He slept all the way to 5:45. So that was a good night of sleep (11 and a half hours). Carly got him oatmeal and he watched Aardvark and the Ant. When his time was up he asked to read the zombie book. We finished Plants vs. Zombies: Lawnmageddon, which we had started several days ago. ‘Suddenly’ was a word of the day.
He played with the circuits for a couple minutes on his own before coaxing me over. He listened to “Murakami” through the circuit set using the headphones he found, then asked me to play it through Siri so we could both hear it louder. We put it on repeat and he sat on my lap and we listened. He then asked what he could make for me: time machine, robot that does everything I demand, a fancy toilet seat better than the one we had in Korea. He said he only makes things in his lab at night. He randomly quoted Hilo: “And I see a duck sitting on a toilet.”
We went out and did more painting. He painted the board for the welcome sign white, and I did more of the shelves. He went back inside on his own and was sitting near the Siri speaker and I heard him doing a lot of talking to himself. I came in to wash the brushes and he was still talking. He put the blanket under the table (he said something about losing it in there) then went and played with the toy drill, doing a little more talking.
I started an email to Marka about PTA stuff and got most of it done. August was done plying by himself and needed something to do. I tried to get him started playing with the Guess Who and Shark Attack games that he got for Christmas. Those involved setup, however, and he got me to help him. But we did ply a game of Guess Who, and it was only at the end that I pointed out he had played a winning game. He was a little indignant that I had ‘tricked’ him. We then played with the Shark Attack game. We played together a bit, then I was able to go finish my email.
He asked for cake, so I gave him a small slice. He then had the last two chicken nuggets with mayo and ketchup and a juice box. He got some juice on him putting in the straw and we had to change him. I went upstairs to brush my teeth. When I came down he ask started talking about his newest plan to punish people that break into his lab. After I redirected him to a more appropriate punishment (capturing and turning them over to the police), he then asked if he could just have his own jail. I said no. A couple minutes later he asked, “Can anyone outsmart the police?”
I went out and did a little more touchup paint, then we got headed to school for parent teacher conferences day. We were supposed to meet Gabby at 10:55. But when we got there Carly told us that Gabby was sick and had cancelled. August was really looking forward to being with her and was upset. Luckily, he was able to get over it and sat in the atelier and watched an episode of Hilda on Carly’s computer.
His teachers had had their skype session with Dr. Postma last night. It sounds like it went pretty well. It will be interesting to hear how Postma felt about it. Marion set up a WhatsApp group so they could send us positive things about him through the day; the idea being that we can then show August the good moments at school and discuss those, and reinforce that he actually does like school (as he still says he doesn’t like school). Marion told a story about how, a few days ago, he started tying the ribbons from the railings of the stairway going upstairs. He initially was tying them across the stairway, blocking the stairs. Marion tried to be logical about it, knowing that ‘No’ is one of his triggers. She explained that for safety reasons, PKC needs to be able to get down the stairs in case there was a fire. He got his usual reaction/meltdown. But then a couple days later they were doing the tying again. Vicky came along and he started telling her about what they were doing, and explained that they weren’t tying them across the steps because PKC needed to be able to get down if there was a fire.
Heather was coming in to meet next as we took August out. He said hi to her, jokingly calling her “Eve June” (her daughter’s name) and telling her she had really blue eyes.
So August had said something to me about getting lemon water in a bottle or something. I had thought he meant the other iced tea we still had from McDonald’s. He repeated this to Carly as we said goodbye outside the preschool. Then, when we got to the top of the stairs he went to the Make-A-Wish table, where they were selling things. In the two seconds we had taken to walk by he had seen the water bottle with a “filter” in the middle and decided you could put fruit in there and flavor the water. I asked if he had seen a water bottle like this before. He said no, but he had seen Ms. Liron with lemon in her water bottle but it was just floating free. He was so excited about it, and talking the the high schoolers running the table about it, that I had to get it.
We then walked down to the little arts fair that was going on outside the library. Mainly looked at a table where a couple sells old maps and prints. He was kind of interested, but would have been more interested if he didn’t have the water bottle, as he kept talking about it. From there we went to the book fair. He mainly sat under the tables and played with the water bottle (it also has a nice latch) while I looked. I got a couple books for him: The Hairy Brown Angel and Other Animal Tales and an old book (with an inscription from Pakistan in it) called My Very Own Fairy Stories. For myself I found A Little History of the World and Reza Aslan’s No God But God.
From there it was more shopping. We went to Ikea. We talked about getting food, but I had warned him no ice cream. He decided not to get lunch there, since he couldn’t get ice cream, but he was calm about it. I was disappointed though as I hadn’t had lunch yet and was counting on that falafel. We went backwards, going through the checkouts, and got the small metal table for in the office, then walking back to get another can of white paint. I also decided on a desk lamp for the office. By checkout we got a few packs of their little snacks. He ate one of the berry ones on the way out to the car. He didn’t like the nut and berry mix that I got.
Next, we went to Max. We were just planning on getting the egg timer he wanted so that we could work on him playing by himself. But then we started to find other things: a white board and tack board for the Zinnie house, which needed markers, an eraser, and push pins, some fabric we could use for something, a pair of magnifying glasses, some new paper clips, etc. Actually, the first add-on was their cheap acrylic paint. That actually saved us a trip to the art store, and was much cheaper. It was paint we needed for the ‘Welcome’ sign to the Zinnie house. He chose some nice colors.
We walked back to the car (we had parked in the dirt lot) and left the boards and my backpack in there. We went into Tiv Taam and got lemons (for his lemon water) and some milk. I was then looking for loose leaf tea when a young woman heard us and asked where we were from. Her name was Yael, and she was there with a woman named Paige McGonagall, who has two high schoolers at WBAIS. The older, Ethan, is a senior and on the robotics team. So we talked for that for a couple minutes. August handled the delay pretty well.
We paid and got going. On the walk back to the car he asked, “What’s machinery?” Another word of the day. We were driving at 2:40. He didn’t fall asleep, although it was a close call. I looked back after we passed the Israeli school and he was still awake. When I parked I looked back and his eyes were closed. He opened them after a few seconds. I’m not sure if he was actually falling asleep or just messing with me.
He had his vanilla yogurt. He tried to fool me by telling me he didn’t like it, but then revealing it was actually really good. He repeated this joke later with the sushi, and confused both of us quite well, as he had liked the sushi yesterday.
I was unloaded all of our stuff out of the car, and we got to nailing up the whiteboard and tack board in the house. I heard someone calling to August, asking where his dad was. It was Gil, from across the street. I had left the back left door to the car open.
We finished hanging things up in the Zinnie house and set up the pink organizer we had gotten for the markers and tacks. August asked, “What does ‘in custody’ mean? It is a word from Hilo (when he is captured by the military).
Inside he opened the colorful rubber bands he gotten at Max and was tying them together. By the end of the day he was doing it on his own. We were outside finishing putting together the blue table when Carly got home.
We showed off what we had done and then he wanted to put lemon in the water bottle. He and I did that. Too mild at first, but he was really excited about it once we had crushed the lemons a bit and left it to steep for awhile. He wanted to try the egg timer and playing by himself. So we did that, and he tied together rubber bands by himself while Carly and I worked.
He and Carly then played the Shark Attack game. I should have taken a video of it, as August didn’t tell her it would pop up, and when it surprised her he was really laughing.
He as then adding to his rubber band chain as Carly and I sat on the couch. He was running with the rubber bands while I held the other end. The chain got longer and longer, and he would add shorter chains that Carly was making. He randomly quoted, “Boss, I can’t find my lucky dollar.” It’s from an annoying commercial on YouTube that he’s been watching.
He requested that we buy him Honey Nut Cheerios sometimes. When Carly said they’d be more of a treat than a snack he got upstairs and threw the tissue box in my general direction. I started to take him upstairs for a timeout, but then asked him where he would like to calm down until he could apologize. I suggested under a chair. He got the blanket, put it on a chair, and curled up on it for a minute. He then got down and apologized without being prompted. Brilliant.
Carly had him play on his own again. He tied rubber bands of course.
I set up the lamp upstairs, then back downstairs he had me count how many were in his chain. It is up to 87. He, of course, said he wants to get it to 100.
Carly took him up for a bath. When he said Carly told him she’d seen a dust devil when she was a kid. He asked me “What’s positronic mean?” I reminded him, then we read the first story in My Very Own Fairy Stories. We went upstairs and read a few chapters of Magic Pickle. And he had some Cheerios.
He requested a story visualization, which at the time I couldn’t remember what he meant, but later realized he meant one like where we had someone walking a path and ending up in a new world. He settled for a regular visualization, and we did a bird living in that mall on Tuesday, and it did things like steal grain from the bulk food store and french fries from people and McDonald’s. He fell asleep around 8:30. I fell asleep too, though, so I’m not sure quite when.
Explaining his new water bottle:
Glitter in Max 1:
Glitter in Max 2:
Painting and singing:
Rubber band slo-mo:
Shark attack:
Running with the rubber bands:
