He woke up at 7:10 as I was reading in bed. Downstairs he and Carly ended up doing math problems in Excel, taking turns typing in problems. I got him his vitamins. The chocolate omega-3 ones are totally melted. We scraped one out on a spoon. Put the rest of the packs in the fridge. I went and got my iPad to listen to music, but he wanted to play a music game. I set it up for him, but he first wanted to sweep the bottom of the black chair with his hands: “But I haven’t cleaned it for days! Or weeks!” He’s been cleaning it for weeks, off and on. Played with Musyc for awhile. He was then excited about my idea of a list of our house mysteries, things that have already gone missing: my purple metal coffee mug, a blue hand towel, my swimsuit, a green potato peeler, the lowercase z stamp. He made up the case of the missing iPad, claiming we used to have four. Carly got him some Cheerios and he ran around excited that he had his hand fan and Cheerios. He used “In the meantime…” while talking to Carly.
He wanted to watch Brave Wilderness and while Carly set it up he sang “Coyote Peterson is an animal scientists / He always tries to get pinched.” He watched a monitor lizard episode. A Volvo ad came on and he said “Don’t skip it! I like the music!” Then said “It’s for cars…Pretty useful. If we ever need to buy a new car we could go to that store.”
I made them some eggs and cheese and he ate that. There were tiny ants on the counter again so he and I investigated, using flashlights, and followed them outside. Really difficult to spot. We found where they were coming from – the broken spot in the tile at the base of the one step outside – and put down some poison. Our assault on the ants coming in the sliding door went really well and so I think we have the ant problem figured out. Seems like we have an ant season, a drain fly season, and a mosquito season.
They then got ready to go. As they left August said to me “Hope you had fun ant investigating!” And then “Yep! Teamwork!” They left just before 11. I got some Sabeel work in, and they were back after 12. They shared a veggie burger, then he and I made a squirrel nest and played one winter. He asked Carly “What are sattlelites for?” She got him dressed for the pool and put sunscreen on him. When she went upstairs he was trying to wipe himself off using Bluie. And he asked her “Ms. Althauser, why do we have to do this?”
They left about 1:20 and were back right before 4. I would have liked to go swimming, but since I didn’t get much work done Thursday or Friday it was good to catch up a bit.
They had seen Omri at the pool. Omri had been excited and had apparently told her mom that August would be there. Think that had come from me actually telling Omri on Friday morning that we might be at the pool that afternoon. Of course, we hadn’t ended up going. August hadn’t taken his floaties off at all. And his name was now Rainedon. Didn’t catch where that came from.
They went outside for awhile and I kept working. He was getting grumpy hungry and they came in and he had some apple and crackers and peanut butter. He then helped her make energy balls. He took the pits out of the dates and also helped make the balls. I then helped him play sink or float in the kitchen, then he took the parts outside and was pouring water through them.
I was trying to get him to go do recycling with me. Took awhile. He started spinning in the living room. And spinning and spinning. He would say something like “More optical illusion!”
I finally got him to head out with me. We went up to recycling. I did most of it, while he explored all the little bits of garbage he found on the ground: screws and sticks and pieces of wire. A guy came up on his three-wheeled bike/cart and had some yard waste to throw out. I was talking to August, but he thought I was talking to him and he pointed me to the plastic bins for my bags of plastic. I got August’s attention and we headed over. We had left August’s bike sitting over there, and I realized the guy was checking it out, testing the steering and bell. I politely called to him. couldn’t remember the plural possessive, but could at least say “excuse me, bicycle” in Hebrew and point to us. He got the idea and left it alone.
August and I finished up (he did glass, as usual) and then went on the playground. Only two other adults and two kids when we got there, as August pointed out. We played on the exercise equipment. August told me which machine to do next, then he went around showing how he could exercise on each machine, except for the one that is just too big for him and he can’t reach at all. Then over to the play structure and we played the digestion game. August pointed out we were the only ones in the park. Rather odd, really, as it was 7pm and cool enough after a really hot day, and after the sabbath was over. Would have thought the families would be coming out. August also sang hickory dickory dock, a few verses of it.
When we were done we got on the bike and went for a walk. He went down the back path, then past our house and towards the pedestrian bridge. Up the Holly block, then up a second block, then circled around to the left and back south through the park to home. He was talking about getting extra exercise.
We were home at 7:30. Carly had made the curry dish while we were gone. They read the Berenstain Bears book in Spanish. Carly had cut her finger a little on a can and had gone to get a bandaid as it was still bleeding a bit. August said “Hope it’s fine.” While reading they had a discussion of past tense: “Stinged” versus “stung”. He’s resisted saying them the right way, even when he’s shown interest in the past. This time he seemed interested in getting it right. He then said “Here’s another way of saying ‘squeezed’: ‘smooshed’.” Then a discussion of synonyms.
Carly took him up for bath. I went up and washed him. He was rinsing himself today, which was a nice development. He was also not opposed to me cleaning behind his ears – a spot that has always felt dirty/dry but he’s resisted. In fact, he spent a lot of time doing it himself. We went and he used the blow dryer on his hands. I got him in his pajamas and brushed his teeth, then Carly took over at 9. He was asleep soon after.