Wednesday, April 10: OT and a water leak

He was up at 7:07 and came down. I picked him up and held him for a few minutes, then he sat on the couch for a few more. We read all of Short Stories for Little Monsters, then he played Dragonbox Big Numbers. He ate thawed mango with a spoon, then had oatmeal with maple syrup. Asked me what I wanted from his lab. I requested a machine that would make a lot of noise and move around a lot and have flashing lights, but not actually do anything. He told me he uses the money from us for treats “and 60 percent of that is gumballs…I eat 3 gumballs in each bite…I swallow them whole…I have a superpower that lets me eat gum…I have teeth in my throat…” He kept explaining.

He wanted to get to table time, so no work time yet for me. At table time we read a new book called Big Bunny. ‘Abominable’ was a word of the day and he read a few words. We practiced the number ‘9’, and he made a sculpture out of modeling clay and called it a play structure. It reminded me of Gaudi’s Park Guall, so I showed him photos of that.

For project time we moved to the light kit. He told me he discovered a new color:”Awkward blue…light…it only goes down…even if you point it up it will go (makes motion of an arc to the ground).” We made circuit #181. It involved infrared light, which we discussed, using the chart we’ve looked at before, and the AC remote worked on it, which was very exciting. And we measured resistance with the multimeter. We then moved to circuit #180.

The neighbor called, saying she could see water leaking from the hot water tank on the roof. August and I went out to investigate, having to use Mikaela’s keys to get into her yard, then going into junk space #2 to actually see it. Sent Shmuel a photo, and he said he’d fix it tomorrow. August and I found a stack of little pieces of wood we might use for our bird house.

Back in the house, he randomly asked, “Dada, you know the trip to Disneyland when you were a kid? Since Mama makes hundreds of shekels a month, do you think we could add up enough to go to Disneyland?” It’s been a long time since I told him about going to Disneyland, and I’m sure I didn’t actually explain what was there. So I don’t know where that came from.

We had a cookie. He then wanted to restart the blue mook game. This time, he was a girl, and ended up being called Lightning because she was so fast. Shmuel called and after that we went out to turn off all the water. Couldn’t figure out which line went where, so just turned all the water off for now. August found a roly poly and had it climbing over his fingers. He asked, “Why do you think roly polies are different colors?”

Upstairs I found the half-disassembled iPad in his room. We took it downstairs and tried the new screwdrivers. I could get a few of the screws out, but not many. August persisted, and managed to get some of the buttons out and covers over the circuit boards off by prying with one of the little ones. He was really proud of himself for figuring that out after I’d given up. I also ordered a full set of small tools on Amazon.

For lunch he initially rejected the options I offered. He told me, “Well, my stomach asked for exciting stuff.” But then we had a good full lunch of soft-boiled eggs, watermelon, crackers, meat, and some carrot. He requested a race while we ate, so we watched the 1000 Miles of Sebring. at the end, I realized he had plugged a headphone cord into the side of his leftover egg.

Plugged the cord into the egg

He played a little Dragonbox Big Numbers, then Endless Wordplay (which I was happy to see), and I allowed one level of Angry Birds. He then did alone time for 20 minutes. He played with a pink piece of wire for awhile, then ended up by the coffee table, taping the loose tape measure to it. I got a little work done, at least.

We had a little time for some balloon science experimentation. We blew up one balloon and measured its circumference, then put it in the freezer to see what would happen. It seemed like it got a little smaller, but just barely. He wanted to put a little soy sauce in a balloon, so I allowed that, as long as it stayed outside. It was interesting to see the soy sauce inside of it though. When I went to put the balloon in the freezer I had to clean things out. His experiment where he dissolved four lollipops in water and then froze it was still in there. I asked if I could get rid of it. He said yes, then “Wait, I need to say goodbye.” He played around with it and tasted it a bit before being done. We are starting to see a few drain flies now. He saw one and thought it was a mosquito. When I said, “That’s a drain fly” he replied, “Nice!”

We left at 2:30 to walk up to Shani’s house/office for his OT session. Along the way I realized I hadn’t brought the snack bag. He probably would have been okay, but we were also going to stop to get crackers, so I suggested we hop in the store (the basement one called ‘Mega’) and get a snack and crackers on the way. August said he wanted a snack like the Kerns had got, in a bag, and he ended up in the chips section. I relented, and helped him choose Cheetos in the shapes of Xs and Os.

She lives just a couple blocks to the northeast of there. We were a couple minutes late. August had fun. He played on a big platform swing, adjusting the side handles, then trying to stand and knock over a cylinder, which after a few knocks August was saying was really hurt. They then went to the table where they dug in a sand thing for treasures. She was exploring his sensory reactions. He was pretty excited by all the stuff and hard to keep focused on one activity. He crawled into the little tent thing and got the big bouncy ball out. We ended up playing with a smaller ball and working on catching. He did surprisingly well, I thought and caught a few of our throws. She had him do one of those puzzles where you fish with a magnet, then put the pieces back in. Not sure what the point was, really. Finally, she let him choose a toy from the cupboard, and he chose a red box that turned out to be the robot set that he’d played with when they had their one session at the school.

It was about 45 minutes. August had been talking to her about her job, and how she gets to play with children. This had started when he wondered how she could afford so many toys. When she said it was how she makes money, he said, “You get money for playing with kids? Then you should pay her.” I indeed, needed to pay her.

We did that and got going. He had had fun, and it is a good experience for him. I’m not sure about the methodology though. She seemed impressed when he was standing on the swing and started to do the proper leaning, as he hadn’t done it at the beginning. She seemed to think this was new, but it’s exactly how he stands on the swing at school and makes it go; he was just being cautious at first (and her swing would also go in circles, making it a bit more difficult—it had also made clicking noises, so he had gotten off and looked up and studied how it moves at one point). And she talked about how he is ready to play with balls, and needs some of that full-body stimulation/deep feeling of the impacts, etc. Which I kind of get, thus having fun with wrestling, but after we left I suggested getting some balls like she had, and he gave me an emphatic “No.”

We walked home, and August walked back and forth with me as I tried to figure out which water line went where, so I could maybe not turn everything off. As we went past the yard (and as he played with a paper airplane a kid had dropped on the sidewalk), Carly called “August” from inside the fence. August screamed and jumped. I figured out that we could turn on water to Mikaela’s apartment and to our laundry room, but keep everything else off. Inconvenient, but much better than no water at all.

Inside he was his normal hyper evening self. At one point, when I asked him why this happens, he did give a very sweet answer about being excited that we were all together. But he also got one timeout for continuing to bother and grab Carly when she was getting food. We finished circuit #180 and he showed Carly that the remote worked on it, then we started yet another. He put a random piece of paper standing up on part of his electric city project and said, “It’s a huge, huge sign. It’s an ad for speakers.”

Carly made sushi for dinner and we all ate. August didn’t like his little sushi with mushroom, but asked for avocado and cucumber and liked that. He also asked for even tinier sushi. He then had this whole playing with my toes thing, where he was sort of tickling me, but I was tickling his palms with my toes. That lasted several minutes and moved around the house. He next made a creation taping things to the tissue box as Carly made the even tinier sushi.

We read a couple chapters of Nick and Tesla #2. He told me, “So dada, when robots lose their teeth they just fall out and they spit them out… three times every nine years. Isn’t that crazy? then you get a coin.”

Carly went to take a bucket bath and August wanted to see how that works, so he went with her. After that he spent several minutes making a big wall out of all of the bottles, etc. in the bathroom, and things like the guitar stand, dividing the bathroom in half. I gave him a bath, then he did a good job of cleaning up the wall when Carly asked him to. We went down and had peanut butter and honey toast. When I got out the peanut butter he told me he wanted to fish for zookeepers in there. Amazing that that joke has lasted for so long (since he was 2?).

Got him ready for bed, and I left them at 9:10.

Clay sculpture 1: