He woke up at 8:40. That was a get night of sleep for him. I had blown up the cube thing for his feet and put a pillow between him and the wall. He had one of the cushy neck pillows around his neck (we had stopped to buy a second one at the duty free shop right before our gate—I joked that Carly was getting into duty free shopping, and it would soon be perfume and liquor), and it stayed there most of the night. And a blanket on him.
Carly and I had each gotten 5 hours or so of sleep. I had watched some of Too Old to Die Young and listened to some music, and read a little ofThe Fifth Season. Sleeping was okay, although woke up with really sore knees at one point. When we had all fallen asleep the windows were left open, so a few hours later when I woke up there was just the hint of sun as we flew over some land. Got a really nice photo of that. Think it may have been Iceland. When August woke up he cuddled with the neck pillow for a bit. The cabin lights came on after a couple minutes. They brought out breakfast. We had a cheesy pancake thing and an omelette that he and I shared.
We played a lot of Polytopia (which is now on his iPad). He randomly asked, “What’s ‘three point plan of attack’ mean?” Our phrase of the day. It’s from Ben Braver. He sang about a calculator that only goes to 50. As we got close to New York we waved to Vivian and Colin, although they would be asleep. As we were preparing for landing we reminded August that we were transferring. He said, “I know. I’m used to it. I’ve been here before.” Total attitude.
He started a new Brother and Sister game, which would later turn into a full story: “Can you be Brother walking to school and you look up and you’re sad cuz you’re not on a plane?”
JFK was an experience. Immigration is kind of a mess, with workers shuffling you through lines that don’t make sense, and yelling at people to keep moving, etc. Someone messed up the lines too, so we ended up in one of the lines for people with Xs on their print out things. Took a long time, but we got through. Had me read “Please have documents completed” sign twice. Rechecked our bag, and took a train to the next terminal. A little nervous, as security was also really, really long. At one point they sent us back to get boarding passes from JetBlue (we were in Terminal 5, which, security aside, was quite a nice building), as ours were from El Al back in Tel Aviv (they said they would work, but the security people at JFK said we might get sent back). Luckily, we got them printed quickly, then were able to get back in line where we were sent out.
Once we got through though we still had plenty of time to stop and get some food. I wasn’t really hungry, so August got a waffle and french toast, and Carly got a salad. We shared a latte. We were at gate 17. It was changed to 12, across the aisle, but that was nice as we just sat where we were and it didn’t get too crowded.
When Carly went to get the latte he had me playing a Brother and Sister game, one where Brother’s trying to get them to abandon a beach walk before it really rains. He liked a moment from one we’d done before where the grandmother gets blown away, and the dad says she just went for a walk on her own. He repeated the line “She likes her power walks” from that and had me do it again.
On the plane we played Civilization Revolution for the first time. Maybe eventually a replacement for Polytopia. More complex, but it works actual history into the game, and focuses on winning through technological, cultural, and economic means, not just domination. He then watched Inspector Gadget, and we watched a Canadian animated film “Animal Behavior” from 2019 Oscar Nominated Short Films collection on the plane screen. I used the audio splitter so we could both listen. A little mature for him, but funny enough.
A little more Polytopia, then he was asking math division questions, like “How do you divide 900?” He’s been doing that recently, and we figure out what all the factors of the number. He also asked, “What’s coison ivy?” I’m not sure where he learned about poison ivy. When the drink cart he chose pineapple juice, with ice, and really liked it.
He then developed the Brother and Sister game from earlier into a full story: “Could you be Brother and Sister arguing over who gets the window seat? And you fuss so much your parents cancel summer?” They have to go to school instead, then Brother had to walk to summer school and looked up and saw a plane that may have been Millie’s, headed to South America. This happened year after year, and Millie was heading to different places.
We saw Chelan from the plane, the first time I think I’ve actually seen Chelan (although I remember passing over the Columbia River just to the south once). August wasn’t quite as impressed, but still liked it. I had bought strawberry gum, and he was chewing it around takeoffs and landings, although he’d often be done chewing it before we actually landed, and he swallowed it once.
As soon as they announced that we should prepare for landing August knew the drill, and unplugged the cord for the iPad. He asked me, “What’s Atlas?” When I explained it was a collection of maps, he said “No, the god.” We then talked about Greek and Roman gods, with him asking who was the god of war, water, etc.
Before we landed there was an announcement that it was the head flight attendant’s birthday today. I missed it, as I was packing stuff up as August and Carly headed off, but apparently August said it to her all on his own—we hadn’t talked about it at all—and she said it made her day.
We found Chuck, or he found us, at 12:20. August told him all about his superpowers as we waited for our suitcase. Chuck said that Thatcher and Kayla were excited to see him. August asked a few times,
“Why are they excited to see me?”
In the car he sat in the back with me, in the middle so he had the best view. He fell asleep though just after 1, but dragged himself awake when we got to the house and Kayla was there.
He managed to stay awake until about 8, though will power and adrenaline. He had a great time with Kayla. I took them up to the play area and they started playing. We went down to get some food. Cherie gave him an Eggo waffle. Back upstairs he and Kayla were doing battles with the big stuffed snake: “Let the epic battle begin.” He got the little Loog guitar, and was using it like Penny in Ben Braver (she has a ukulele) for his power. He had me and Kayla battling, and he would use the ukulele to stop her or me and say “I got you out of this mess.”
Carly went in to rest. Cherie went to pick up Thatcher. When he got home they all ended up outside after Thatcher and August were talking about taking things apart. They were both trying to sort of one up the other, with Thatcher saying he had taken two old laptops apart. He said he took things apart by throwing them on the ground, and we (with Cherie) ended up outside with Thatcher getting an old broken RC car that they stomped on, threw around, and hit with things. When not much else would break off, I suggested using actual tools. We determined it needed an allen wrench, and Cherie found a set and we determined the one that worked. They worked on it a bit more before losing interest.
They next ended up upstairs watching Magic School Bus Rides Again. They were quiet and still for awhile. August perched on the side of the rocking chair for while. When Cherie came in they stirred again. August wanted to go play again, but he was really tired. When Cherie told him to not touch the remote (he wanted to turn it off so they could all go play) he hit her. I had to take him in the bedroom with Carly. It took a few minutes before he calmed down enough to apologize to me, then I carried him down and he was able to say sorry to Cherie.
I went and took a shower, and Cherie had made dinner. We had broccoli, beans, and pasta for dinner, then they had drumstick ice creams, which they ate outside.
Andrea got home, and they all ended up outside. Thatcher was being a monster or something and chasing them. When that was getting over the top we got them all upstairs and building with blocks with Chuck.
Back downstairs they had cookies. Carly gave him a bath on his own—he was just too tired to want to take a bath with Thatcher and Kayla. He wasn’t fond of the water pressure in their bathtub, even though he was standing at the far end. Carly had to get water from the sink to rinse him instead.
I left them at 7:50. He was asleep by 8. I went to bed soon after that.
Touchdown and clapping at JFK:
7 times 7 rhyme:
Playing with Kayla:
The big spider:
Snake tug of war:
Thatcher joins in:
Breaking the RC car:
