Thursday, November 15: half day and parent-teacher conference

He got up at 5:50. He came over and patted me on the bed, then said, “You can sleep more.” When I got up a few minutes later found him working on animations in PowerPoint on Carly’s computer. She headed to school and he watched Smurfs. He had his vitamins, then had a pancake. He finished up a Smurfs, then we read the rest of The Flying Beaver Brothers. I had looked at StoryPark and there was a photo of him drawing on a mural of stick figures. He said he’s been talking about stick figures because of the art, but before that too because of Toca Band. As we got ready he had us play preschool games about a giant bird flying overhead, creating wind. I had people getting everything blown away from them.

We drove to school and went and dropped off the hummus. We then talked about the diaper drive and what the money and diapers were for. I walked him to class and we got there right at the bell. He went in and saw them starting to sit down for meeting. He asked what was after rest time and I reminded him I’d see him at noon: “Oh, yeah!”

I walked home, then at 11:30 my parents and I walked back to school. At the classroom August showed me the table for the parent-teacher conferences. There were flowers organized on it, and a tray of cookies. He said he could have one, and when I said I thought they were for the parents he had an instant meltdown. There was no recovering from it until we got to the car. He said sorry. He then told us about the play, Beauty and the Beast. He told us how each character was a different person, and that someone was a knife, and someone else was a teapot. We found out later that he had sat on Andrea’s lap the whole time.

We drove up to town and went to V.I.Pizza for lunch. Hector was there with his siblings and friends. August watched them playing around a bit, but didn’t join them. We got a full pizza—half corn, the other half mushroom and olive. Mom asked him if the pizza was good and he said, “Better than your Zinnie hugs.” He ate a good slice and a half.

I carried him much of the way back to the car. He was acting tired and I asked and he gave a thumbs up. At home we looked at a couple of new apps, and had the most fun with the WWF Free Rivers app, making a river on the floor of the kitchen. He then cuddled with me on the floor, and we were talking about inventing things. He remembered that we hadn’t gone to the bakery in town, and I said he could have some of his chocolate lips. He had the milk chocolate ones. He was then casting a growing spell that I think he made up: “Mighty magic, here I come. Mighty magic, rise up to the sun.”

The four of us drove back to school for the teacher conference. August went over to the playground with my parents and did a great job playing there while we waited. And waited. It was around 3:25 when they finished up meeting with Simone’s mom. The meeting went well. They told us that he had held hands with Yaya as they found flowers today, then cut the flowers together to decorate the table. The other day he had used all the caps that he had brought in to decorate the table for their shared snack time. He really likes making things in the building area, and had been making a washing machine earlier. An there were little strips of paper on a shelf. He had taken one to Marion and asked what it was for. She showed him how she likes to make a pattern of shapes. He then made a pattern of his own, and hung it from one of the strings in the middle of the room. She said he puts all the important stuff there. August told us he did, “Two patterns, actually.” And she told us about the stick figure drawing, and how he had been drawing one doing a yoga pose, and several others. I think she said he had drawn them of her. She said that when doing art he has always gone with “I’m going to do abstract” because that’s what he’s comfortable with, but he’s starting to branch out.

We were there for a little over 20 minutes, then went and got them on the playground. He had found a little sidewalk chalk and drawn a flower with roots.

We were home about 4. He quoted the Silo commercial again: “Strawberries were added to your inventory.” He was then playing doctor, and used his light to examine my ears, etc. He was then reciting “The past is the past. We move on. We MOVE On.” It is from Dragons Beware! and he was copying my timing and emphasis. We then read more of Dragons Beware! Working on a second full reading.

He then did card games with Dad. They started by looking at a real deck of cards, then switched to the computer card games. I was making dinner, cooking broccoli and fresh rice to go with the shrimp. August told me, “Dada, yoga isn’t my favorite part of school anymore. My favorite part is auditorium.” We ate dinner, then he did a “Nose greeting” with Carly.

We did more reading, then he was playing with his music box. I brought up the video of Beethoven’s Ninth and watched part of that, then he requested the third symphony. We started watching that. He saw the conductor with the baton and said, “See, I told you the conductor had two.” This was a reference to a day or two ago when he claimed that conductors used two batons. I was confused and said I only saw one baton in the conductor’s hand. He said, “Sorry, dada. Actually I was trying to make a joke. Sorry.”

As we listened to the symphony, we used the Apple Pencil and did art on his iPad. I drew a stick figure lying down, then he drew a blanket on it, which turned into a black hole. He then used the eraser to make lines through it and said it was a maze. He added colors and it turned into an underwater maze with monsters. He was then doing pictures on his own, and drew a face with four eyes: “Funny alien tiger. That’s nice to people…fun to play with.” Then a robot face. To Carly, who had come down, he said, “Sorry mama…For no reason.” Then he was drawing nets: “I’m trying to make it trap plankton.” He told Carly he didn’t want her to keep asking what each picture was. He told us to imagine in our heads. He then drew a stick figure and said it was “A tiny woman house spirit.” With big ears.

Carly took him up for a stool bath. When I took him up later there was stuff in a pink bucket and he said he had been mixing chemicals in the bucket. We read more of Dragons Beware!, getting through the exciting part. And he had some Cheerios. Carly came in to put him to sleep, and they were being silly. I left them at 9, and I heard him being loud for awhile after that. Then it was silent. Carly said he was hyper until suddenly he calmed down and was asleep right away.

Casting his growth spell: