I went up and gently woke him up a little before 7:10. We didn’t have a lot of time. He had vitamins and oatmeal, then the alarm went off at 7:20. We got ready, and he did mouthwash. He joked (I thought) that fresh breath, “it’s more important because we’re going to an airport to go to Mexico.” We read Bone for a few minutes, then left by 8:40. He wanted the car, but acquiesced to the bike. We sang the alligator chomping song and played around with it, changing the animals. August keeps talking about Mexico, but it is more of a joke everytime. Today, before school, he said the funnest part of the day would be going on the plane to Mexico later.
We got to to his class a good four minutes before bell and they were already in a meeting. I dropped him off easily, then I went and dropped off the hummus. I biked home. I walked back at 2:30, listening to the Seamus Heaney Beowulf today. When I walked in he was playing with a string and block over the top of the easel when I got there. He then went out and found a strip of yellow tape out on the bench. He said he was the one that put it there. Not sure if that was today or some other day. He made a loop out of it and used it to stick down the bottom corner of their birthday poster. He then found a sign the class had made showing what orange leaves look like, and he taped it to the other door. He said it would remind everyone to take care of the plants when they went outside. He told me that he hadn’t needed his own snack today because they had a shared snack. He only had bred, and told me that Marion had been upset when he took all of the bread at snack. I saw a big Neal Stephenson book on a counter and asked Andrea whose it was. She said it was Marion’s, and she had even put it down on the kids’ shelf at one point. I joked about it being the only book they’d read as a class for the rest of the year.
He found a metal can outside that Hector had covered with tape. August wanted to plant something in it, then Andrea gave him an olive can of his own. He said he was going to plant an orange tree in it, then plant it over where the garbage area is. He said he doesn’t like the garbage area and wants to block it: “So I’m blocking it with a BIG orange tree.”
I remembered seeing high schoolers setting up a table by the entrance with food on it. August and I went up and he got a piece of chocolate cake and I had coffee cake sort of thing. August said it tasted like his birthday cake. We then got another piece to surprise Carly with and took it to her. August sneaked a bite of hers before giving it to her.
We then went to our bench by the library and read in the nice sun. We finished Mighty Jack and the Goblin King for a second time. Words of the day were ‘compelled’ and ‘transfusion’ from it. We then read more of Bone. He brought up Mexico again and was upset when we weren’t actually going. Maybe he wasn’t joking as much as I thought he was. He had some Cheerios, and asked me to stop packing the seaweed, as he doesn’t like the smell of his snack bag. He tied a string around a tree, then wanted to tie something to it. Looking around, we found a rock with writing on it next to a tree. Couldn’t really read it, but it appeared to be a grave marker for a class pet. August said the dead animal isn’t there anymore: “I dug it up, got the animal, and am studying the bones. Studying the DNA.”
Eventually, I found this little plastic toys in on the free shelf from the library and August tied a little airplane to the tree. He said it was a trap for Simona, and then he could get Simona’s blood to make him stronger. Like the goblin blood in Mighty Jack and the Goblin King.
As the sun was going down, Carly came and we walked home. The iHerb order and box from Aunt Dee had arrived, so we stopped and got those and took them home. At the north end of Vatikim August spotted rosemary plant and wanted to pick some. He suggested we dry it, and put it in bread. He was then telling us about how he wants to reuse things: “I love to reuse.” This was more from a book they’ve read at school. Yesterday he was also talking about composting. And he told us about picking oranges at school today. He said the orange trees are over by the big field.
We were talking about garbage, and he said that a lot of people seem to not reuse stuff or recycle. He then said he doesn’t reuse the boxes that his chemicals come in for his lab. Instead, he shoots them into space. We talked about space junk, and he said, “Space junk is the greatest thing I’ve thought of.”
As we got close to the house he saw a car, different brand, that looked a lot like our car. He told us he had traded Skoda Mama for that car. And he told us he drives the car on his own when we don’t know about it: “Sometimes isteal chemicals from other laboratories. That’s what I use the car for, mama.” We were home at 5:15.
We started drying rosemary, then opened the presents from Dee and Grant. He got a Lego Space Shuttle set, a new swim shirt, and a pair of shorts. Good gifts. Of course, he mainly played with the two bows and the box. He wanted to reuse the box, and put art supplies in it, and he glued the white bow to the top of our toolbox. We then made things out of pipe cleaners and put them in the box.
We ate a couple of hard-boiled eggs together and had pasta for dinner. He wanted to use his cereal bowl with a straw (it’s been so long he was asking what the straw was for) so he had a small bowl of cereal and ate all of that as well. He watched a marble race video, then I found the physics app that people use to make them and installed it on his iPad. We played with that a bit, then he helped me get the dried rosemary off and put it in a container.
Carly took him up for playing and bath time. Downstairs, he had me cut out a small rectangle of paper and he wrote ‘PKF’ on it and taped it to our front door, like we were a classroom. He said it would confuse people. We took him up to bed, and I left them at 8:40.
A trap for Simona:
Picking rosemary to dry:
Opening Christmas presents from Dee:
Out first marble race:
