Thursday, October 18: Dr. Aviv, VIPizza, and a short day at school

He was stuffy during the night and had some bad dreams and was tossing and turning. He came down just before 7. He wanted Raisin Bran and milk. Carly emailed me questions he had last night before falling asleep:

August wanted to add peach to his list of favorite colors on that sheet in preschool. (He seemed to think that was important because it would influence something about his birthday party.)

He also wanted to know how long it would take for a rocket to go around the earth.

So we looked it up and it takes about 90 minutes to orbit the earth. August had also asked how many satellites there are and I saw an answer and told him “About 2000.” He replied, “About? Actually, the goodest answer, the best answer is 1988 satellites orbiting the Earth.”

We were about to start a preschool game when the power went out. He used my iPad to set a timer to see if it would come back on in five minutes. For some reason he didn’t want to use the stopwatch. Speaking of stopwatches, he had checked the stopwatch on his iPad the other day to find it reset to 0:00. It had been going well up over 1500 hours. No idea why it would have chosen to reset. The power came on for a second, then was off again.

August watched Sarah and Duck and I typed. Power finally came back on at 8:07. He searched for things on the Maps app and talked about things being “savored” already. I like how he’s started to confuse the words ‘saved’ and ‘savored’. We added a few words of the day to the tracing app and he traced those, and at some point he snuck into the clock app on my iPad as later in the day two random alarms would go off. He drew in Sketches and I exercised, then he decorated his box more. We then played a preschool game where he let the preschoolers use his box for a project. They debated what to use it for and they ended up making fishing poles. He said also made a net so they could catch shrimp.

We got headed to Ra’anana. We drove for a couple minutes, then realized I’d forgotten the checkbook so we went back for that. On the drive we listened to a couple of Story Pirates. The first included a crossover with Brains On! that answered the question ‘Why are jokes funny?’ August liked that.

We parked about 9:50 and got to Dr. Aviv’s office right before 10. She took him in the back room and had him sit down and they started playing games. They started with blocks, with August making his blocks match hers. After a few minutes she closed the door and I put on headphones so I couldn’t hear it. That lasted until 11:20 when she said he stated yawning. Said she should be able to finish on Sunday. He came out with a sheet of stickers, one for each game he had played, and he seemed to have had fun.

He used the bathroom, then we walked up the street to the park and he chose a bench and we sat and had a snack. We had been talking about his time with Dr. Aviv and he explained one activity where he had a rubber stamp and had two minutes to stamp ll the pictures of foods or clothing, etc. on a sheet of paper. I said he touched the paper, and he said, “No, with a stamp. That’s actually a better way, because then you know which ones you already did.” And he asked “And how was that even a doctor? Doctors don’t play games.” And he asked, “Can we pay a thinking game?” but then decided he was too tired. He told me, “Did you know trees can talk to each other?” Told me about how they call insects.

He then took his container of Raisin Bran and climbed up on the play structure. He was reciting a whole thing as he went up the ladder that ended “…Officer flamingo. That’s from Llama llama and I love Llama Llama.”

Up on the structure we talked more about how she was a doctor and why you check how someone’s brain is developing. We had recently talked about why doctors check height and weight and other things, so it made sense to him. He said, “She played those memory games to test my memory!” He added, “That’s why I’ve been playing those memory games by myself. You know, patterns. Like when I give myself a music rhythm and repeat it.” This is actually something he does. We then played a round of the preschool game, up on the structure (it being the classroom). He said that his parents had abandoned him. At least they left him with presents, as we played through him celebrating his birthday with the class.

We continued our theme of going back for things, as after we got going I realized we forgot that container of Raisin Bran on the structure. We headed back and he went with me to find it.

We drove to VIPizza in Even Yehuda for lunch. Town was busy so we parked in the dirt lot. We got three slices: two cheese and one olive. August picked out the 3 juice containers to go with them. He likes choosing based on the different pictures on them. When we were done, he asked to go to the bathroom “since we know where it is now.” On our walk back to the car he told me that he takes “One and a half steps per second” and explained his reasoning. It seemed pretty accurate, and a few days go I heard him explaining that he was hitting out a rhythm and it was 4 beats per second and that seemed pretty accurate too. He found more treasures along the way. I asked him what his best treasures were, but he explained “but I have thousands.”

As we walked into the school he was looking in at the guards and smiling at them, then stopped and looked through the window at one of them, who waved or did something. August told me that they had done a dance for then during a “wet grass” activity. I think he was talking about that Friday morning exercise/dance time. I’d forgotten about it possibly being an every-Friday thing. Later he would tell me that it was Marion that called it a “wet grass” activity, and he said he didn’t like wet grass activities and chose to do something else.

We got down to the preschool at 1:45 and it was still quiet from rest time. He wanted me to stay on a bench and not go up to the library. He walked me over to the bench—he let me choose the picnic table instead—and told me “I’ll go see how long they’re doing rest time for. You go back to the bench…Bye!” Then he walked into the preschool and I didn’t see him until I went in just before 3.

He was watching/helping Eve make a rainbow from buttons they had for a sorting activity. He asked if it was symmetrical, then got the mirror to check—if it was symmetrical it would look the same in the mirror when he put the mirror in the center. I took a photo of a picture he had hanging in the room. We went out on the bench and August went in to fill up his water bottle. He came back and asked me to put a new water jug on. Did that, then he went and told Andrea he wanted to add peach to his list of favorite colors.

He didn’t have much food to eat, since it was just his snack, but we sat on the bench and read a few chapters of the Geronimo Stilton book. The nephew mouse was a stowaway in the book and ‘stowaway’ became the word of the day. He realized there was a Playball class going on and watched them for a few minutes.

We walked up to the library and he used the bathroom. He took another slo-mo video of the fireplace video in the library. Carly came by and we headed home. August carried the phone as we walked out to the car, taking videos as we walked. We were home around 4.

He told us they didn’t actually have choice time, but just had different activities. So I don’t know what’s going on with the studio time, as they didn’t have it last Thursday either.

He wanted to be my doctor and asked me “What are your symptoms?” He took me over to the rug and to his doctor kits and examined me and took care of my illnesses. He was also using his tape, and I ended up with tape all over me as my casts, etc. and just for (his) fun. He then asked how long a trillion seconds is, and we used the calculator to figure out how many hours, days, and years that would be.

He watched some Smurfs, then had stew for dinner. He went to the bathroom, but didn’t need to poop, then ended up crying to Carly because it meant he couldn’t have a treat. We decided it was time to end the bathroom treats, as they’ve done the trick to get him to wipe himself. And Dr. Aviv suggested rewarding him for eating his lunch during the day by taking out for ice cream, so we’ll use the power of the treats to encourage him to eat during the day.

He then got back to taping things: cords on the table, the chairs, and taping up his cup and his bowl. I came and saw it and said, “Oh. My. Goodness.” He said, “That’s what mama said!”

I went for a run and Carly gave him a bath. When I came back he was sitting on the bed listening to “Pumped Up Kicks” on repeat on Carly’s phone. I took a shower, then read to him. I read The Cat Family’s Busy Day and Magic Tree House #32. He went to the bathroom and sang part of “Pumped Up Kicks” on the toilet. He then played in the sink and got wet. Changed his pajamas. He went downstairs, wanting his headphones, but he didn’t object too much when I said it was too late. He was clearly tired as I carried him back upstairs.

We brushed his teeth and had the lamp on at 8:30. We played one preschool game, where he had a huge speaker that woke kids up during rest time, then after rest time they all listened to music on it until it was time to head home. We turned off the lights and he asked for an August and Teegan story. I told the rest of the one we had started the other day. August and Teegan and the Empty World.

He put his head straight down on the sheet, holding his head with his hands, his bottom in the air, with his stomach over my arm. He stayed this way through the story, offering suggestions to the story that I could barely hear. He fell asleep like this a little before 9 and I lay there for mother ten minutes or so until he rolled off.

Drawing in his box and describing a preschool game: