He was up right at 6:40 again. I said “Is that ZZ?” He replied “Don’t come up!” and slowly made his way downstairs. He went and turned on the fan and a light switch, then sat on the couch. All very calm. He asked to play Robot Lab. He went to the bathroom and told me to make a new robot while he was gone. He was then singing a Counting by 2s song to the tune of Eine Kleine Nachtmusik. He’s done that a bit before – that is his own mashup. When I said the legs were rectangles on his Robot he said “The legs are cylinders.” He had us acting out the Terry monster scene from 78-Story Treehouse. While I was getting vitamins and banana bread he was looking at his Hebrew alphabet on the fridge and added letters: “I have 14 made-up Hebrew letters.”
We read three chapters of the new Magic Treehouse book (#2), Then read a lot of The 78-Story Treehouse, to page 280 or so. Then we got out the Hebrew alphabet workbook he hasn’t used yet and he spent a lot of time tracing letters and singing his Hebrew alphabet song – even including some of his made-up letters even though he wasn’t looking at the fridge.
He decided on a walk at 8:30 but said he wanted to stay in his pajamas since it would just be around the block. He had some Larabar and water on the walk. We went over to Vatikim, then south and back over to our house. He sang the whole ZYX (backwards ABCs) song on his own and we did a lot of counting by songs. We looked at some old furniture and talked about painting old furniture. He really liked the idea.
We were home at 9. He ran straight to the couch and was a sick baby walrus. It was sick due to pollution from a factory and swallowing plastic bags. Next he was a baby shark. We went outside and he helped water plants. Got maybe ⅔ done then he wanted to play GarageBand. He did that on my iPad while I finished up with the watering and tying up some of the tomato plants.
He did some of the coloring book, then we watched the Hebrew counting book twice. He then watched Charlie Brown while I finished making my sandwich and his grilled cheese. We ate lunch, then watched a Coyote Petetson video, which Cherie had recommended as it is Thatcher’s favorite. August was then a red velvet worm.
He played a little Dragonbox Little Numbers and was learning counting by 9s on his own and was chanting “9, 18, 27, 36”. He got the big dinosaur book we have and asked me to read about tyannosaurus rex. We then read part of After the Storm. He then typed arabic on my iPad and saw the character counter. He got up to four digit numbers: “Four digit numbers is cool!”
He was then a robot that needed charging, then we went outside for a moment. We read some Garfield, had a pillow fight, then read the Elephant on a Line book in Korean. He spotted Dragonbox Algebra on my iPad and we played more of that than we had in the past. Sort of understanding the rules, and I think he’ll really get into it at some point, but still pretty hard. Switched to Google maps and was figuring out how to do walking directions on his own – to places in Uzbekistan, etc.
He went and took apart his zoo and dumped out the Duplos, just in time for us to head to the grocery store. He was fine on the walk over, and as we got a cart and as he started riding in it. But then he was making noise and I had to pull him out and head out of the grocery store. That did the trick, and he agreed to go back in. He was still a little surly, but stayed quiet, and said he was talking in an “invisible language”. I think he discovered he could think mean thoughts but not say them outloud.
We did the rest of the shopping, including getting some lentils and tuna for a family that they are helping at school. At first August wanted to make sure he got the same things, so we also got tuna. But he was okay when I didn’t get lentils for us, and when I asked how many bags we should get for the family he said 3. At the end I was getting popcorn for us and got two boxes, but he said the second box was for the family, so we will donate that as well.
Took apart his zoo
We were home at 3:30. At the store I had reminded him of his Halloween candy. I let him choose, and he got one Starburst, a red one. I cut it in half and he chewed on it, walking around as he enjoyed it. Walked in circles in the kitchen for a couple minutes, then would say “It dissolved”. Then watched Charlie Brown for the second time today.
He went to the bathroom, and getting of the toilet said “Dada. I’m learning basketball. Do you want to play?…You throw the balls and catch them…they go through the nets…” I asked “Where did you learn about basketball??” “From people in the country.” I mean, he has seen, very very briefly, people playing basketball, but we’ve never discussed it. Don’t remember it from any of his books. Think I may have pointed out kids playing basketball at the school a couple weeks ago.
We then went out again and rode his balance bike up to the playground. He first went to the exercise equipment so we exercised. He went to all of the machines he can use, then he jogged around with me a few times. We were then playing with the drinking fountains when Carly showed up.
We walked home and they went out and picked tomatoes. He did more Dragonbox Little Numbers, then Google Earth on Carly’s computer. He found a couple really nice spots in Scotland I’d like to visit. He did some Excel math and I prepared some falafel for dinner. He ate those, then had pasta and pesto and mushrooms as well.
We read more of James and the Giant Peach. Got to the giant insects part and he was insects crawling on me. Carly took him up to the shower and I actually gave him his shower. He was still being cranky and mean after his shower, so I said he couldn’t get my side of the bed wet anymore and dried him off. He was mad at me about that, and only grudgingly said sorry to me a bit later for saying mean things. When he said “I love you” before going to bed it sounded very much like he was 13. He was asleep right at 7.
