Monday, May 6: waiting for the technician and swimming at school

He was up at 7:05. We read Plants Versus Zombies. We read a few pages of that, then he changed his mind again and wanted to watch Wild Kratts. He watched the musk ox episode, then went to the bathroom. He talked about doing his chores and seeing coins and saving them, even if he didn’t know what specifically he wanted.

He wanted to make the beds. We went up and did that. While we did that he asked, “Do you like head butting?” He was thinking of the oxen. Back downstairs he remembered that new train iPad game and played it. We played a little Toca Store, then we were playing the store game with all of his different coins. He had oatmeal and mango for breakfast and we read more of Hilo #5. He asked for seconds. He told me about a “Bullet bug…it runs so fast it’s blind…at least as fast as a car…it can run for a half hour…”

For an activity we started to watch a video about egg drop strategies and ‘kinetic energy’ was a word of the day. To start our egg drop, August listed out all the rules (the video had mentioned that different competitions have different rules). He clearly laid them out, and I wrote them down, including no parachutes, the contraption could only weigh as much as an egg (he got the scale and measured), and listed what materials could be used. We then worked on our first egg drop idea: an egg in a plastic bag with popcorn. Which is a great idea. However, he was stingy on the popcorn as he wanted to eat as much if it as possible. He dropped the egg from the chair onto the patio and it cracked. Back inside, instead of working on a second one, he wanted to eat popcorn. So we ate popcorn and read Plants Versus Zombies. ‘Artifact’ was another word of the day. We finished Timepocalypse and he wanted to start it again. We read some of it, then he changed his mind and wanted the other one.

August then read the Bob Book The Sled to me, quite easily. We went outside to check out the wind. Shmuel called, and said the technician could come today. There was lots more discussion of coins. We talked about going up to get more styrofoam from the junk area when he decided it would be good for the egg drop. He got distracted with his top toy from McDonald’s when he realized it had three-sided screws and we could take it apart with our new tool set. “I’m a genius, right? I figured out that thingie is in there…” The screws came out, but it was still glued together. So we took it outside and took a hammer to it. I was able to crack apart the pieces at the seam so we could put it back together. We found the gyroscope inside and played with it. Put the toy back together, but it wasn’t quite as good as it was loose. Still, a start of putting things back together.

He had noodles and broccoli for lunch, then we went upstairs to move the beds. We played Math Tango on the bed. I tried to get him to change his clothes, but he decided to dress as Captain Underpants. He had his pajama shirt around his neck as his cape, then wanted another pajama shirt for his pants. He then used his cheap telescope (from Korea) to look out the window in his room. We went outside to get his better one, and the technician called and said he would be here in ten minutes. Inside, we started to change August, but first he danced naked to “Dont Hold Back”.

Got him dressed, and the technician showed up. We went upstairs and August watched him. He recognized that one of the tools was a multimeter. When I pointed out the AC didn’t even do anything when I pressed the button on the unit, the guy asked “Why?” I wanted to say, “That’s why you’re here, buddy” but held my tongue. He looked at it for awhile, then said he’d have to come back another day with a circuit board for it. At least it was a start.

Downstairs, August wanted to take apart his music box. We realized we could take it apart to see how it works, then likely put it back together. We were totally successful on this one, so we saw how a screw rod turns the gear to turn it, and when we put it back together we realized we had to adjust the notes piece to be the perfect length away from the cylinder so that the notes play. His last taking apart experiment couldn’t be put back together: He wanted to cut open his squishy thing to see if it had a liquid in it. He was pretty sure it didn’t. So I let him cut it open and he was surprised to find it was just air. He then used the parts of it to shoot them across the room like rubber bands. I took a slo-mo video.

We then decided to exercise at home. He joined me a little, although mainly by climbing on my back to make things harder. Upstairs, we read Creepy Pair of Underwear again and decided to hold on to it since he likes it so much.

We then drove to school. I also took our swim stuff, as it was supposed to be hot today (the forecast said up to 35 at one point). That turned out to be good, as Andrea said she knew nothing about August being in the class, even though I had filled out the registration form a week ago. And of course Vicky is out of town this week. August was totally fine with it though. He wrote on the white board (they had been watching the baby owl cam) with Candy, then wanted to go swimming.

We went and changed and went to the pool. August was concerned that it might rain, but he went in anyway. It was quite cloudy and windy. It may have been in the high-20s, but no where close to being what was forecast. With a heated pool though it was just fine. In the pool he was steering me like a boat, so I started to teach him port and starboard, bow and stern. He got out of the pool first, and stood there, looking at the water dripping from him: “My faucets are really good today.” That’s what he always calls the dripping water. I was impressed, as he stood there, no problem, despite the wind. I was chilly when I got out. We were out at 4.

Carly had a meeting until 4:30, so we headed home. He asked, “What’s ‘crossing the line’ mean?” Not sure where he picked that one up. We made a smoothie, then did egg drop #2. We walked up to the junk area and got a small piece of styrofoam (someone had dumped a big pile of it, and now pieces were blown all over the street). We made it into a box, with the egg wrapped in some packaging material inside. We glued it together with hot glue, then taped the lid on. He dropped this one from the top of the slide. I really thought this one worked, but it was also cracker.

Carly got home. He wanted to make a soup with the raw egg. That started inside but we had him move outside. He was hyper, so I wrestled with him. We ate dinner, and he told Carly, “Are there any dishes to do? I’d be happy to help.” They ended up playing with Duplos and making a big base for a tower. I took over, and Carly headed for a late doctor appointment. He and I kept doing Duplos, making it touch the ceiling.

He was sad when Carly left, so we had hot chocolate. We then went upstairs, with the lights off, so he could be scared. On the bed he started a dance contest, like in Plants Versus Zombies, and had the prize be the shekels we have in a drawer up there. He had a lollipop while I washed his hair. Carly got home at 8:25.

We discussed his “photamiles”—a very big unit of distance: “a peregrine falcon can go a septillionth of a photamile an hour.” His galaxy is 27 photamiles around. He remembered Carly’s adding reminder: “I ate and I ate and I got sixteen!” I read Creepy Pair of Underwear He voluntarily read a few lines of it. He also talked about a huge satellite that he has that studies the universe. He described new frequencies of light that it could detect. Carly came in, and I left them about 9:30.

Drawing an eggman: