I was up at 7:30, getting ready, when August woke up. He got up and went out, closing the door behind him. I said good morning and “I’m coming out” as he closed the door. He opened the door again and just stuck his head back in and looked at me. I said “I’m coming out” again and his head disappeared and he closed the door. Downstairs he cuddled with Carly, then they went upstairs. He was talking about “fake cuddling.” They came back down a couple minutes later with the sewing kit and my old shirt. They sat on the rug and he said, “What should we sew up now?”
He worked on the “quilt” then said he could do it on his own. He immediately asked me to do “a imagining game.” Carly protested, saying he just said he was going to sew. He replied, “The sewing will be part of the imagining game. You got it?” So I was his brother and he was my sister, and I was going to get dressed and he (she) was sewing my shirt into a blanket and I was upset about it. Eventually, he put it on my legs as I typed as a blanket.
I offered to make pancakes for breakfast. They requested Swedish pancakes, so I made Swedish pancakes for the first time. Went okay, although they weren’t pretty and it was more stressful than a breakfast should be. August got one of the bigger plastic ziplock bags and filled it with ice and water. He took it outside and threw it and it didn’t break until he threw it against a tree. He liked that, but his pajamas were wet so he asked me to change him. He wanted a pajama day, but I got him regular clothes.
We finished the Swedish pancakes and ate them. I was doing partial pancakes as we can’t do the full pan without ripping them. I tried on a smaller pan but they stuck to that.
He wanted to continue with the imagining game and we called each other “sister” and “brother.” If I forgot and talked in my normal voice he’d say, “Talk in your boy voice!” He watched one of those balancing game videos on YouTube, then one on how clay is made. He then had the idea, still in character, to go out and find more greensand and put it in water to see if it would dissolve and make sand.
We went out and I got the hammer and he showed me where the big blocks of greensand are. It turns out they are actually old tiles, I think, buried along the edge of the house. I pulled up a couple big chunks and he whacked them apart with the hammer. He wanted a container and I got one from recycling. He put all the rock bits in and then we filled it with water and froze it.
Still my sister, we went inside to read. I told him he should read since he was the older sister. He opened the Bob Books app on his iPad and read a few sentences to me. He then taught me how to make mandalas using the app, then how to do art in the Montessori Preschool app. He asked, “Brother, do you want to do your favorite thing? Decorating the inside of paper cups?” We did that, then went and sewed on the shirt.
We then read a few chapters of Shivers 3. He didn’t want me to stop, but I needed to go take a shower. They read Captain Underpants, and he was watching Wild Kratts when I came back down. He stopped, then was acting out Wild Kratts power suits: “Trapping you with chaos!” He turned it into an imagining game with me: “And a harpy eagle flies into your room…”
We left at 1. But first, on the way to the car, he saw a stick sticking out of our fence. It was a pump that pumped rocks into his laboratory. On the drive he asked me, “Remember that place we went with Gramma and grampa with the fossils?” He said he teleported rocks to his lab to study. Not with hammers, but microscopes. We discussed kinds of scientists, and he said he did all the kinds of science. And he asked, “What’s a scientist that studies the ocean?” So ‘oceanographer’ was the word of the day.
We got to the Herzliya Park and parked at the south end and walked across the street to the mall. The photo place, Held, was right in the entrance area, across from Aroma. We first went down to find a bench though as August was hungry. He spotted a Rebar and a “something something” had been part of the plan. We sat and he ate the toasted cheese sandwich Carly had made him, then Carly got his usual chocolate and peanut butter smoothie for him, with mango in it this time. He sat on the counter and drank that and we each had a bit.
We then went and got our photos taken. Super quick. He and I both got our photos taken and we were out of there in about three minutes.
We went back and got the bike from the car and went into the park. Carly went into the cafe there and got us each a cappuccino. We spent quite awhile right around that area, as August got interested in the ponds. We spent a long time trying to catch a small fish with a plastic container he’d found. I had one once but it jumped out. He was trying to make a distraction so I could catch a fish. This was right out of the Shivers book. He told me to “Whistle… Sing a song” to distract them.
When we didn’t have any luck with that, he and I went to the series of pools and walked up and down them. He started walking across the shallow areas, getting his feet wet. We found snails and he talked about how he was going to take them home, to his lab I think, and roast them. “Remember, were not going to eat them, so don’t get grossed out.”
Eventually it was too chilly and Carly and I wanted to get walking and he released the snails. We got walking to the north. He spotted one of the snake signs and had Carly read it. Saw a couple flocks of birds flying south. I stopped at the free library and they started in at the playground. He didn’t want to do any slides, much to Carly’s chagrin, and just wanted to be in the swings. To annoy her he said, “Nicest day ever. No sun, and clouds all day.”
Before we left he had me go look for worms in the muddy area of the grass. No worms. We left at 4:10. In the car he mentioned something, maybe we were talking about the distractions he was trying with the fish, and he said it was from Shivers: “From the ship with the expensive air.” Which is how the fancy cruise ship is described at one point. We finished the book, then started it from the beginning.
At home he was cranky again, and rude to Carly in rejecting the soup. He ate some of it though after I reminded him he liked it. I went up to work. Sometime later she brought him up for his bath. He played in the sink. He poured out his hair potion and made a new one instead. I asked what it was for and he said, “It kills grubs.” Specifically, you pour it down the drain and it kills the drain flies. She washed him, and tied a bracelet, one of the treasures he’s found, for him.
I came out and took over with him at 8:15. He said he had watched a movie with Carly. He told me it was about a city of robots that was flooded and they were all electrocuted except for one superhero that was actually a human. But it turns out it was actually Christmas Chronicles. He had completely made up the flooded city thing. Carly said he hid a few times and looked forward once to make sure the kids were okay, but otherwise it was really good.
We read more Shivers 3 and I talked about being a nicer robot. He acknowledged he had had a hard day and seemed to suggest it was because he was bored. We read a few pages of Sisters, volume 1, and Carly came up at 9. He went to the bathroom and she put lotion on his knuckles and a spot on his foot, both of which have been really dry. I left them by 9:10.
There had been thunderstorms and lots of rain on and off. I lucked out and got a little window where I went out for a ten minutes walk, listening to The Mere Wife. Lightning flashing in every direction, but calm here. After 10 minutes it started raining and the wind picked up. I had my rain coat and also an umbrella with me, but I was right around the corner and could tell it was a matter of seconds or minutes until it was pouring, so I hurried back. Later, there was a good amount of hail.
Hammering 1:
Discussing the clay experiment:
Harpy eagle power:
Happy eagle power 2:
Looking at the fish:
Releasing the snails:
Hail:
Hail: https://youtu.be/Qkquat6yYzY
