I was up nice and early, studying arabic and reading some Raymond Carver. I was then out on the couch typing when Claremay woke up. She brought me coffee on a tray while I was working, which was the nicest thing ever. Claremay and I talked; she told me about a Christian woman she knew who had spent 3 months in Hebron, helping escort Palestinian children to school and back. Cherie and Chuck showed up about 8 and Carly was up. August got up at 8:12.
There was an egg and potato dish and fruit and other things for breakfast. August was focusing on his muscles. I took a shower, and then August spent some time downstairs with Chuck as he was watching golf. He showed August the poker chips and August found the robot. As I continued to work in the living room, he started a long game of controlling Cherie as a robot. It was really making him work on ‘left’ and ‘right’ as he told her which way to go. Carly then took her place, and he was controlling her outside. He kept coming and saying it was my turn, but then he would get distracted and I never was the robot. While he was controlling them he would give them upgrades so they would have more abilities and be able to follow more commands. He had a plastic baseball bat that he used for the upgrades: “This is my level upgrade bat.”
Cherie went with us and I drove us up to the outlets. We stopped at Carter’s and got socks and underwear for August. He played hide and seek with us through the store. We then went over to Eddie Bauer and Crly looked for a new sweatshirt, but no luck. We went to the motor home and hung out there for awhile. August was now the robot, and was getting hyper. More working on left and right, with his watch a reminder for ‘right’ and the bracelet for ‘left’. Later, he would take off the bracelet: “Besides, if this (the watch) is right, then this must be left.” He also had fun using the buttons to put the steps of the motor home up and down.
We left there at 1:30 and headed back to Claremay’s. There, Cherie asked if he wanted to play the tablet game in the living room. August didn’t understand her, but got the gist of it: To Cherie “I have no idea what you’re saying, but okay.” For lunch we had ribs and corn and salad a baked pineapple. And spanish rice. It was another feast. August didn’t eat much, but wanted to play with the robot instead. He cooperated though when we asked him to play with it outside. He also was saying “Banana cream pie paradox,” which is from a Captain Underpants book.
He has been fascinated with the swinging fishing sculpture that Chuck had bought in Germany and played with it several times. He was starting to get hyper, and as we got ready to leave was saying things like “A bat with five wings: a pentabat…a decarat: a rat with ten legs.” As we walked out to the car he sang “I really am careful now about the slivers…I walk on the bricks…I’m going to replace the ground with steel.” We left at 3:30.
August watched several episodes of Craig of the Creek. After each he would check how much time was left on our drive and marvel at how time was passing quickly (it was 11 minutes for each episode). We stopped at REI at 5:10. Carly headed ahead to look for a sweatshirt, and I took him to look for a hat for him. He cooperated well enough, and he ended up with a pink/purple waterproof sun hat. The blue version was out when he realized it had a truck on the front of it. He saw the play area, which looks like a tree, and said “That’s the first tree planted on a rug.” He wanted to watch me play in it, but had no desire to do so himself.
He said he was hungry, and we went and found Carly. We then headed downstairs to look for a snack, but not before he ran back and forth on the bridge part a few times. Downstairs he then did some climbing on the fake rocks. In the snack area he first wanted the gummy candy things, but when I pointed out a cookie and cream protein bar he went for that. Carly suggested I buy stuff while she took him up to the bathroom. At first he opposed it, wanting to eat right away, but then agreed to the plan.
Met up with them outside, and he started eating it. In the car he complained about it leaving chocolate on his hands and said he hadn’t liked it. Used a wet wipe on his hands, and I think he admitted it was actually delicious.
He watched one Craig of the Creek. I explained what ‘sufficient’ meant, so that was a word of the day. We got to the house before 6:30. They were gone visiting Andrea’s family for the 4th. We looked at some artwork in the kitchen. August asked “Why do they have them up? Maybe to encourage Kayla to eat carrots, bananas, asparagus, and cucumbers.” We then looked at some robot drawing pictures and he figured out which were from Thatcher and which were from Kayla.
Carly went to the store and he and I read the first 12 chapters of The 39-Story Treehouse. Carly got back and we baked a frozen Hawaiian pizza. He then watched one Craig of the Creek (the tag one). He got a little upset about having to get ready for bed after that, but did okay. We brushed his teeth, and I read the last chapter of the Treehouse book. I left them at 9:40. Don’t think it took too long for him to fall asleep.
Controlling Oma like a robot:https://youtu.be/Ydg9VN2TlXg
Calculator math with Oma:https://youtu.be/3TxmlOzWG0s
Him being a robot:https://youtu.be/ly86KhA4D04
