He was up at 6:20. I was up but he bear me downstairs. When I came down he was telling Carly all about telephones. Like that they have one with buttons in the preschool, but there are old ones that you used to turn. I can’t remember where he heard about that, but it sounds familiar. He then told me: “Dada, today I’m inventing a translator to tell us in English what every single creature in the world–well, if you want to talk to an English person and you speak Hebrew…”
He asked me to check to make sure his caterpillar wasn’t dead. Aviva was fine. He watched a Berenstain Bears, then in something that was really funny but also gross, he was playing with my toothbrush and used it to “tickle” the caterpillar.
When he went to the bathroom before we left he asked about Carly taping the lock to the bathroom door: “You know what? Why were you afraid of me locking it if I could reach it until I was 16 or 17?”
We got walking at 7:35. He declared he was walking, which negated our on-time start, but it was nice for him to walk. He made it about a third of the way to school. A few houses up he spotted a huge snail and we got a video of it moving around. He was asking about what could break other things, like steel and diamonds, and asked what colors diamonds were. I told him about the variations and why, and he went on to talk about a rainbow diamond. I think he had made it.
We still got to school before the bell. He went right back to the new puppet area. I broke up some hitting between Eve and Simone, then headed out. I didn’t talk to her, but I learned who the speech therapist is that will be working with August.
I worked, then rode my bike up to Gutale and met with Marka about gifted/student support at the school. They are going through a recent diagnosis, and some academic/social issues at the school. I then rode to the school and was talking to Reia’s mother for a few minutes. When the kids started to come out, Lydia came up to me and told me that a caterpillar had peed on August and it was really hard to wash off and that he was up with Ms. Andrea. I went up and he was in the office. I thought he was upset about the caterpillar pee, but it turned out that he and Lydia had been putting water in the caterpillar enclosure, and when Marion told them to stop he got upset. He had ripped a couple of their notes/posters up there and was helping to tape them back up.
I sat with him and Vicky and Andrea and processed that incident. But he was happy that he’d done the calm space thing a couple times on his own. He only had one red sticker on his sheet (although this was clearly a second one). Andrea told me he had done the raspberry at her for the other. He had then stuck his tongue out at her, and argued it wasn’t bad like the raspberry.
But he also told me how he had felt the “bubbly feeling” a couple times and gone to a calm space. Very proud of it, but he couldn’t give me details on where he went. Sounds like once it was into the office.
We caught up with Eve and Zoe outside on the playground. He got right to playing with them and I talked to Heather. Lots of talking to other parents today. She then went to load the kiln, and I helped the kids on the swings. They were going on ‘box’ style with two people on at once. August did it with Eve and Zoe twisted them up and let go.
Heather came back with paper and markers to make posters for the girls’ basketball game. Heather asked what he wanted written on the paper for his sign. Not knowing what the heck she was talking about, he told her “ET3”. A little more explanation later, and he agreed to a big “GO”.
Cassie had called, asking if she could bring Taya over with us while she continued a meeting. She did, and Taya went and played on the playground with Gabe. When August and Eve and Zoe were ready to head to the gym, Taya was still playing with Gabriel and refused to listen to me. August started to get upset. He didn’t want Eve to leave without him. So Orlee, Gabriel’s mom, said she could take Taya to Cassie.
We went to the game and the three kids spent some time holding up their signs and cheering. Eve and Zoe were yelling “Go, falcons!” August was saying things like “Go, trees!” Although I can’t remember what things he was putting in there.
After awhile they got hungry. They had snuck some of August’s snacks in the gym, then Heather came back with some bars. I took the three of them up the stairs so they could eat outside the gym and look down on the game. Down on the floor, Mike invited them to run on the court during halftime. August was a bit hesitant about that, but followed Eve around a few times. They also climbed on the pads at the end of the gym, and raced down and back the hall to the drinking fountains several times.
We got going close to 5. We met Carly as she was walking towards the gym. Zoe was calling him “August-Poggest” and he was giggling, calling her things like “Zoe-Pooey.” Carly noted that he responds similarly with her as he does with Bar.
We walked home. He ate some dinner, then he and I sat down to do something for Marion for hitting her when she made him stop pouring water in. I asked what his favorite thing to do with Marion is and he said, “Finding stuff in nature, like snails.” When it came time to draw it though he didn’t know how to do it. I had the idea of doing a video for her instead. He did a first take, then did something at the end of it that ruined it. For the second take he did it as a song, which was a nice touch.
He asked Carly, “Are we poor?” He was thinking about the photo of Josephine on the fridge. August and I read something, Hilo, I think, and we read the word ‘hooligan’, so that was the word of the day.
Carly took him up for his bath, then I took over to put him to bed. He reminded me that he’d gone to the gym before with Carly to see hockey. He remembered the “great” loud music that time. Somehow we got talking about the size of the universe and that there isn’t an edge. I explained the best I could, but he said that was “confusing”. He then claimed, “I’m a 90 dimensional August”. We also talked about how safe shells are for crabs, did a lava visualization, and did the rocking thing after he asked me to. Thought he was about to sleep when he said, “Dada, I have another question for you: Would a block of steel get crushed if it was at the bottom of the deepest sea in the word?” He finally fell asleep at 8:45.
Message for Marion:
Explaining his translator machine:
Big snail:
Mendameter Screw song:
Building with the caps:
Spinning on the swing with Eve:
Running with Eve:
Cheering at the basketball game:
Running on the basketball court:
Running to mama 1:
Running to mama 2:
