Wednesday, September 19: More walking on the highway

Carly went up at 7:45 to wake him up but found him already sitting on the edge of the bed. A bit later I said I would get him his vitamins. Carly asked what I had said and I said “orangutan.” August said “Thrn get me an orangutan.” Sometime yesterday I had said something along the lines of how he loved his iPad almost as much as me and mama. He said “More, actually.”

The two of them started reading the Space Exploration book. We marvelled at what has changed in 20 years.

Laughing from bathroom. “Dada, you found an empty cat that peed on you…empty except for pee.” He was then saying random things like “Grown up cucumber…”

He then wanted to take the Band-Aids off the animals: “I wanted to take these off after she was gone because it would make her sad.” He explained that he wanted them on yesterday though: “I wanted them on because I love-ed the word ‘plaster’.”

They read more of the Space Exploration book and he used a string and tape and fork to make a tether, tying a fork to the cupboards. We went up to get his iPad. He discovered the measuring app and was measuring everything downstairs. Last night I installed iOS12 and the measuring app was a part of it. It also includes the parental controls, so I put a timer on his iPad usage today. Measuring everything really taught him how to read feet and inches. Eventually I switched it to metric for him. I took a shower, then he ate some more apple and watched some Max and Ruby while Carly got ready to go for a walk.

They walked up to the snakes and ladders park but didn’t stay. They walked in the street. They were back about 11:10. He and I watched marble race videos together. We then made the yogurt cake from the recipe we got from Marion. He helped spray the Pam for the first time.

He asked what 90 plus 90 equals. I told him, and he said, “Oh yeah, that makes sense. Cuz you use those two things to equal ten, then you have 8 more.” He went and did several problems with Carly, like 8 + 4, and he would explain his thinking as he got the answer.

We read Math Curse, and he repeated the last line, about everything being a science experiment, several times through the day. Carly asked him to draw a picture for a card for someone, and he drew four pictures of a robot fish until he got one that he was happy with. The lines in the middle were its metal parts, and it had long beta-like fins and big eyes.

Carly and August then started a science experiment where they had a series of glasses with water in them and paper towels connecting them, and food coloring in three of the glasses. It would soak through the paper towels and the two colors would mix in the glass in the middle. That was the theory, at least. They worked on it through the day.

He was hungry and impatient for the cake, but it was finally ready and we ate some. Came out just right. He asked me, “What’s social studies mean?…word of the day.” Carly cooked corn and I made pizza for lunch. He ate some corn first, then we put it and mushrooms on the pizza. When the pizza was done though he just ate the veggies off of the top. He told us, “You know what’s cool about starfishes? When a starfish arm falls on the seafloor it can grow a new starfish!” Which is true for some species. Not sure which app or video he learned that from.

We read The Word Collector. He chose ‘delighted’ as another word of the day. He then wanted to type on my iPad. For a little while he had me type words as he said them. Then he wanted to type satellite language. So he played with typing on my iPad. He then did some art in Paper with both of us, doing the thing where we make dots, then connect them.

We left for a walk at 2:45. We took Carly up the way we’d gone last night, onto 553. Along the way he investigated where the blue drainage tunnel goes, as he could see daylight at the other end. He wanted to walk the other direction this time, west, so we did that until we had a good view of the chicken farm. We then walked back on the offramp from 4 and hopped the guard rail where he and I had hopped it. We took the long way home again. I mentioned how we could see more stars there because of the lack of lights. We discussed ‘magnitude’ and ‘apparent’ and ‘absolute’ magnitude and reviewed ‘lumens’ and ‘lux’ all after he asked how you measure how bright things are. More words of the day.

We got back at 4. August and I read Loch Mess Monster, then he and Carly did another science experiment, putting food coloring in milk and then adding dish soap, which makes the food coloring jump across the top. He was then a robot cat again and he and I went upstairs and played with the treasures. We were on the Zinnie bed and he found a roll of thread on the floor. He went and put it in the sewing kit for Carly.

He went to the bathroom, then cleaned the toilet, doing it all except putting in the Duck cleaner, which he left for me. He put on his own underwear, which he’s now getting down pretty well. He told Carly about cleaning the toilet and we joked he had used Carly’s brush to clean it.

Carly had made him a chocolate pancake and he sat at the table and ate it. He started telling us random jokes:

“Why did the banana drink all the water in the world?” “Because it’s the only banana in the world.”

“Why’d the clam eat the clam?” “Because it’s a clam.”

“Knock knock

Who’s there?

Hippo

Hippo who?

I would not like a hippo, but I would like a clam.”

“Knock knock?

Who’s there?

25 million chairs…”

He was the robotic cat again and he said I was a kid. He told me my name was August, and we decided he was RC for ‘robotic cat’.

We went back upstairs and did some of the puzzle. He did the orcas and part of the octopus. Out of nowhere he asked “What’s syllables?…word of the day.”

We headed back downstairs and Carly talked about the iPad, and said something about him not getting upset. He replied, “MAKE me get upset? You make me get upset all the time!”

I went for a run. Getting close to sunset, but the streets were all still filled with people. Ran up the road all the way up through town, past the library, then back home.

I took a shower when I got back. He had eaten dinner, then had cake. He told me about the time limit in his iPad. I had set it to two hours for a day, with everything shut off at 7pm, except for the book apps. You can extend the time though, and Carly had extended it for the anatomy and space apps. She went and took a shower and he and I read a bunch of Skybrary books: Rosie Raccoon’s Rock and Roll Raft, Emma’s Friendwich, Freda is Found, Dilly Dog’s Dizzy Dancing, and good Job, Ajay! We read some of Sisters, Volume 1. He requested popcorn and Carly made some. We then read The 13-Story Treehouse. He then talked about how he had millions of rules and was telling some to Carly. He was also quoting the Word Collector, repeating “My trip to Peru was perfectly pleasant.”

He spent some good time lying on the couch and being silly. I took him up and gave him a bath. We came back down and skyped with my parents. They were about to head to Wenatchee to check in with the travel agent.

Carly took him upstairs and brushed his teeth. I left them at 9:20. He seemed really tired, but it took until around 10 before he fell asleep.

He’s chewed on his water bottle so much that the spout is all disfigured. He asked me to fix it a couple days ago, but was okay when I said it couldn’t be fixed.

This morning he asked to take a photo of Carly’s “nursings” as he calls them. Carly told him that was inappropriate, then he got sad and said he was going to miss them when he stopped nursing. Likely one of those moments that, when he’s older, he’d find embarrassing (don’t worry, Z, I won’t be bringing it up at family gatherings) but was so touching in the moment.

Trying to measure up the stairs: