They were up about 7:30. They went outside and read Captain Underpants. He came in and we played Polytopia. He ate strawberries and cereal for breakfast and I took a shower. We discussed his coins and buying stocks and why you can do that. ‘Stocks’ was a word of the day.
We got going at 9:20. He’s now identifying classic Beetles and Mini Coopers. We dropped off the garbage and then headed into town. He was very excited to find a one cent coin. We found a small, old yellow car parked up on the pedestrian path with its hood open and looked at it for a couple minutes. He called it a “Cute cute cute car.” We walked up by the Acropolis Museum to catch our hop-on/hop-off tour bus. On the way he saw big tires on a bus and sang a song about how a 747 has “even bigger tires.” We had bought tickets for the Red Buses company. When we got to the spot we couldn’t find a sign for that company in particular. The driver in the red bus that did come along told us it was for a blue bus. August and I sat on the sidewalk and read some Nick and Tesla. A blue bus came along and the driver told us to get on and the tickets would be scanned at the next stop.
We got to the entrance of the Acropolis, only to find out that it was still the wrong company. She said it was actually the yellow buses. It was a nice spot, with paths up the Filopappou Hill. August climbed in a tree, then we tried to go walking. It was literally one minutes up to the Prison of Socrates (not really the prison, but it is called that, and very old). He complained, and even after Carly found a really cool bug he wanted to turn right back around. No rain at all today, but I think that was part of his concern.
So we ended up back down at the bottom and he played around well for the 5 or 10 minutes until a yellow bus came. He kept saying, “That’s crazy talk!” (From Captain Underpants?) We got on, and started riding. No one scanned our ticket, so in the end we never knew if we found the right bus company. we rode about 20 minutes and talked about getting lunch and going to the children’s museum again. This bus kept going straight though, to the National Library instead of turning right towards the Bernaki Museum area.
In the end it didn’t matter, as when we got off and started to walk to find food August had a meltdown. He started running away from us, which was scary. We took him to an open area by the library go get him to calm down. Took quite awhile. We decided to call it a day, but we still needed to get food. I led us to a place called Sfuzzi. August got an egg sandwich, I got the Spanish Pie (spanakopita), and Carly had a salad. We both got small cappuccinos. August did well in the restaurant. The flower on the table had started to lose its petals, so that gave him something to play with. He initially sat on my lap, hesitant to sit on the chairs, but decided they weren’t too padded and sat on one to eat.
We took the subway home. He now recognizes one of the stations when they say it and was repeating “Syntagma, Syntagma, Syntagma.” I took a photo and he was scratching his face and it looks like he is flipping me off.
We got back at 1. Carly went to rest and he and I made project 163 in the circuits kit. He is doing a great job of reading the ‘schematics’ (another word of the day) and really doesn’t need our help anymore, or very little. When we went to have food I gave him a cracker. Last time there were crumbs everywhere. So I told him I’d give him points if he managed to get all the crumbs on the plate. He liked that, and was also earning points for eating strawberries. After awhile he had 21560 points. He told me, “I use the points to buy things…for my baby, and my baby likes wearing stuff.” He got points for eating another strawberry (to 26560), being nice to mama for a minute (31260) and then got 9200 for sitting with me and discussing ‘family principles’ with me (an idea from one of the homeschooling books). He ate cereal and strawberries (42380), got honesty points when he realized he had missed a strawberry, more for drinking extra milk, and ended up with 46760 points.
We read more Nick and Tesla. We were reading on the floor and had the pillows and cushions down. He decided to now do an imagining game, and we did the blue mook game again. As the blue mook I taught him how to use the iPad and count. He played some TodoMath.
He went to the bathroom and asked if there was anything I wanted him to make in his lab. I asked for a statue, to which he replied, “I’m going to make it of what people think God looks like.” He continued to talk on the toilet: “My mama back on my planet is having another baby right now…they have one every year…it comes out slowly from the bottom…it just wants tons of jewelry, so I’m buying it in Greece…she says the jewelry he wants most is jewelry with eyeballs on it…we don’t have jewelry on my planet but I can buy it.” Still making things, I asked for a perfect pair of shoes. Then for Carly he made a speaker that would read her mind and play quiet music.
He played with his circuits some more. We tried replying to Vivian on Wizard School but the internet was so slow it wouldn’t load her messages at first. A couple minute later we got it working and sent videos and messages. He wanted me to send him stuff so I started doing it on my phone.
We played more Polytopia and I burnt some toast when I forgot about it in the pan. Carly came out and cooked broccoli. He ate broccoli and cheese, then toast. He did some more hitting over something (he wanted all the toast at once, I think it was). Clear that it comes out when he is stressed, and the trip has been stressful for him. Luckily, we had a calm rest of the day and he did quite well. Since he ate his broccoli he asked, “Can I have more points for my baby?” He kept eating more and had 54610 points. He played with a couple clothes pins and clipped them onto his sock, along with a receipt, and wanted them on while we went for a walk
We left at 6:10. We ‘broke’ the elevator on our way so had to walk down the stairs. As we walked August told us how “Babies have all this unworking circuitry.” We walked to the park where he had all the anxiety about the (nonexistent) rain the other day. Beautiful blue skies now, but it had rained a little while we had been home. He was fine until we got to the park, then seemed to be having some flashbacks. When I assured him we’d be back among buildings on the other side of the park he was okay.
We walked down the steps to the street, looked at a Mini Cooper dealership, and walked to the northwest corner of the cemetery. There was a geocache there. We spent 5 minutes or so looking for it, and August found it attached to a metal pole. We also found a cool metal lid of some sort with holes in it as a treasure.
On our walk back we saw another hood open on a car and stopped to talk about it. We walked back to big grocery store. We went in to find a few things, like pasta and sauce. Carly had a stomach ache, so we hurried. August was doing a great job waiting, and at checkout reminded me he wanted to show me that the store next door had changed, he thought.
He took me outside and showed me that it was a pet store—he had remembered the little shop where he bought gum as being right next to the grocery store. It was one more door up though, and we went in there. We realized that Carly had his coins. I offered to trade him for the 20 cents I had in my pocket, but he wanted to wait for his own coins: “I’m more comfortable with that.” When Carly got it, he bought the candy that the guy had recommended. It was a taffy sort of thing, and also had a tattoo in it. August ate the candy, which then proceeded to last a long time, and had me put the fish tattoo on his hand.
We were back before 8. We finished our Polytopia game (which we had played on the hard level, expecting to lose, but had ended up winning). He had earned back some watching time and wanted to watch the movie NextGen. I was excited that Bikini Kill’s “Rebel Girl” started the movie.
He did a great job stopping in the middle when I told him he had seven minutes left. He stopped after just two, as it was a boring part. I told him he had found a good breaking point. I gave him a digestive, then we went in and I gave him a bath at 9. We got him ready for bed, and I left them sometime after 9:30.
Even bigger tires song:
You should really arrest us song:
Finding the geocache:
Buying a candy on his own:
