He was up at 6:55. He seems so tired. He stood at the top of the stairs until I carried him down. Took a few minutes before he said anything. He watched a Llama Llama and we got ready to go. We were walking t 7:45 and when we got to his classroom at 8:05 they were already having a meeting. The bell then rang, so I’m not crazy in thinking they have been starting early. They were discussing the schedule, and trying to figure out if it is called ‘Drama’ or ‘Creative Movement’ or something else. So I said goodbye to August and was able to leave.
Earlier, when I said he had dance class after school, he said he wanted a check-in. So I told him I would be out on the bench before 3 and if he felt he needed to see me before dance class he could come out. He did come out, about 3. He told me that dance class was too long, and that it would be better if it was just the welcoming dance and two dances. I pointed out that it was starting late today, so it would feel shorter. He went upstairs on his own to dance class.
I went in at one point and told Marion he would be gone tomorrow as I’ll be taking him to Dr. Aviv.
When class was over I asked Amelia how it went and she said fine, although she wasn’t sure how much he was enjoying it. We asked him, and he said he had fun. I told her what he said about it being too long, and she said that he could always leave at 30 or 45 minutes or whatever. We will keep that in mind for future classes.
We sat on the bench and he ate. He had done some painting, as there was yellow paint on his shirt and shorts. He told me he had painted a piece of paper yellow and other colors, but nothing more. Carly came a couple minutes later. She asked us if we’d seen the rain and he said he’d gone out and tested the rain, and that he was the only one that had done so. Hard to tell if it was real.
He hadn’t eaten any of his snack today, and only the bar out of his lunch. He told me he would only eat some snack if there was a bar in there. I had told him that we were going to go with Carly in the car so she could take us home and go to the store. But now he had a meltdown, saying he wasn’t done eating and we hadn’t played the preschool game yet. Really uncharacteristic of him, with him running away over to the playground. He yelled “Just eat, preschool game, then car. Simple!” I told Carly she could leave, and it took a few more minutes for him to calm down. Really think part of the problem was that he was starving as he had barely eaten anything.
He ate more, then we went up to the library to use the bathroom. We then sat on our bench again and played more preschool game. We got walking after 5. He was fine with the idea that we could call Carly once we were halfway. But then we played games where kids were trying to wake him up with the magic wand. And he told me about giving Sophia things because she wanted them. Something gold, I think, that he found on the playground. He found two AAA batteries on the walk, in different spots, and stopped to look at an old stuffed animal missing its stuffing. He talked about testing the batteries when we got home.
As we got close to home, after 5:30, he talked about how he liked the downstairs couch more than me and declared “I’m a couch kid.” About the first thing he said to Carly was “See these two AAA batteries I founded?” He then asked, “Have you seen my special tape?” We got his tape and he put tape on his Duplo/straw/etc. ship that he’d made in the morning. I got stew for dinner, and he tested the batteries with Carly. Or at least one, which I think they decided was out of power. He then wanted Raisin Bran for breakfast and we negotiated two slices of carrot, Raisin Bran and milk, then carrots if he wanted anything else. He ate the first carrots, then he then helped Carly glue the rest of his costume.
He then sat in his big box, the one he keeps talking about turning into a solar oven, and started drawing in it. He told me I couldn’t look, but said that mama was his helper. He then drew a sign that meant ‘no looking. ‘ He was whispering as he did all this. When he did want me to see he had me act like I was going to the bathroom, then I would see it on my way.
Then he ran into the bathroom to use it, ahead of me. He told me if I had to actually use the bathroom I could go upstairs. From the bathroom he told us jokes: why’s the chicken cross the park Interrupting cow, Why was 6 afraid of 7? After he said the punch line of that one he asked “Why would a number eat another number?” He then made his own nonsensical version of it where 1 was afraid of 10 because 10 stole 1 at the end. He claimed he had told the chicken joke to his class, perhaps during meeting time. Wasn’t entirely clear if this had happened.
I did the dishes. He watched some Pink panther and finally had his cereal. He said to Carly, “Hey mama. Know how much I love you? As much as you.” We talked about his bath and it being a hair washing day. She joked that her technique for washing his hair was spitting on it and rubbing. He didn’t like it, but declared ‘technique’ the word of the day.
He had convinced me to give him his bath, but then got upset going up the stairs. Once in the bathroom though he played in the sink. I got the tape for him, as he’s been wanting to tape closed a water bottle. He learned that water makes tape not stick, but then he kept it nice and dry and managed to tape shut the top of a bottle, and when he turned it over no water came out. I admitted that it worked a lot better than I had expected it to.
He got in the bath and I washed his hair. All went smoother than it had seemed it would. We used the hair dryer, then he heard the rain. He wanted to check out the window. I wouldn’t open an upstairs window for him to reach out of, but said he could go downstairs. With just his towel hood hanging from his head, he went downstairs and out the kitchen door. He declared that everything was wet except for outside.
Back upstairs we talked about vegetables. He asked if we had anything besides carrot, as he wanted zucchini. I said we just had mushrooms and carrots. He declared mushrooms “somewhere in the middle” of the foods, then drew a picture of circles for the food groups: “wheat, fruits, vegetables, meat, sweets…” He also drew on his hands, then put tape on them. He sang a tricycle song that he learned at preschool and danced around. He was then really taping things. He said of the tape dispenser, “This is special to me. I’m the only one that can touch it…And you. If you have blood coming out I can put it on there.”
I tried reading some of the Geronimo Stilton book on the bed, but he was really into taping everything: he got Carly’s sweatshirt to cover the pillow for his wet hair and taped it down. He taped Carly’s shirt to her shorts, put tape on my hair, taped the carrots into the bowl, etc.
I left them just before 8:30. Took him awhile to calm down, but I think he was asleep around 9.
Dead stuffed animal
Trying out the costume
Boy in the box
Taping up the bottle
Checking out the rain
Marker on his hands and tape over it
