He was up at 7:17, just a couple minutes after I tried to wake him. A nice change. He watched a couple of Aardvark and Ant cartoons and then we got ready to go. He told me all the people that a family could have: mama, dada, little sister, big brother, etc. He said he just thought it up.
On the bike ride to school he was singing our “Almost to the top of the hill” song, then chanting “186,000” for some reason. When we got to class they were inside, so he told me to sty outside and he’d go in to see what they were doing. He poked his head back out and told me they were doing a meeting. I dropped off his stuff and said goodbye.
At home I did one last edit of the book draft we’d gotten back from the publisher and talked to Omar. He and Hiba are experiencing the terrible twos with Ghada.
I walked back to preschool for library time. August had said this morning that he likes this year better because I help walk the class to the library, whereas last year they met me at the library. I told him it was to see him running to me in the library though.
We got the kids going Nd Andrea and I struggled to keep the line using the railing on the right as they went up the stairs. There were about 4 that kept drifting to the middle, right after we directed them to the right, August included. For library time Ilana read Make Way for Ducklings. August came and sat on my lap in the middle. As she was still reading, he asked me, “What does ‘torso’ mean?” And then, as she was near the end, he read out the entirety of the signs that he’s always liked. They say ‘Body Still – hug torso with both arms’, ‘Voice Quiet – put finger to lips’, etc. There are four, and the only word he needed help with is ‘corners’. He had had me read them to him yesterday, and told me that the boy with dark skin was his favorite “because of the darkness” and that he liked one of the girls “because of the clothes”. These were the signs last year that made him think that dark=boy and light=girl, so he was deciding whether cars were boys or girls based on their colors.
He chose the book I’m the Biggest Thing in the Ocean to check out. We didn’t have to go back to the classroom as we had brought all of his stuff with us. We followed the other kids a bit though and we found a small picture on the ground that was Hector’s. August sprinted across the grass to where they were headed out to the busses to return it to him. Hector didn’t say anything to August, but Marion told him it was a very nice thing that he’d done.
We went to our usual bench outside the library and finished Hilda Nd the Midnight Giant. We then went in and checked out Hilda and the Troll, which is the one I read by myself a month or so ago, probably while he was taking photos or playing on the rug. He was a deerfox, like the animal in the books, that I had found on a bench in the park. He kept that game up as we headed down to the preschool to look for his chapstick. I had checked the snack and lunch bags but hadn’t thought about his library bag, where I would find it later. August took some photos in the classroom.
As we walked, he told me the “International star has a thousand colors.” The ‘international star’ is a new thing. Started a day or two ago, after he said we had passed the International Space Station as we were walking. He then told me there are a lot of things named ‘international’: international galaxy, international star, etc.
In the classroom he also showed me a building made of blocks. I asked who made it and he said Sophia. Then he said, “Actually, I did. Cuz I control Sophia.”
We went back to our bench outside the library. Carly was supposed to show up any second. August asked to use the story dice to tell a story. I said no, but then when she showed up a minute later he told her to go away so we could use the story dice. I said no again, but she did need to go make copies. So we started reading Hilda and the Troll. He wasn’t happy again when she came back and it was time to go.
We saw Omri and Candy running around crazily in the grass. He didn’t want to run up to Omri though because he thought she would run right by him. But as we walked across, me carrying him, Omri ran up to him to say hi.
We got on the bike and walked home. He made up a song about how a trillion Pluto years equals one galactic year. We were home at 4:30.
He had some cold chocolate milk, then he was still being a deerfox, then a goatdog. We sent a video message to my mom to wish her a happy birthday. I then found that missing chapstick. He watched the ant and the aardvark cartoons and was laughing a lot and took a screenshot. Carly asked if he’d taken a screenshot. He said ‘Yes. I’ve been taking screenshots for a long time.”
We made fort and read rest of Hilda. We started it again and he was the deerfox. It then turned into a bunny den and he ate some carrots. Impressive, as Carly said they didn’t taste very good. He asked Carly to guard it. He had something that shot a thousand nails at predators.
I gave him a bath and washed his hair. He said he had fallen at the playground and scraped his knee, but it wasn’t too bad. Used the hair dryer and trimmed his nails. Carly had a bag of his hair from his last hair cutting, which August asked her to get. I joked that she would be saving all of his baby teeth and asked her if I should start saving his toenails, which I was trimming at the time.
He was then shaking the mirror in the ply are, which we told him was dangerous. He got his tape and taped the sides of it. He seemed to think that would make it safer. I realized he meant that he wouldn’t be tempted to shake it back and forth if it didn’t move. He taped other things, including things to the wall behind the couch, then taped things to a gift box. He said, “I love it!” He kept misplacing his roll of tape.
In on the bed he told me, “I figured out who’s the worst person in my class. It’s Lydia. She does mean stuff to people. Like not letting them go into places and stuff. Me and other people.” We used the story dice and I told him two stories, “When I became a Pirate” and “What Elephants Eat.” He started talking about the archeological site we’d been to with Gramma and Grampa and said that he’d discovered a dinosaur liver and a book there. The book was 3 million years old.
We brushed his teeth and Carly came up and said good night. With the lamp on, he was a deerfox coming into a preschool class. He told me, “Did you know two billion galaxies makes up a universe?” He then asked me to tell him a story of “January 17th in the year you were 12.” I figured out that was 8th grade and told him about the computer lab and MathCounts. ‘Peculiar’ had been our word of the day, from Hilda.
With the lights out he got really sad about not being able to come down and see me when Carly is putting him to sleep, like he used to do last year. As I’ve seen before, I just needed to let him know that was a possibility, even if not likely, and then he calmed down. He really doesn’t like being told ‘no’. He first lay next to me with his head down by my knee and his arm around my leg. His feet were up on my shoulder, and I realized how tall he’s gotten. He flipped around a few times, trying to use me as a pillow, and fell asleep with his head on my shoulder, my arm around him. It was a little before 9.
Choosing a book:
A trillion Pluto years song:
Laughing at the aardvark and the ant:
Tape as insulation:
Dada song:
