He was up at 8:05. He’s comfortable in the house now, as the door was closed and instead of yelling or anything he just came out and started looking for us. Didn’t take long, as I was sitting on the couch. I picked him up, and he asked for mama. We we around and found her on the back porch. He melted to the floor and lay on the rug, then cuddled with her in the corner chair by the sliding door. About the first thing he said was that “9 plus 9 on My Planet is 406.092.” Or some number like that. He said one of his multiplication rhymes that doesn’t actually work, then we made up ‘Six by six, picking up sticks. Counted them up there were 36.’ And ‘Five by five, going for a drive, speeding along at 25.’
Carly talked about how she was leaving soon, and we talked about Amazon packages and ordering things. That led to a discussion of new Crocs for him and whether we were going to shop for them or order them. August said “They have to be pink.” He had cereal for breakfast.
He played with Colin, and intentionally got him playing with trucks so that he would leave Cassie alone. He was impatient for Vivian to come down and asked about her a couple times. Colin got upset when August was playing with a Paw Patrol vehicle. August eventually gave it to him. Vivian was down after 9:30.
When the phone rang he really wanted to talk on the phone, even though it was probably a telemarketer.
Cassie made French toast for her kids, but August said he was full. But he changed his mind after they were eating and he had a slice. Carly headed to Walmart for an eye doctor appointment and to do some shopping. The kids got on the iPad. Vivian wanted to play Polytopia, but I got her to switch to GroGarden. They did some Minecraft after that. Colin was tracing letters on his. The curvy ones are quite difficult for him, so I was helping him. He was very persistent about it though.
August wants new worlds for Minecraft. We looked for free ones. Eventually I figured out how to install them. He was out of time for today, but I installed a couple things. Vivian went and made muffins. She didn’t want to follow a recipe and made it up herself. They looked quite nice, a lovely pink, and after Carly got back about 12:40 the kids all tried them. They were disappointed though, as she had used too much baking soda. August really liked the chocolate chips in them though. Oddly, they had also eaten the leftover batter, and seemed fine with that. As Cassie was scooping it up August was going on and on about how you could use math to do it. Cassie said “Here you go” and he said “Okay!” and took the cup.
I told him about the “Bitter butter” tongue twister and he instead made up a TIME twister and had to tell everyone about it (at least me, Vivian, and Carly): “I made a time twister…it can tie a portion of time in a knot…”
We got going to Stroudsburg. I drove separately. Colin had a class at his school. So we went there first. We were early, about 2, and it was at 2:15. We looked at art in the hallway. Cassie wasn’t sure if we were supposed to wander around and so was talking about breaking rules. August said “What do you mean? I wouldn’t get in trouble. I’m not even from this country.”
We dropped Colin off, then Carly snuck back in with August so he could use a bathroom. We went across to the playground. The kids played for a few minutes, doing some climbing. But Vivian fell a couple times. And they played off of each other, trying to get slurpees. First, Vivian told August all about them, then said to Cassie “August really wants to go get slurpees.” A couple minutes later August asked Carly if he could get a slurpee like Vivian was doing, even though no one had agreed to anything. They are getting sneaky.
We walked the block to the Wawa and got slurpees. I got a coffee, much to the amusement of the sisters. We went back to the school and sat in the gazebo. Colin came out from his class and joined us. Vivian had made him a slurpee. Then it started to rain. Hard for a couple minutes. August had been a little worried about the rain before it began, but now, as it slowed a little, he suddenly ran out into it. He did it several times, with Vivian joining him. It was like the moment he suddenly decided we could recycle the stroller. When he saw some people walking with umbrellas he yelled “How dare you use umbrellas! It’s so nice out here!…Maybe they’re walking a long distance.”
Cassie and Carly were wondering how the main entrance ended up being on this odd corner of the building. I walked around and figured it out, I think, as parking had probably switched sides when they built a high school on the other side.
They finished their slurpees, as much as they wanted, and August and Vivian wandered around a bit. We then got going, and got to downtown, meter parking, and got to the photo place for Vivian’s passport photo by 3:40.
The other kids watched. Colin got upset when he didn’t get a turn, so Carly took pictures of him, making funny faces, then Vivian and August joined him. Before we left they each got a honey stick. It was looking like a very treat-heavy day.
We headed home, back by 4:10. They played in the garage. August tried out the balance bike. He gave Cassie an old man “Okaaay” when she suggested it. He mainly liked the bell though and told me as much. I went inside for a minute, then came back out and August was trying out the bicycle with training wheels. He worked on that for several minutes, and I helped a bit. He rode over to the door of the gun room and stood on a stool to play with the combination lock. He was pretty interested in that.
They went inside and Vivian and August played with toothpicks. They wanted to poke them in Vivian’s yoga mat, and Cassie suggested play dough instead. They got tht out and played with that for quite a bit. I spun a coin with Colin and tried to teach him how to do it.
Vivian and August brought up the question ‘What is nuclear?’ I talked a little about atoms, then found some videos. We watched the 3 Kurzgesagt videos on nuclear power (starting withhttps://youtu.be/rcOFV4y5z8c
), then I told Colin I’d find one about cars, so we watched the Lego video about how cars work (https://youtu.be/Fe-XOXul-7M).
We ate a delicious curry that Cassie made for dinner. Carly and Vivian went outside.
August, Colin, and I played with play dough. I showed August how to use the play dough press to make different shapes. More flood warnings came though on our phones due to the rain.
They had banana splits again, this time also with peaches and raspberries. When Cassie saw that Vivian had a dirty face she asked to wash it. When Vivian protested, August actually asked Cassie to wash his. Which was as shocking as him running in the rain.
They all played well in it for quite awhile, until Colin and Vivian had a disagreement over some object. Yelling ensued and we all rushed to the fort. Cassie took him upstairs.
Carly did the Evil Wizard game with them while I did some work. The dishwasher was leaking. Jeff and Cassie were working on it. The kids were interested, and we got them out for awhile, then they did baths. More tea game.
When August was out of his bth he went and discussed the dishwasher with Jeff. He was sharing his ides for why it might be leaking. A lot of thinking going on. He ate some apple and Cheerios with soy milk.
I reminded him of his sidewalk sealant song, and he sang a “Water system sealant” version. He also recommended a titanium alloy. I looked up what metals are mixed in titanium alloys. August told me that in his lab he takes apart dishwashers by drilling into them. He liked that idea and ran off to tell Carly: “Mama! Here’s how I take apart washing machines.”
We went in and did some Brother stories that started with him drilling into washing machines. He snuck upstairs when Carly carried Colin up and got a little frustrated again about having to go back down to go to bed.
He was in bed at 10, then of course wanted his water bottle. He told me “I made a dessert that is so strong that each bite has to be one particle or less.” He wanted a story and I told him about my Disneyland trip in high school. I told him I liked how he had been troubleshooting with Jeff. He asked what ‘troubleshooting’ meant so we discussed that. I sang a couple songs and he was asleep at 10:35.
Rocket slo-mo:
Yummy muffin batter:
Photo time:
Running in the rain:
Playing in the garage:
More rain:
