He was up at 6:50, just before my alarm. He went downstairs and he and Carly read the rest of Mighty Jack and the Goblin King for the third time. He then had me superglue the allen wrench he had found to one of the circuit boards from the computer monitor. I put the loaf of rosemary sourdough bread in the oven. He and I also walked over to the garbage area to see if there was anything else he could use. Came back empty-handed.
We then skyped with my parents as we took the monitor apart a bit more. The bread was done during the call, and as we cut it on the counter to try it, August told them that he was laying thousands of mosquito eggs out of all of his hairs as he touched them on the counter.
At some point, he and Carly walked up to the recycling area to look for treasures/supplies and to do our recycling. He came back with a screen of sorts and some other small item.
He watched a Berenstain Bears as I typed, then part of a The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot about That. I went up to take a shower. When I came down he asked to make a drink in the glass water bottle (the one I use for our water drinks). He wanted to mainly fill it with milk and put an ice cube in it. He assured me it would be drinkable, but I was being picky as I didn’t want to waste that much milk. It turned out his inspiration was The Cat in the Hat, as they had learned about making ice cream. He knew ours wouldn’t be ice cream. He added some water, then cinnamon, then honey and brown sugar. I suggested we could freeze it, then realized we had the popsicle tubes. We added some cream, and he suggested berries. I cut up strawberries and we did three with strawberries in them, and two with frozen blueberries.
While sitting on the couch he asked me what would happen if gravity stopped. We had a pretty good discussion of it. Could really see his brain working as I discussed conservation of momentum, how an object in motion tends to stay in motion, and equal and opposite forces (first and third laws, I believe). He also asked how the oven makes heat, and we discussed how electricity can be converted into heat.
Carly and August then headed to the nursery. They got a planter to go on the fence between our yard and Mikaela’s for tomatoes, and also dirt. They were back at 1:50.
August was out of watching time, but he was elated to find that if he clicked on “the one with the cone” (VLC) it let him watch. It was the most excited response to anything ever. Basically an extra Christmas for him. So it was fitting that he watched part of A Charlie Brown Christmas. I finished the rosemary focaccia with potatoes and cauliflower and got it in the oven, and handed the kitchen over to Carly, who made vegan chili.
August wanted to glue something, and I used the word ‘dab’. He didn’t know what it meant so that was our word of the day. He was then sitting on the floor, playing with the drill, and created the “screwdriver drill” by spinning the screwdriver in it.
He wanted to check for pieces of wood in the driveway area, and talked about walking around the block to look at the various junk piles. But he changed his mind on that. He sang a “That’s an outside voice” song, and asked me, “Do bugs have nerves?” He says no. In the storage area we got a couple pieces of wood and brought them in the yard. He then had me sawing off pieces and hammering them to his Zinnie house to make a bird perch above the door. He talked about how he’d be able to hear the birds singing if he was in his house. He worked on using the saw himself, and was starting to get the hold of it, at least a bit.
Inside we read the start of a book Pax and bought it, then read On a Magical Do-Nothing Day. That gave him the idea for hot chocolate, so I made a big mug of it in the pottery mug and shared it with him. Carly and August then tried to watch a movie. They started with Happy Feet but gave it up after 10 minutes or so.
I went up to take a shower as he was filling up the salad spinner with water from the sink and turning it into a concoction. They then tried watching Madagascar and liked it much better. They also made popcorn. Carly went up to take a shower. It started to rain. I went out to move my bike, and saw my shoes outside, wet. August had used them earlier to check on his seeds.
I took him upstairs. He went to the bathroom, then he started on an elaborate skyscraper sculpture using the toilet paper holder, a bag of rubber bands, and other pieces. He spent a good 20 minutes on it, the whole time not pulling up his pants. I gave him a bath, then we went in on the bed and he was jumping on my back, which he said was a swimming pool.
We went downstairs for a minute, then got him ready for bed. I left them at 8:45 and went for a walk in the wind, listening to The Written Word.
Mosquito eggs from his hair:
Making the popsicle mixture:
The screwdriver drill:
That’s a outside voice song:
Trying the saw – holes an ant could make:
Figuring out the saw and discussing sweatpants:
Filling up the salad spinner:
Working on his skyscraper sculpture:
