’d just be in the adults room, where I had been before, and left him with Myriam. She brought him in to me after just a minute: “What if I need you!” Referring to Myriam he said “But somebody was trying to catch me!” So I went out and sat in the room and he went back to meeting.

They all went out to snack. Anna had some sheets to hang up for shade and I was slightly helpful in getting a desk and helping hang curtains. It was then playground time. August got right to it, running off to start playing. He and Anna and a few of the kids were playing in the car. It was a car at first, until August said it was a rocket and then it was a rocket. They were taking a rocket to Disney World. I went inside for just a minute to get my water bottle and he got upset. We talked a bit about it, back outside, and he observed “Isn’t it funny that the other people don’t have their mamas and dadas and they’re okay?” His first ‘fix’ to this problem was to make a machine that WOULD make them upset. But when I suggested that was the wrong way to go he instead invented a machine that would show photos of the mamas and dadas. Anna heard this part and talked about how they do have photos of all the families in the classroom and that he should bring in a photo of his family.

We then walked down and I helped open the sand area. He played there for 20 minutes or so. They were burying their shoes. August let me go in and get my book, but he told me to run.

The class went in for story time. Anna read Fox’s Socks. Mariam read The Book With No Pictures and August, and all the kids, were in stitches. They discussed the siren that would be ringing soon, then Anna read the book My Blue is Happy. At 11 the sirens went off. August did a good job of closing his eyes, then lay down on the floor like some of the other kids and sort of squirmed across the floor a bit for the rest of the siren.

For exploratory time he chose clay. I went over there and made letters out of clay for the kids doing clay: B for Blanka, H for Hector, O for Omri, and of course a Z for August. That inspired Hector to go get his name card and he made his whole name out of clay. August was making machines, and then a fish. He said “Let’s just make the outside. Not the bones and the immune system.” Then a cookie machine, then a light machine. Done with clay, he played with these boards where you trace letters with a magnet. The magnet pulls up little metal balls to ‘draw’ the letters. Pretty cool. He then went over to where a bunch of kids were playing with the wooden tracks and balls and cars and said “I’m gonna play with you if you like.”

They got out their mattresses and then it was lunch time. A bit early, as the 12:30 lunch thing is new since spring break. It was 12 before that, and the kids were dragging today, hungry. We went out and ate, then went back in for rest time. I had brought the Kipper book but August wasn’t too interested in reading it and Ori ended up reading it. At one point I read Whose Skin Is this? to August and Nicholas. For the video story time Myriam put on There’s an Alligator Under My Bed, a random colors video, a longer story that they didn’t finish, then a good one called Carla’s Sandwich. He sat on my lap.

They then had more playground time, and he played in the sandbox again. He wanted me to play with him a couple times, but I had a headache and was trying to stay in the shade. He and Nicholas played together. Anna brought out apple slices and was calling over to the kids to get them to come get apples. He told me “You can make me get one.” So I pushed him across the playground as he walked. Myriam asked what his favorite part of the day was. He said clay. She asked if there was anything he didn’t like: “Nope. They keep getting more gooder and more gooder.”

They all went in and she read The Book with No Pictures again. Similar laughter. The day was over and outside he got his hands dirty in the dirt while I chatted with Anna. I pointed out the progress of him letting me be in the adults room in the morning and his comfort with running off and playing on the playground. She had also seen his reaction when I left, and seemed fine with moving things slowly. I get the impression that the plan to get August independent was being pushed by Maaian and not her.

I needed some Tylenol, so August and I headed home, getting here at 3:30. Carly had driven in the morning, and now got back a little after we did. She and I talked about something involving a book she was teaching with her students and how authors give characters different motivations. August asked “Why? Why does have characters to do certain things?” Carly mentioned something about the book and people not liking other people. He said “Maybe they should reconsider, right?” He tried to play with her skirt and Carly said that that wasn’t appropriate. He told her she should wear different clothes. So we know that that argument is 4-year old logic.

They played with clay. He brought up me leaving (almost): “At preschool dada almost went away to the library.” She asked why he didn’t want me to leave and asked if he was scared. He said “So scared, I couldn’t take it.” she asked what bad thing he thought might happen. He answered “Dying.”

They went outside for awhile, then came in to get dinner. They had wraps and I had some stir fry and rice. August told Carly, who was still wearing her work clothes: “You look like a doctor…you’re wearing white. A nurse.” I stayed outside and chatted with them for awhile but was fading. Eventually I went up to rest. I came down at one point and they were watering plants in the kitchen. August was filling a bottle from the faucet, then pouring it into the cup she was using to water the plants out the window. There was a lot of recycling on the counter and he asked “Mama, can I ask what’s a dishy and what isn’t a dishy?”

I got his bath ready, and she gave him his bath. They took up some plastic dishes to play with in the bath and also played with the old soap bottle, which was a lot of fun. He was asleep by 7:50. Instead of getting better I was getting worse and had horrible stomach ache/heartburn. I threw up after awhile, around 9 or so, then cancelled my trip to Sabeel tomorrow.

I ruined August’s shot at perfect attendance by getting sick. During the night August woke up from a nightmare, telling Carly “Mama don’t lock me in the room by myself.” He couldn’t get back to sleep, and was stuffy. After awhile he climbed up with me and told me he was itchy. After ten minutes or so he climbed back down to Carly and eventually went back to sleep.

Meanwhile, I had just the slightest hint of an upset stomach before I went to bed and thought it was odd. Then during the night I woke up twice and threw up. I threw up a third time after 6 and Carly agreed to head to school late. He was up 6:37. He went downstairs and Carly got him back to sleep on the couch. Carly stayed until after 7:30. I lay on the couch and he woke up at 7:47.

He watched a lot of The Magic School Bus as I tried to rest on the couch. Got him Cheerios and water. At 9:50 he said “Dada, I need some attention.” And started crying. He calmed down and made a game of stuffing things under the blanket. I told him how I had thrown up three times and he said “The time I was sick I threw up more than three…I mean in Korea.” He then started taking care of me. He got his stool and put it on my chest and said it gave me medicine “Thst button gives you most medicine…Beep. See? It feels better already.” I took my temperature (for real) and it was fine. We drank the can of orange drink that had been left over from Jordan and I had a coke. August was being microscopic and said “I can go through things with dangerous things like sulfuric acid!” He took more care of me, but kept insisting that his shots should make me better. I told him that it didn’t really work that way. He said “I push a button on the wall and it makes magic real. See? Magic medical center.”

He convinced me to go play with Duplos and said “I remember a cushiony cushiony block think where Vivian lives.” We made a store. He was frustrated when I was doing things slowly and said I wasn’t giving him attention. I said it was just slow. He said I wasn’t giving him fast enough attention. Back on the couch we read chapter 1 of The 52-Story treehouse.

He was hungry for oatmeal so I made him some. I put it on the table for him but he was slow getting off the couch. “I’m like mama when she doesn’t know how to get up.” That is something she says.

He ate, then I lay on the couch and he let me rest while he watched two more episodes of The Magic School Bus. He was done at 1 and wanted to play. He had wanted to make another stress ball, so we looked for Carly’s tool fo making them, cut from the top of a plastic bottle. We looked all over but couldn’t find it. We ended up just playing with a balloon instead, me blowing it up and then him letting it go to fly around the room. He wanted me to go get it, but I made us switch back and forth. We read Go, Dog, Go. He requested I sing “Animal Life”. Then I got him peanut butter and apples. He ate that and we tracked Carly as she walked home using Find My iPhone. She was home before 2. After a bit they walked over to the mall and came back with Gatorade. They were back around 4. I was resting upstairs and came down after 5. They were going to head back out to take some cardboard to school for the castles her students are making. He asked “Is the students gonna have a fun time with the castles and I’m just going to be bored?” He was playing with clay and had eaten cucumber, turkey, cheese, and grapes. He then had a second dinner of oatmeal and mango.

They went to school and pharmacy. He got sad when Carly said he couldn’t touch a castle her students were making and did his really sad crying. While they were gone I watched the season finale of The Walking Dead.

Back at home, as he was having a third dinner of stir fry, he asked Carly “What director mean?” That was a reference to Magic School Bus, as he had watched the episode where they make a movie twice today. He also asked “What field trip mean?” Also a Magic School Bus reference, although could also apply to the field trip he learned about at preschool (to a farm next Thursday). He said I had read that Andy and Terry book to him, and even though I hadn’t read the words ‘idiot’ or ‘stupid’ he still gave me a consequence. We talked some more about me leaving at preschool and Carly reminded him it would be like when he was with Oma and Opa. He said “But they have NO treats!” He was playing with the clay on the dining room table. Earlier, he had wanted to mix colors and Carly had started to suggest he not do it, and he said something like “but isn’t it always better to learn?”

Carly took him up for his bath, then I came up to say goodnight. He was asleep about 8:20

He was up at 6:05. Took him downstairs and I took a shower. Carly headed to work and he watched some Magic Schoolbus until we we got ready to leave. We got walking at 7:40. I took a photo of him on the front porch for his first day of preschool. Got a photo of him adjusting his hair to the side. On the walk he noticed that the pen marks on his leg were faded (mainly from his bath). He said he called it “Pensing” although he should call it “pencilling”. He also said “It should just be preschoo” with no L.

We got to class at 8:05. He went and played at the light table. After awhile I went and sat outside, right out the window where he could see me. I saw him talking to other kids as they played at the table. He came and brought me in 8:30. Told me “I’m gonna find something new.” He did art. He made shapes, starting with eighths. And I found out about their field trip next week, to a farm. I looked at a 300 Wild Flowers of Israel book to identify the big white flower we saw yesterday. August helped, remembering it didn’t have the big petals around the outside. Something like ainswoethia, wild carrot, toothpick, or crown flower, but not exactly any of them.

We went in the forest area and he tried things on and sat on the squishy rocks. He then went upstairs in the loft and played in the kitchen area. A girl tried to go down the stairs head first on her hands and knees and he was stopping her by holding onto her ankle until one of the teachers told her it was dangerous to go down the stairs like that. Later he told me they had been playing a game where they were keeping babies from being dangerous – the girl was being a baby trying to crawl down stairs.

For morning meeting at 9:10 he was concerned he wouldn’t be able to see me. Convinced him he could, then he went to the meeting. They started by singing “Five little speckled frogs…eating the most delicious bugs.”

They went outside for a snack. The lawn had been aerated and we examined the chunks. He only ate the crackers for snack, and one bite of the white cheese. They taught him how to wash his plate and then they went to the playground.

Out on the playground he first played on the seesaw with Selma and another girl when Selma asked him. he played on the car a bit with other boys, pretending it was a police car, then wanted to go make something in the kitchen. I went down with him. PKA had come out, and a bunch of kids he knew were there: Daniel (from coding), Bar, Julia, and some of the girls from Hebrew (Maya, Ledeuh). He played in the sand my Daniel and I taught him how a sifter worked. Bar came over and started laying with him and I retreated to the other end of the playground. At one point he came all the way over and said he couldn’t see me, but I told him he now knew where I was and he ran back to Bar.

He was then playing with Bar and a big group of kids as they ran around, away from a monster, apparently. They ran over to the PKA classroom and August got me to go with. Eventually back on the playground he said he was getting bored, but then he went across to the bushes where a girl was playing with them. He was over there for several minutes, then came over to me. He played on the seesaw again with another girl. The playground had gotten busy with all three preschool classes out there.

They went inside before 11 for a story: Olive and the Big Secret. Then to music class, up in the classroom where they have Hebrew and coding classes. The teacher for that is Vicki, one of the PKA teachers. He insisted I sit in the room. He really liked the waving things and scarves. Took him to the bathroom where he was working on doing things on his own, like pulling up his underwear and shorts, then they went downstairs to a quick meeting before exploratory time. 

He went to the clay table along with Candy. He made a tea cup with Marian, then did an abstract sculpture. Then went over and looked at the kestrals and the eggs on projector. It’s actually a nesting pair on campus and a webcam is set up. Then more light table time.

Outside for lunch. I sat on the ground next to August in his chair. He said with Nicholas, Emmett, and Derin. Did a lot of talking about zoos. Nicholas told him his hair was getting long and that Nicholas had gotten a hair cut so “I don’t look like a girl.” August responded with “I have a button. Beep! I’m a girl!” I pointed out that Emmett’s bangs were just as long and that Yaya has long hair.

Then inside to rest time. He had a mattress over by the entryway. They didn’t have to nap (about 4 did), but the lights were low and there was classical music on. They got out the books so the kids could look at books. We read a book about a house by the sea and Corduroy Loves the Library and looked at a couple others. After the kids that take naps were asleep they let the others get up and they sat and watched two stories on the projector on YouTube. They are from something called Storyline Online. The second was called The Garbage Barge and was really funny. They then got ready for P.E. time at 2. Yaya had lay down on the floor again, sans mattress, and Emmett said he was pretending to sleep and was even poking him and opening his eyes. Turns out he had actually fallen asleep for a nap as well.

They went over to the P.E. time with a teacher named Dion. We’ve seen these P.E. classes quite a bit as we walk to school and I wasn’t impressed – a lot of time with kids lined up and being talked to. But I was pleasantly surprised when he started them playing games like from August’s activity class. But during the first, when they would run, then act like an animal, August ran over to me and said “Dada, he said I can’t stand like a flamingo!…Can you teach me how to stand like a flamingo?” Then there was a game where Dion was the Cookie Monster knocking sprinkles (balls) off of cookies (cones). Dion was saying he was “winning” and August didn’t like that it was a winning game. He came and told me “I hated that game.” I heard him saying that a bit later as well. Dion ended with “Boys get the balls, girls get the cones.”

They went back to the classroom and finished with storytime with Myriam. She read one book, then was going to read The Book with No Pictures, but couldn’t find it. The bus kids left, and we waited out with the other kids waiting for their parents. August was putting the holes back in the grass so it would dry out. Once the bell rang I took him over to Carly’s classroom and dropped him off with her. I went back and met with Maarian and Anna to debrief how it went. All agreed it went well, but they immediately started talking about transitioning me out of the classroom and how it is okay if he cries. So felt like a bait and switch. Agreed to try leaving during morning meeting tomorrow.

As I walked back to Carly’s classroom I saw them walking across to the cafeteria. I caught up and they went and got some blue chips as a snack. The guy at the cafeteria gave August some sort of treat. We sat out on the couches outside and ate the chips. We then dropped Carly off at her classroom. He and I stopped to play with the darts and he tested the magnets on them out on all the metal things he could find. And we looked at the art in the cabinets by the office. We stopped on a bench to eat his sandwich and discuss peanut allergies. We left the school at 4:15. He surprised me by asking out of the blue “Why in our home in Thailand when we went in the hall there was an alarm?” Pretty sure we’ve never even mentioned that alarm in the hallway since we left Thailand.

We walked home, and Carly got home just a few minutes after us. He played with slime, then with the Duplo fence pieces. He wanted me to be a baby. He was the mom. Carly was the dada. He was keeping me from taking the fence pieces; “I don’t want you to choke baby.” We discussed me leaving from preschool class for awhile tomorrow.

We had wraps for dinner outside. August didn’t want the whole wrap: “Here’
s the deal: I only want the chicken.” He asked what “the coast is clear” means. I asked where he knew that from and he said from Sisters, which we haven’t read in quite awhile. We discussed the ‘winning’ game at school, which ended in a tie. He said “When someone doesn’t like winning and there’s winning tie is the best. Why? Because someone else is winning and you’re happy they’re winning?” When Carly went inside we said “The coast is clear.” Carly came back and he whispered “the coast is not clear.”

Back inside I showed him how to use the clip thing. He asked me “Why did that girl have the powers she can’t control?” He was referring to Frozen, which I’ve told him a little about. Carly took him up for a bath, then got him ready for bed. He was pretty worn out from the long day.

It starts:

Dressing up:

Making a mug:

Sculpture:

Darts:

Looking at the art: