We were all up around 7. I went down first and made coffee and got him vitamins and Cheerios, then went to lay back down for awhile due to a headache. I got up and took a shower and folded laundry. Downstairs he was going to the bathroom and Carly bribed him to wipe himself. He was excited about this: “I love treats…I love the rewards. That’s why I love cutting my hair and wiping myself. You convinced me.” He played Camping with Grandpa and finished a word search with a little help from me for the first time. He was then identifying the black-eyed Susans again and said, “I see them all the time in Pennsylvania.” He tried Bloom Flowers and really liked that. He narrated to himself how a dandelion grows from a seed.
Mikaela’s remote wasn’t working on her air conditioner and Shmuel wanted her to try one of ours. So when she said she could do that, August and I went to meet her at the gate. We kept going though, and delivered the remotes to her at her gate. August was happy to see her and dothe delivery. She tried both, but neither worked. She had mentioned that she didn’t have toys in the yard like we do. Back in the house he joked “She doesn’t have as much toys in the yard cuz when she went to the house she didn’t get a kid.” And said, “I put a magic doll, and when you go to the house you get a kid…so when she’s at work I need to do that.”
He had oatmeal, then we tried reading the first Boxcar Children book but it proved too scary. Instead, we did Skybrary, reading Sammy Skunk’s Super Sniffer and Bobby Baboon’s Banana Be-Bop books from the A to Z series. He then had “My special nose” like the skunk a described our scents. I joked that the word of the day should be ‘filter’, as in a filter on what he says. He was then pretending to be a baby on the “Last day in the womb”.
We then walked over to the mall. We stopped and got haircut appointments for Carly and me. Then went shopping at Tiv Taam, which went fine, but he was acting tired. We got home at 12:30.
I put away groceries and cooked hot dogs while Carly gave him a bath. I blow dried his hair a bit, then she trimmed his hair. They had hot dogs. Well, August started his, then said “I change-ed my mind.” He wanted the ice cream first. He did a good job of patiently waiting for Carly to finish her hot dog first. He asked “Is Mikaela here?” When the answer was no he said, “That means I can actually run!” He then figured out how to rip a layer off the lint roller, after first asking Carly if he could take one off.
They ate ice cream outside, then he played math games on the iPad. He found the skeleton app, which he hasn’t used in a long time, and was using it to tell me what bones I broke. I got the very green bananas (they had only had bananas, and they were small green ones) ready for the bread by baking them, smooshing them, and microwaving them. The vacuum cleaner stopped working on Carly and August suggested it was clogged. A minute later Carly took a clog out of the tube and it started right up. August was very excited and said, “I’m your assistant. If th vacuum cleaner shuts down just dial 123-drconpuppa.”
He then helped me with the blackberry banana breakfast loaf. Earlier, to Carly, he had said “everything dies…except for plastic.” He did more of the skeleton game with Carly. In the bathroom he proved he could wipe himself and pull up his underwear and shorts on his own, provided there was a lollipop afterwards.
He went outside for awhile. Inside, he quoted the Camping with Grandpa book: “Ready to hit the trail?” Cherie called on Skype and talked to August. She asked who his best friend was in school and he said, “Lydia!” And told her “I have two best teachers: Ms. Anna and Ms. Andrea…Ms. Marion.” He and Vivian then did a lot of typing to each other. Of just nonsense, of course. They turned it into a competition, of course, of who could type longer.
After they hung up he played the Mammals app and was making the elephant poop, talking about how many pounds of fruit or vegetables it was eating and how much poop was coming out: “That’s so amazing.” He asked me to be a patient again so he could diagnose my broken bones. I was telling more and more elaborate stories, to which he would just respond “Okay” then tell me what bone was broken.
Carly took him outside for a experiment, where they turned a cup with water in it upside down on a piece of cardboard and the cardboard stayed attached. The real word of the day became ‘air pressure’. I had downloaded a full anatomy app for him, not just bones, and he now played with that. He ate a small cucumber with Carly, then had curry for dinner. More anatomy app, and him being a “crazy doctor”. He played with Siri on the HomePod, having her play music, and did some dancing.
The bread turned out really well and we ate some bread. I then went for a bike ride before 7. The did science experiments: putting a straw in a potato, floating (with peel) and sinking (no peel) orange, how water bends light by putting a straw in a glass, and invisible ink. They were painting with their invisible ink when I got back. He asked “Can I do it…like that famous painter?” He meant Jackson Pollock.
They were reading books in Skybrary and I took over. We read a little more, then he was ready for bed. He said good night to Carly and then I took him upstairs. He wanted to let his iPad run out of battery but changed his mind when I said it would probably stop his stopwatch. He explained that Vivian had confused ‘stopwatch’ and ‘timer’ and he thought that was funny. We brushed his teeth. We then read Madeline and realized we found a mistake in that there are 12 girls in one of the pictures, just one, when Madeline is still in the hospital.
We did the meditation and read the first story in Nightlights. I told an August story where he and Teegan are able to visit Ms Robin after school while their dads talk. They had received letters in the cubbies from Ms. Robin. They don’t have time to go down the tunnel, but Ms. Robin gives them silver nut keys and tells them they might help them to visit.
August said that August and Teegan should be the same family. We settled on a sleepover as a way they could find enough time together to visit Ms. Robin.
I sang a couple songs. He cuddled close to me, then tossed and turned for quite awhile. It was 9:50 or so before I was sure he had fallen asleep.
Resting or bored at the mall:
Lollipop:
Blackberry bread:
