He was up about 6:20. I was in the shower and he came in and used the bathroom. I finished and he went down to Carly. When I came down a minute later and Carly headed upstairs, August asked me “Nights go quick, right?” We talked about how we don’t dream the whole night, and don’t remember all of our dreams, so it seems shorter.
Carly headed to work and he had his peanut butter toast for breakfast. I got the ipad out for him but he never watched anything as he kept talking and asking questions. He asked me “What does winnify mean?” “How do you win in a game?…the game with real money…you know, spin, spin, spin…” He meant roulette, which we had seen in that one sculpture at the Herzliya Art Museum. So we talked about it and then other games and sports.
Before we left we looked around for materials for his bridge with Anna. He got a plastic container out of recycling, a Cheerios box (last night he had told us that he told Anna that they only had the sugary Cheerios at the little Tiv Taam – don’t know why that would have come up), and outside we got some sticks of bamboo and a regular stick.
We left about 7:40. He got the Haslerky treat from the International Fair. He said it was licorice, but also tasted like mint. Sucked on it most of the way to school. He had me sing a few songs using his ‘radio’, and as we got close to school he told me that when we had gotten home yesterday he had felt some static from the wires in the little bathroom. Confusing, as there aren’t any wires, or things with wires, down low in that bathroom. He said they were under the bathroom and he could feel them through the floor, apparently.
As we got to the corner of the school he then asked if I was going to leave him today. He didn’t like my answer, but didn’t get really upset. I did have to pick him up at the bike rack, and he was hesitant at the preschool door and told me not to leave right away. But he was excited when I had him show Anna the bag of materials. It looked like a good time to leave, but he picked up on it and asked me not to go. It took a few minutes. I picked him up and showed him the schedule cards, then asked if he wanted to say goodbye by his materials or out on the bench. He requested a private moment out on the bench. I took him out and we talked for a couple minutes. He asked “What if they run out of food?” And “Where will you go?” He was much calmer through the whole thing. Eventually I told him I was going to hand him to Anna. He said no, but didn’t fight it, although he didn’t want to let go of my fingers. He was calm enough as I walked away that he was talking to her, and I was able to give him a thumbs up before I went around the corner of the building.
Got this report from Maaian on his morning without me:
August is doing really well this morning. Anna said the transition into the classroom was much quicker, and he was engaged until around 9:00am when everyone transitioned to Morning Meeting. Then, he had a moment of feeling upset, and Anna was able to talk with him about his feelings and take a break outside. He then went back to participating and continued the
sculpture that he began yesterday. Some of his classmates also joined in to help with the creation, which was wonderful.
Later on, August joined everyone for snack and engaged in conversation with a few classmates. He and Ori played with the bucket of bubbles and soap water for the dishes and shared some good laughs. He later had a great time playing at the sand box with Derin and making “a storm”.
When I picked him up at 10:40 they were over on the PKA side again. He said “Dada, dada, dada… That’s enough for today.” I saw his sculpture before I left. There had been all sorts of animals and things added to it by him and the other kids.
We walked over to a bench in the center of campus and sat and ate an early lunch. I asked him about preschool, and then he asked me “What kind of work did you do in the library?”
We then went in the library. Back in the little kids section we found Liz. She was struggling to fit all the books on the shelves and asked August for advice. He found one or two places that another book could go. She asked him questions about his teachers and preschool. He didn’t actually name his main teachers, and told her she was in PKA now. He actually was in there when I picked him up, so maybe that was what he meant. Or he was being funny. She suggested a book called Oliver and the Seawigs (think it helped her find room on her shelf – she was also checking out a book for her daughter from that shelf). We went and read a few pages of it. He liked it, so we checked it out. Before we left he looked at a 750 piece that was sitting on a table, partially completed. And then destroyed the corner. And tried to keep destroying it when I stopped him. His consequence was having to wait while I rebuilt it. He was not happy about that.
While sitting on the bench we had talked about baking cookies for Teacher Appreciation Day (they are celebrating it a week early here). He had settled on snickerdoodles. We drove down to the big Tiv Taam and did our shopping, and also got crackers (he had reminded me we were going to go to the store for crackers) and looked for Cheerios. Still no luck. Oh, and we chose some Brie cheese to try. Along the way he told me “You could use a rocket I’d you have a deadline.” This is an ongoing discussion about what a ‘deadline’ is, and how at the end of every 13-Story Treehouse book they use something to get their book to the publisher just in time.
He also asked what ‘access’ means. Once I explained he said “I have a way to access libraries when they’re closed: JUST BREAK THROUGH THE ROOF! Take a ladder and climb up and break through. Right?”
Shopping was quick, but no cream of tartar so decided to substitute baking powder. And we stopped to go to the bathroom. We were home a little after 1. Got straight to making cookies. He made up a “5 4 cherry” song and repeated it several times. He was helping a lot but being whiney about wanting to try more of the dough, etc. paid off though when he said “That was better than just the cookie dough.” He had just had a little dough with cinnamon and sugar. I reminded him I was right that he should wait for it. Then, when he ate an actual cookie he said “THIS is even BETTER than cookie dough and cinnamon and sugar.”
We headed back to school and got to the preschool at 2:45. After the bus kids left he gave the bag of cookies to Ms. Anna. I didn’t foresee him taking the cookies out to show her though, and Emmitt saw one and wanted one. Didn’t mean for that to happen. He then gave bags to Ms. Myriam and Ms. Vicky. They both wanted to give him a hug and he reluctantly accepted, turning so it was a backwards hug. When Ms. Marion came back from the bus he delivered the final bag. When I was asking him who he wanted to make cookies for, Ms. Vicky was actually the first he mentioned.
Then up to coding class. He had agreed in advance to let me sit out in the hall as long as the door was open, but Karen wanted it closed for the air conditioning so I just sat inside. At 3:35 he ran over to me and said “I’m doing a great job!” with a big smile on his face. I saw him show Karen a spit bubble, and she actually asked him to do it again. He said “Bubbles. Spit bubbles.”
Afterwards we went out on the playground. Carly showed up a few minutes later. He played with Nikolas and Sophia, first over in the kitchen area. Carly and I talked to their mom, Anastasia and learned that she and her husband are geophysicists for oil companies (although she’s not working now). August went on the big swing with Carly, and the other two joined in. They/we then played several rounds of hide and seek. At one point Sophia said she was doing a trick and did something. August wanted to do something, then came over to me and whispered “How do you do the crabwalk?” I reminded him, and he and Sophia
ended up crab walking across the ground.
We got going. Along the way he asked me “The sun is always giving us all this heat, so why is the Earth cooler than the sun?” We discussed that.
At home I got him cauliflower and potatoes and milk and he ate dinner outside. I was inside doing dishes and she brought him in for a break from outside. I was asking what he had done, and finally he said his guess was that he had hit her with his stick. He went out and apologized for that, but Carly said that wasn’t it – he had sprayed her with the hose.
Back inside she took him to his bath and I made lunches. In the bath he was repeating “Oliver Boliver Butt” from Too Many Daves. Downstairs he asked “What’s gooseberry? Is it a berry made out of goose, or a goose made out of berries?” He finally ate more of his cauliflower. I had added ketchup and that helped a bit. He asked “What’s ‘wellthen’?” Turns out he meant ‘well then’. Something I say, I think.
Carly went to take a shower. He had a cookie. Then asked “What happens when you die?” We discussed that, then the conversation meandered to Israelis and Palestinians and he said he wants to go back to Farin’s house. He asked me to sing Knickknack Paddy Whack. We ended up looking up words for it and he spotted the Barefoot Books video of it that they’d watched in class. There’s also a song they’ve listened to a few times, the telephone song, that he was humming a lot today and told me they had heard in morning meeting (he said he listened better today) and I should get.
Then made him some oatmeal. He ate about half of it, then told me “I’m ready to go to bed now.” Up on the bed, not wanting to go to the toilet yet, he said “I’m just going to hang out for awhile.” He asked about new rocket engines being tested. I had mentioned NASA was testing new things and we need to look those up sometime.
When he was brushed and flossed and ready for Carly he said “I’m gonna tell mama what I did when you were gone today. It’s going to be another silly story.” Yesterday he had told her that he had eaten orange peel at the kindergarten, then eaten the kindergarteners. He reused that story with me when he had sprayed Carly with the hose and didn’t want to tell me what he had done.
Left him 7:45. His story today was that he had snuck to the library and eaten all the books, then eaten the desks and chairs in the kindergarten. She called me up at 8. He wanted me to sing. I was exhausted and got ready to go to bed with him. I asked why he couldn’t get to sleep and he said it was because he was stuffy. We talked about what might happen to the universe, then I did some singing for him. But then we were just silent for a few minutes and he was asleep on the bed by 8:30. I read a little, then went to sleep as well.
Delivering cookies:
While I was gone:
