He woke up right at 7. Downstairs he lay on the couch and I got his vitamins and some banana bread. I got his iPad and saw that he had last watched some Puffin Rock. He must have watched it while I was taking a shower or before I was up sometime. He didn’t think it was yesterday though. He watched some more until I got us going.
The preschool protests started as soon as I started to put clothes on him, but I was able to get him out the door right at 7:40. A good walk to school, then at his classroom things went as expected. A little interest in the toys, but then he wanted to sit at all of the benches outside. He ate some of the nut treats, then Anna came out to us on the bench. He got really upset and sad and was clutching to me. As I held him he said “Squeeze me tighter. Why are you not squeezing me tight enough?” He mumbled “I hate you” a few times, either to me or Anna. It was a difficult one. I handed him to her at 8:25. As I left him he yelled “You stupid thingie!” Harder too because he had more language to talk about when I could pick him up and why and everything. I hung around up by the elementary school office for a minute and I think he quieted down pretty quickly, although I wasn’t sure if they went for a walk or went inside the building. She was going to call me when he’d had enough for the day.
I worked in the library, and that call came a few minutes after 1. I picked him up about 1:10. He was sitting on Anna’s lap, facing her, out in the snack area. He wasn’t crying, but was clearly sad. They had been talking about the things he was going to tell me about. He had picked a big white carrot and some strawberries with Anna after I left. August later told me they were going to have a special strawberry snack for the kids before meeting, but forgot. He also made a “special mug”. It was the third technique the kids were learning to make mugs. When August told me about how he did it he whispered, but it was a long explanation involving cardboard and plastic and a snake of clay. Before we left he asked Anna if he could take home a round piece of blue plastic he had found on the ground as one of his treasures. It appeared to be a sort of bottle cap. And he asked for a ball of clay she said he could take home. She said yes to both, and he told me the clay was the scraps from making his mug.
We got going, and headed up to the library. He played inside the entrance to the library with the stuffed animals as we talked more, and he returned a couple of books (78-Story Treehouse and the Magic Treehouse). He talked about a photo he saw of Ms. Stacy wearing goggles – think it was the family photo with Emmitt in the preschool.
As we hung out in the ‘cafe’ area of the library building, he spotted Carly walking across the grass, away from us and wanted to follow her. We lost her after she went in the auditorium/art building. He and I looked around at some of the art, then she showed up – she had been getting a costume for a video her students are doing.
A couple minutes with her, then she left and he had me pick him up so he could touch all the pottery shapes on the wall, then he played with the dirt in the big pot of porcelain and metal flowers outside.
We got walking and were home after 2:30. He was talking to me the whole way home but it was hard to respond as it was so hot. At home he told me there was one song in morning meeting and hummed it: Down by the Bay – but he told me not a silly version like me because you can’t be silly at school. The silly line at school seems to be one he’s trying to figure out, because on the one had he seems disappointed that he can’t be sillier at school (they’re always wanting kids to be quiet, etc.), but on the other hand he doesn’t like the silliness of the boys he says are silly because they are too loud and scary (today he told me several times about how the boys were in trouble for throwing all the plastic animals down from the treehouse).
We talked about his music class and he said there was “Chickity polka dots tails song, bunny rabbit song, scarecrow song, a whale and snake song, a country song, and a language game.” He seemed to know what he was talking about, because he sang good chunks of at least the first three through the rest of the day. I was trying to find the first song on YouTube, but only came across Down by the Bay, and he really liked this version: https://youtu.be/uSq6dLrdh4M. “Why do I feel safe with you around than without you and mama?”
While at school he had told me that other people had better lunches because they had cookies in their lunch. Normally I wouldn’t take the bait, but I wanted to continue this positive day at school thing and suggested we could find a healthy cookie recipe at home. And we had extra time. As it turned out, we had just enough ingredients to make chocolate chip, banana, and peanut butter cookies: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/vegan-egg-free-chocolate-chip-peanut-butter-and-banana-cookies Substituting almond butter for peanut butter.
So we were making those when Carly got home at 4:30. We finished making cookies, then had rice and curry for dinner outside. I taught him how to negotiate when he wanted a cookie. I started by saying he needed 40 more bites, he said 1. He was a good negotiator and got me down to 5. He chose a cookie, then ate a little more than half before handing it to me and saying “I can’t finish my cookie because I’m full.”
He was asking her about her students. And he asks her to name the off so he can choose a name. Or today he said “I’m one of your students that’s Japanese…Today I’m named sunburn.” He had a special chair that was taller than her classroom. Carly and I were talking and Carly got him to go break up the roots of the dead broccoli plant and water plants. He went down the slide and was singing a Friday song, which I think may have been from music class.
Inside he got his clay from school wet, then we read a bit of Oliver and the Seawigs. August was then a student (Lillian) and misbehaving. He got distracted by taping a piece of paper to the table. After several pieces I realized he was was using the tape dispenser all on his own.
I took him up to the bath. He wanted the Julius Jr. song with “Knock Knock” in it. We listened to a lot of Julius Jr. songs but couldn’t find it. Then it was more peeing game with Hanako peeing during nap time. Apparently this really happened, as he says she had to change clothes during rest time once.
We went downstairs and he was singing going to the bathroom songs with Carly. He sang a song about two people going to the bathroom and taking up the two stalls and another person pees her pants because she can’t wait. He said it was Omri and it actually happened.
For some reason, a discussion of synesthesia came up again and he claimed that 4 is turquoise, 7 is red, 10 is black, 1 is yellow, 2 is grey, 3 is yellow also, 4 is green. We discussed ‘fair’ and played a fair game with the kids wanting a fair amount of sparkles.
I carried him up and Carly got him ready. I left them right at 9 and he was soon asleep.