He was up right at 6 with me. Hard for me to get up as just a little earlier I had thought it was about midnight, literally seconds before Carly’s alarm went off. He watched Kipper and Carly got him strawberries and Cheerios, and when Carly headed to work he quite cheerily said “Have a not good day at work!”
He then watched one Smurfs episode (Fountain of Smurf), then we turned to books, reading more of our reread of The 91-Story Treehouse, pausing to play some chords on the piano and Piano Companion, then finishing Magic Treehouse #10. We found Red River Valley (which is central to the book) on YouTube and listened to it. He then wanted the songbook. He had me sing a few of the songs, then made up his own. He then wanted me to sing Go in and Out the Window, which I’ve never heard, so we found it on YouTube and sang along to a couple versions. He was then watching kid song videos for Ants Go Marching, etc. and singing/humming/playing along with them.
Back to 91-Story Treehouee for a couple chapters, then he needed to go to the bathroom. He declared he had turned into an octagon, then after I washed his hands he was a circle: “Now you can cut me any way you want.” (Lines of symmetry) “A machine squirted ten sides into me, so now I’m a decagon.” He had more and more sides and had me cutting him up or his lines of symmetry. He was also counting keys on the piano as he played a scale – I had started to explain chords like C add 9 to him.
He played Simple Machines and I exercised. We went upstairs and he watched Sarah and Duck while I took my shower. We watched one together downstairs, then another together upstairs first. We then played the geometry app together, finding the shapes in the pictures. Gave him a shower and he was pretty upset despite not touching his hair. Think we’ll try a bath tomorrow just to mix things up, even though he says he doesn’t like baths. Clearly he isn’t liking showers either.
We went downstairs and he asked for “more תות”. Strawberries, that is. He’d already had a couple bowls with Cheerios and strawberries. Cut him a couple more, then made grilled tuna and cheese for lunch. While he ate he said “Dada, I don’t like people.” We talked about that, and I talked about people he liked. He denied liking some of them, saying “No, they kill me…no, he killed me too.” A couple minutes later he said “Why do pilots not take baths?” We then figured out he meant “Captains”. This was a reference to either the 26-Story Treehouse (the first we read) or one of the Magic Treehouse books (more recent) in which there is a pirate captain that doesn’t bathe. Either way, surprised that he picked up on that.
I got some iced tea and he wanted a straw for it, then some honey on the straw. Carly had left some of her Tic-Tacs on the counter, the white mint kind. So we each had one. He said “Dada, does your mouth fee cold?” “I’ve always wanted to have those mints.”
We went back and did more reading: Berenstain Bears Sitter and Dentist books, finished You Wouldn’t Want to Live without Bacteria, and finished our re-read of The 91-Story Treehouse.
He then had me carrying him outside on the pillows – each pillow would go a different distance, based on its size. Then a lot of imagination play based on books – something being drawn twice, “that sign says if we teleport again we will be teleported to another planet.” We turned into frogs. I emailed Carly about our plans to walk to the school library and walk home with her and he sent her a few messages and a GIF.
Before we left he went to the bathroom. On the toilet he told me “I smashed the living room.” “Why?” “There was a fire. I used my magic smashing board to smash it. It put out the fire. The fire got smaller every time I smashed it.” He then did a pretend phone call, which I wish I got on video, where he asked who it was, etc.
We got out on a walk at 2:10. He invented the Ants Go Marching letters song, where the ants go marching “A by A’. Each line then ended with something that started with that letter (but didn’t rhyme). We only got up to E though before he got distracted by running over a paper cup. He pointed out “That’s Jack’s house”. Then I pointed out a helicopter in the sky. He joked “Did you say ‘Nelliecopter?” There was a big yellow fruit on the road that he crushed with the bike wheel. When he was done he said “Sorry fruit that I smashed you. But I think wanted to smash you.” As he sang a song he said “I have three hands. I’m pressing the notes with two. And I can strum with the other one.”
We got to the school, and as we walked towards the library we rode by a guy that was standing and looking at his phone, not moving. August pointed and said “That’s a statue.” Luckily, the guy smiled. We were at the library at 2:35. He helped return our big stack of 7 books (everything except the clean water book). I wanted to look for books, but he kept saying someone was steering us and pulled me to the winter wonderland area they have set up. There is now fake snow on the ground. But the bean bags and polar bear were gone. We huddled together on the snow (he said we were cold squirrels). I had dragged him back to the kids room to pull a couple of books (the Clementine book and another couple books we ended up not looking at) and tried reading those. After the preschool class left the kids area he was okay with switching the squirrel nest to in there and piled up the bean bags in the back right corner. We got a stack of Berenstain Bears books and read those: Forget Their Manners, The Truth, Bad Dream, and Mama’s New Job.
When we were done reading, he spotted the library computers: “Someone’s steering me to the chairs again…Now they’re steering me to sit. They’re pushing the down button…” They then steered my hand (which he pulled) to the keyboard. Spent the next 20 minutes or so figuring out how to use a mouse. Played around in the Paint program, changing colors and making pentagons. Also played with Publisher. On the library website he found a Neil Gaiman book, Fortunately, the Milk which we then found in the library. Carly walked in to find him sitting at a computer, looking very much like a big kid. We checked out Clementine, two Berenstain Bears books (Mama’s New Job and Bad Dream), Clementine, Max Axiom Photosynthesis (He was excited when I found that one), Fortunately, the Milk, and Magic Treehouse #11 and #12.
We walked home. On the downhill he wanted to roll on his own. Carly was spotting him, but letting him do it more and more. He was figuring out steering and using his feet as brakes. We were home around 5.
They went to nurse and Carly said his hands were cold. He wanted me to get the nursing mittens. I went up and found them in the box of winter clothes. I was talking about what to do tomorrow and said we should go to Ra’anana Park. He said “But I’m worried about the money thing.” That is, the parking meter. After he went to the bathroom he just wore underwear and a shirt while Carly and I were cold and wearing sweatshirts and pants.
Had rice and soup (and chips) for dinner and he wanted to send messages to Korea Megan. He was getting grumpy and upset with Carly when he couldn’t nurse. I almost got him to read a book with me, but then he decided he wanted Cheerios and got upset again when we told him he could have more dinner.
Carly took him up to bed and I did dishes. They read some Berenstain Bears. I came up and read Plumdog. We then did a couple timers and he practiced trying to sleep. He asked for mama and she came up. I left them at 7:10. I asked what he would dream about and he said “Robots” I suggested libraries and he said “Robots and libraries.” Asleep soon after.
Smashing:
Nursing mittens:
