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.