He came down at 7:45. He rested on the couch for a few minutes, then watched Berenstain Bears. He re-watched the episode of Sister trying out for a soccer team. It’s a favorite of his, and he just watched it yesterday. There’s a moment where she almost gets hurt where he flips down the iPad and covers his ears. He did it yesterday as well.
For a field trip he rejected my outside options (Utopia Park, Hai Kef Zoo, Israeli Primate Sanctuary), and chose the natural history museum instead, as it was inside. He did the buying game, and was getting counting by twos. When he switched to counting by ones he called it “Changing gears counting.” He ate oatmeal and said, “Yum, oatmeal broth.”
He went to the bathroom. Today he made me cloth curtains that are screens and make it private inside. Talking about the circuit boards he invented “Kaiprochips” and “recovery chips” which fix glitches in the system. I had the song “stay” by Shakespear’s Sister playing and he started dancing to it. He was then running back and forth from the kitchen to the play area and asked, “Do you like how I run so smoothly in that curve?” “…how I kind of tilt?”
We got going, and left at 9:30. We listened to electronic music on Apple Music along the way and he added “Pull the Plug” by Joe Goddard to his playlist.
We got to the natural history museum and went in. Spent a few minutes walking up the ramp, looking at the animal displays, then went down to the insect area. We watched a video of a mosquito (and other animals) hatching several times. Another video showed close-up slo-mo videos of insects that spray chemicals at other animals. ‘Deterrent’ was a word of the day. We went back upstairs and through the first and second floors. We watched a video of decomposition of a dead mouse, and then after learning how humans use wheat, including in medicines, he told me that he had invented a medicine for animals and he listed all the ingredients and said you give it to sick animals if you see them. We also looked at the display of different kinds of dirty water (wastewater, raw sewage, industrial waste, etc.) and he talked about that through the day.
On the second floor we then found a collections room we hadn’t seen last time. ‘taxidermy’ was a word of the day from that. He had previously asked me how many animals I thought they had, dead or alive. I said 400 species. My estimate now went up to a thousand.
At 11:30 we took a break on some chairs. He took off his shoes and socks and played Dragonbox Big Numbers for awhile. Third floor was closed, so we took the elevator up to the fourth floor to the evolution of humans exhibit. We learned about the different species of hominids, their sizes, and brain sizes. He was particularly interested in a display of the bones of a woman who had been buried with a dog.
We headed out after that. We had checked in the gift shop, but no more of the guidebook things. I buckled him in the car. We had talked about this being better then school, and as we sat there he asked, “Why am I not going to school?” We talked about how he wasn’t liking things at school, and I assured him that it wasn’t his fault, that the school hadn’t been able to help enough. He talked about how he is doing better now.
We headed back north. All though the day he was reading the time off of his watch and comparing what it said to other clocks. He asked me to turn down the music and he played GarageBand on his iPad. As we got to Even Yehuda he talked about how I had taught him about landmarks in Greece, and he pointed out landmarks he knows here, like the school and the retirement home.
We drove up into town and parked in the dirt lot in town. I said we should stop and get pita. He told me, “First things first.” Pizza, that is. We walked to VIPizza. He had a slice of cheese and told me in advance he’d eat more than one. So we also got a slice of corn to share. As we were waiting he was surprised by the owner spraying down the outside area.
We ate, and were home by 2:10. He took apart the tripod, and then sang a “Be nice to dada, there’s no reason to annoy me” song after I had said something to that effect. We played the store game, and practiced pronouncing ‘thirty’ and ‘forty’. I was looking at what books to return to the library and we read part of The Big Bad Fox and thought it was funny so we kept it.
We then drove to school. Carly had loaded up the trunk with the printer parts to return to the bin. She returned them after school while I watched August.
August had a big long play date, mainly with Eve and Zoe, but also Taya. I watched Eve and Zoe while Heather was dealing with AP Art portfolios. I talked to Cassie about school stuff. When August was on the swing with Eve and Zoe and Candy he was adding up the ages of the people on the swing as they got on and off. When it was 17 and I asked him to include the person that was pushing he easily added 17+5 in his head and said 22.
We all moved to the big playground before 4. Cassie and Taya left after awhile. After awhile Eve wanted the snack her mom said she’d bring, so I reminded Heather and she came down with a box of granola bars. August was excited that she’d gotten the chocolate ones by mistake. She left for awhile longer, and they kept playing. The last thing was spinning the spinny thing and trying to swing by the hands. August wouldn’t do that, but was doing more hanging and jumping on other bars than he’s done before. Finally, they started breaking up the dry leaves and throwing them at the spinning person as confetti.
Heather showed up just before 5. August and I took a box full of items that was some kid’s time capsule project, but had been dumped in a corner, up to the elementary office and left it on the counter so it could find its way back to its owner. We then returned library books and headed home.
We were home at 5:15. As we came in the house Carly gave me a concerned look and asked if something was wrong. I was confused, because everything was fine. She said August had a grumpy face coming in the door. He had fooled her. Very funny. He ran to her, and she was giving him big hugs. He was then requesting “The second biggest hug ever…the millionth biggest…” He was hyper, and started chanting “I have energy I need to get out!” We went up and wrestled and added to the seal game. Downstairs Carly read some of the Fox book to him. He remembered the Vivofit Jr app on his iPad that goes with his watch and we did the game, catching up on the turns he has earned. He is excited about the chores and rewards part of the app and how you can track it on the watch, so Carly and I said we’d talk after he went to sleep and come up with lists.
He then helped me make more cheese sauce for the Greek pasta and broccoli. “There’s a noodle contest tomorrow at 5…for unique and taste…Here’s what you’ll be up against: Michael who has pretty good sauce, and Jennifer…” He was adapting the Berenstain Bears jumprope contest episode.
He ate two bowls for dinner. He and Carly then did the shopping game. I did dishes. She took him up for his bath and washed his hair. They were then doing all sorts of math. She was teaching him about decimals and halves and telling time.
I took over and we Skyped with my parents for awhile. He told them about his new tools, and we talked about summer plans. We read a little Dog Man, then turned out the lights. Our visualization was imagining a plane ride and looking out the window. He fell asleep right around 10.
Adding up the shekels:
Watching the dead mouse:
His animal medicine:
On the swing with friends:
