Carly woke him up before she left. He had oatmeal and watched Smurfs. He was okay with stopping a Christmas episode in the middle when we got going. We were walking at 7:32. Very nice. As we walked by the retirement home we saw a garbage truck going in the parking lot and he asked why. He then asked what it is called a ‘retirement home’ when it is so big. I think we decided ‘retirement condos’ was better. He also asked again why people live there.
I dropped him off at school without a problem. But apparently right after I left he had his first problem: He wanted to bring scissors to morning meeting and got upset when Marion said he couldn’t. Took him a long time in the atelier to calm down after he had pulled some leaves off of plants.
I rode home and worked, then drove back in hopes of going to Max, as August wanted to get an egg timer as his reward if he had a good day. I was early, about 1:50. As I walked in, Marion said “Good”. Which I thought meant they’d had a good day. But then I realized August was with Andrea. Her “good” had meant good that I was there. August had come in from playground time for rest time and Andrea could tell something was wrong. She thinks he had an issue with a PKB kid, but we never knew for certain and August didn’t remember. August told me he was pulling a table over his mat for his home for rest time. Rather unfortunate, as it sounds like he was trying to make a calm space. But it was making noise, and Andrea stopped him from moving it. He tore a couple small papers that had been on a wall, and a random doily. I think he’d just been sitting with Andrea since then. I took him out and we sat on the bench. The other kids had gone out to the playground, so we had some time.
We went back in and used an annoying roll of tape to tape the pieces back together and hang them back up. The other kids came back and we all went to library time.
The good news was that there were three other parents today (Eve’s dad, Simone’s mom, and Reia’s mom). The bad news was that for library tech week Ilana had changed things up. She had them sit on the floor outside the entrance and showed them the art pieces made out of printer parts (the inspiration for August collecting the pieces for Eve’s mom). She called them up 4 at a time, but of course all of the kids jump up. So I took over directing groups of kids.
Got through that, then inside she showed them an iPad app that points at a special shirt on a mannequin and shows you anatomy. Of course, only a couple kids could see at once, and so they were pushing and shoving. Candy started shoving to get in, so I had to stop her. She resisted until Reia’s mom then took her for me. And of course there were all sorts of other displays by the high school students showing anatomy, but Ilana told the kids not to touch those. Which is what all the kids that couldn’t see wanted to do. Funny moment though, as Leonard, in particular, kept trying to look inside the mannequin, not understanding that the pictures were just from the iPad. So she had to let them all look inside to see that there wasn’t a beating heart in the mannequin.
Finally, we got back to the kid book room. There, they had a few minutes to make paper airplanes or play with the straw builders. August ran straight to those and was building. When it came time to check out books, August wasn’t interested and went without a book today.
We went back to the classroom. Hector’s mom was talking to Andrea, and August went over to apologize to Andrea. He also, confusing both of us, told her, “Mama has two baby sisters.” When we asked for clarification he said they were actually babies, and they were really small and he could hold them and put them in baskets like one that was next to them.
Anyway, he apologized, and we went outside. He gave me a hug at one point, and I asked if he hugged his teachers like that. He replied, indignant, “Are you kidding me? After what they two have done to me?”
He showed me where the kids earlier had been finding bugs under pieces of wood. No insects now, so we wandered around with his bug catcher looking for a bug. We walked the little foot path, and I put the cup over a small moth in the grass on the other side. I had to go around to the other side of the fence to actually catch it. August didn’t know what I was doing and picked up the cup and lost the moth.
We looked for a few more minutes, wandering around the elementary school, but with no luck. So we headed over to the nature reserve. There, he didn’t see caterpillars at first. He then found them: “They’re hiding in the shade…Now I understand.” We wandered around the nature reserve. He said, “I got the hang of it.”
We met Carly by the middle school a little before 4:30. While we waited for her to change he picked up more caterpillars from the stairs of the outdoor stage. Had quite a few by now. We walked out. Dudley saw him at the gate, and talked to him about the caterpillars. As we walked to the car August talked about his delivery trucks delivering electronic equipment to other people. It reminded me of when I went to the UW and lived on 15th, and a guy tried to sell me speakers out of the back of a van once.
We drove home. We read more of the Magic Tree House book. ‘Miracle’ was the word of the day. The lesson in the book (about Houdini) is that it takes lots of practice to become good at something. I asked August what they had learned, and he said, “Hard work.”
He had me carry him upside down. For dinner he ate some of the stir fry but not much. We caught a jumping spider and he watched it for a minute, then took it outside and released it. He had me carry him upstairs and we watched 80s videos while we played on the bed. He was sister and I was the brother. He said, “Let’s get our gold so we can go in the fancy seats in the plane with two layers.” He meant a 747. We went downstairs, and he had us flying to Italy. Carly was the flight attendant, and we would ask for things and she would just throw them to us. He was laughing a lot.
We went back upstairs, but he soon wanted to go downstairs and do the similar thing with Carly again. When I said I didn’t want to he said he didn’t like me any more and went down. She brought him back up, but he slid to a meltdown. I stayed in the bedroom with him until he calmed down enough to request Carly. She came up and was able to pick him up to comfort him.
I went downstairs, and they found and then lost some sort of bug. He played in the bathroom, then accidentally put his hand in the hot water in the sink. He was very upset about that. She got him washed.
He and I watched a couple of Skybrary books: Field Day and Goodnight Baby Bear. He had some oatmeal, then Carly made the last Swedish pancake, and he ate that. We started reading the Mickey Mouse graphic novel version of Treasure Island, which was on sale. While it downloaded after we bought it we switched and read a chapter of Shivers. I was half asleep, and he told me about how he’d had a really good day at school. I agreed, but that he needs to work on having a good day with the teachers too. I told him he’d just get in more trouble if he kept telling people he’d kill them. He asked who he’d have to talk to when he was in elementary school, etc. and I gave him the names of the principals. When he asked what about when he was an adult, I said they might call the police. This terrified him, and he started crying. He was also clearly very tired. I’d made a similar connection with something a few days ago (I think about ‘stealing’ something or telling a lie) and he’d handled it okay, and decided to not do whatever it was. Carly came down and took over trying to comfort him. He wasn’t happy with me. Carly assured him that he’d be okay, and he lamented, “I’ll never get the hang of it!”
We took him upstairs and he was calmed down enough that he let me brush his teeth. He still wanted Carly to put him to sleep though. I left them at 8:30. She’s found that telling him he needs to go to sleep if he wants to see her in the morning works really well. Today he just rolled over on his side, away from her, and fell asleep.
Today was Ms. Michele’s birthday (PKC teacher). They had a gathering of all the kids on the small covered play area. There’s a video on Storypark of everyone getting up to dance to a song. August, and at least one other kid, stayed sitting. Andrea very lovingly checked in with August and tried to get him to get up, but he didn’t want to.
Building during library time:
Collecting caterpillars:
Picking up the escaping caterpillars:
