He was up just after 6:30. When I came down from my shower a couple minutes later he was playing on PowerPoint. He watched Max and Ruby and we got ready to go, nice and on time. I had set an alarm on the HomePod to go off at 7:40 to get us out the door. When it went off I commented on it being a nice alarm sound. He said, “I hate that sound!” Because it told us we had to go to school.
He and Carly both wore their tie dye shirts to school today, and we paused to take a photo of him in it on the porch. We walked to school, and he stopped in the sidewalk in the middle of the big roundabout and pointed to a spot of weeds growing through the bricks. He said it was the shape of the paddle in Max and Ruby—the kind with the red ball attached that you keep hitting.
As we got to the block of the school there were a bunch of people, mainly older men, standing in the sidewalk, as they do, waiting for rides on the busses. As we pushed our way through August was being silly and said, “I hate pizza men and creepy men standing on the sidewalk!”
He was really excited about sharing Cubetto. Before we got to school I talked to him about sharing. He was dismissive, saying “I do that in coding class!” I pointed out it was actually his toy and that might feel different. When we got in the classroom he ran and told Andrea. I gave her the bag and she put it away. We’ll see how it goes. Meanwhile, Marion was out front with a bunch of kids, petting a cat that had shown up. It was very friendly, and not one of the usual cats. August asked if he could pet it, then asked if he could touch the tail. I let him do both.
I went home and did some work, then had a quick lunch and headed to the mall. I was getting some dress clothes, since I haven’t really worn any in the last four years. I got rid of much of what I had when we left Korea, and what I have left doesn’t fit all that well. I took a systematic look at the mall. Urban Outfitters and Fox will work for more casual pants, and I ended up getting one pair of pants from Renuar and a pair of pants and two shirts from Zara. I took some convincing from a salesman to get tighter slacks, but the shirts were an easy choice, as they fit better than anything I’ve had before.
I had told August I might be late, and he said he was fine with that, but I got to the school before dance class. In fact, I had time to get a cappuccino and a cheese pastry and a small one with chocolate in it. We shared the cheese one and he had the other. August rolled up a painting he had made and used two pieces to tape it into a tube. He then gave it to Simona’s mother. She said it would go on their empty walls. August has talked to her a few times before and seems to like her. I think he said the picture was a princess, and I think in a castle. And Heather gave us an invite to Eve’s birthday party, which is unicorn-themed and on the first day of winter break.
He went up to dance class and stayed the whole time. When they came out Amelia was asking if he was having fun. I’m sure he is, or he’d be coming out to me. But apparently he was pretty distracted when they were playing a game. She asked if he had any favorite songs they could dance to in class. He had told her about Chemical Brothers. I told her the CB song he really likes isn’t really school appropriate, but maybe he could think of a song or two to send her.
It started pouring as we waited for Carly to come over. It calmed down a bit and we walked home, August carrying the orange umbrella. We took the car home. There, he looked at the prehistoric animals book with Carly and was different animals with her. We talked about evolution, as he was looking at the human precursors and the ‘hobbit people’ and wondering when we started wearing clothes. I tried on my clothes and showed them.
Carly headed upstairs with a stomach ache. He watched Max and Ruby and some Berenstain Bears and I cooked some shrimp to go with the pasta. He ate some shrimp and noodles, but not much, then strawberries, apple, cheerios, and toast with peanut butter.
We read The Butter Battle Book and then Daisy-Head Maizy. I don’t think we read much of that though. He got distracted and started cutting things up with his scissors. He had plans for making something out of the invite to Eve’s party, but I couldn’t find the glue stick and he really got into cutting up the bags from my clothes and then the bag from his Hanukkah present. That led to him having me scratch the second menorah while I was in the jungle and we played the full tiger cub story. He then started putting the menorah and Hanukkah stickers on things.
I started to take him upstairs and Carly intercepted me and said she’d do his bath. She took him up, and he ended up playing a lot. He put a lot of the stickers on Carly’s tie dye shirt and came back down for another sheet. As he walked back up he said, “More dreidels, mama!” He then was working on a sort of mask while Carly worked on her hippie outfit. I think Carly had cut out the eye holes for him. He was trying to use tape to tape it to his face. I told him we could use string sometime. He did some more stickers, then Carly gave him a bath.
He got the idea of having a lollipop after his bath into his head and got upset when she said no. I took over to read to him while she went to take a shower. We were on the bed and he gave me a scenario for a story: “You’re Teegan. And August. Going into a tree world. And you look down. And see an emmo. It goes “Skee, sleep.’” He was then reciting lines from Aardvark and Ant, which he hasn’t watched in quite awhile: “I have a feeling I need speed…giddy up, giddy up, neigh.” We read Shivers, then he was jumping on the bed and saying “Intergalactic space move!” Carly came in and said goodnight and left them at 8:45.
Petting the new cat:
Talking about his cutting project:
Working on his mask:
Intergalactic space move:
Picture he gave to Simona’s mom
Watching the rain
Hannukah stuff
