He woke up from a bad dream at 6:20. He requested Carly so I went and got her. I then started trying to wake him up just after 8. He was really tired though and finally got up just before 8:30.
He started watching Berenstain Bears, the Slumber Party and Homework Trouble episode. I got him mango and he then needed to use the bathroom. He asked, “Did you know my laser sabers on my wall run on nuclear power?” “From movies.” I think he meant light sabers. He then asked about nuclear power and we discussed it again. He went back to his show and I exercised.
We then ate breakfast together and he watched the Case of the Gimmies episode. He was hungry and had thirds on oatmeal. We went upstairs for a Brother game. The front wheels fell of his metal John Deere tractor. We found the piece that came out, and I was able to mostly fix it, although it might need some more work. I was looking for another spray bottle for him, but couldn’t find it. Instead, he found the air blowers for cleaning camera lenses, and said “I’m shooting spy bullets to spy on Sister.”
He reluctantly told me about the bad dream that had woken him up. He said there was some toy that I wouldn’t get him and it made him upset. He wasn’t sure what the toy was, or didn’t know if it was real. Seems like he didn’t remember it well, just that it was a toy he really wanted. It was the first time he’s ever told me about one of his dreams.
Back to the Brother games. There was a new girl who shoots of the tips of her fingers and they fly around. They shot red out of them instead of smoke because it was blood. He used the fingers to spy. Shmuel called and I talked to him for a few minutes. He asked about the noise. I asked him what he was doing. He said they were adding space, like for a separate bedroom or something, but it was really vague on how. He did say he’d show us how sometime.
After that, August and I went down there to take a look, as I saw that the gate was open. It turned out that Shmuel had left his keys in the gate. I called and told him, and left them someplace he could get them. We didn’t look much, as August was nervous about going in the yard.
August and I discussed power surges when he was asking about the circuit box. He made an analogy to a dam breaking. I think he got that from Smurfs. We went upstairs for a bit for the Brother and Bar game. They were sending out the spy bullets and steering them around. I was spying on people in the neighborhood and we found people breaking into a house, then used his other inventions to stop them until the police could get there. We also stole cookies or chocolate from mom after she had stolen it from Sister.
We went back downstairs and played Blue Apprentice together, learning about different kinds of fire and what feeds or puts them out, and why. August asked “What’s interstellar spaceship?” We discussed ‘interstellar’ versus ‘intergalactic’. He didn’t like how the game doesn’t let you just explore, and decided that for his next iPad game he wants one that just lets you fly around space.
I reminded him of his chores system, and we went up and he made the beds. He then joked around with his clothes, half putting them on, and talking about the pee and poop recycling systems in them. We got him dressed in his new whale shirt. We looked for the titanium ring but couldn’t find it. He got his comb instead, saying it could accomplish much the same things. He remembered the fan we bought. We got it from the bag and took it up and plugged it in. He was excited to find it also had lights on it.
He wanted to play with credit cards. I let him use my wallet, and he also got the bus passes, etc. from the drawer. He played with them and sang a “there’s 14 credit cards” song. He wanted something to scan the cards. We went downstairs to get the fralshlight that slides out, making a bar. When I pulled it out the camp came off and a wire broke. We were looking for something else that would work for him, but he didn’t like the options. He had very specific requirements for what would work. I ended up making a paper straw at his request, rolling up half a piece of paper tightly and taping it all up, after he requested a cylinder to do the job.
He had fun flipping it in the air and we did slo-mos. We went upstairs for more Brother game – making cakes and treate and having a treats party with Sister. I figured out the battery in the fan wasn’t charging because there was a plastic piece in the way of the battery. Now it’s working. August asked “What’s a rodent?” I explained, and he added “Chipmunks?”
We went downstairs for some lunch, and he had some juice and crackers and pate. He got going and told me all about how something launching off a hill starts to go off the curvature of the earth. Of course, he had something that went farther and farther until he was going into orbit.
Upstairs, as I explained we needed to get going soon, he explained that he had thought that I had meant we were going to Maya and Ben’s house when it was dark, and told me his whole interpretation of “in the afternoon” versus “after noon”. He was wrong, but he was pretty convincing. The fan was partially charged now. We did a little of the Brother and Baby Sister game, where the dad does crazy math as he grounds Brother and Sister for arguing.
We then went downstairs and he read The Old Truck and The Jet, two Bob Books he knows well to get him back into the idea of reading. He read all the words, and added in his own words and ideas to make it better, he said.
Finally, he played with the big broken lock that he’d found near Max yesterday and we left by 3:40.
We parked on the street and went up to their apartment on the 11th floor, down near the Poleg Mall. We stayed a little over and hour and a half, getting there just after 4. They started with popsicles, and August got a bag full of tiny popsicles. He had a couple of those, then they got to playing. Looked around at the trucks and stuff, then Maya took him into her room. They came out with a penguin game. It was a tangram sort of puzzle thing. August helped a bit, but it was mainly me and Maya. When she walked away though he wanted to do one. We had to really convince Maya to not take control and take the pieces from him. It was similar to puzzles we’d done together back at the children’s museum in Seoul, but also right in his tough area of moving pieces in a 3D space. Anyway, he seemed pretty happy with finishing one of them. Might need to get him something like it.
They then played with the food. Maya was making the food, and August was delivering it to me. I also got a dog and supplies and a baby and a bottle for eating at the restaurant. August came and ‘stole’ my cookie by chomping at it. Ben picked up on this and started jumping on me.
Maya got out chess (“chest” as she called it) and played me. August helped us both. He was pretty engaged for a while, discussing the rules. He then was distracted by the balance board thing that Ben had been doing (they had also been going up and down a little plastic slide thing) and could do that quite well. He said he might be ready for a skateboard in a year. He then found a big bouncy ball that lit up when you hit it on things.
We only had one knocking-over-the-pieces incident, but then Ben came out and took over the bouncy ball. He knocked over pieces a couple times, then started trying to hit them on purpose. When Sharna told him not to do it again and he did he got taken to his room and had a meltdown. By this time I had played Maya to a draw, and it was getting close to time to leave, anyway.
August used the bathroom, then had the idea of going to say something nice to Ben to help him feel better. He went back to where he was with his dad and told him happy birthday (as we had found out today was his actual birthday) and goodbye.
On our way out we walked out the opposite side of the building. August found two little platforms to stand on, balancing, and asked me to take a photo, and a video of him flying. He was hungry, so we got out Ikea fruit snacks.
On the way home we listened to the “Electrostatic” song he had requested we listen to again. He then talked about having a secret for me when we got home, but I wasn’t supposed to guess, because I might guess it. I asked if I could guess impossible things, and he said no, as he had his lab: “Besides, I have a one time feather in my lab.”
We were home at 6:05. He also said he likes his white sunglasses the best because they’re his robot sunglasses that he made in his lab.
Carly said she liked his shirt “Dont like it. I don’t want you to like my shirt. Say it’s stinky.”
She as cooking tofu and broccoli and rice. August put things over the rice cooker: “Isn’t it cool how I catched-ed condensation?” Carly said he should say it again on a video as it was so cute. He kept saying it, but not when I would take a video.
Carly said his meal was very balanced. And I agreed, saying “It won’t tip over the plate.” She didn’t get it, but August said “Ha, I get it. Balanced, balanced.”
He got hyper with Carly after eating a little (well, the broccoli and a little rice and mango). I reminded him what I said he could say, and he said “Could you wrestle with me? I’d really appreciate it.” She agreed, but let out a big sigh. He then said “I really appreciate your whining.”
They went upstairs for a few minutes and then came back down. He was still hungry, and finally ate two of the lightly cooked tofu pieces. But he said he wanted raw instead. I cut some up for him. He started eating one piece, then had me smell it, as he thought it smelled lemony. He decided he didn’t want to eat that specific piece though as he thought I had breathed on it. He started nibbling on a second piece, but was walking around and choked on it.
He got a piece stuck in his throat. He handled it well, but was done with eating raw tofu, having only nibbled on two of the pieces. He also wouldn’t eat the mango that was still on his plate, as it had been out too long, he said. When the tofu was still stuck in his throat I suggested a few things, including gargling. He really liked that, and figured it out pretty quickly, and was doing it the rest of the evening:”Okay, but I like gurgling now.”
Carly had taken a shower, and now I went up to work and worked until 9. He was finishing mango ice cream when I came down.
I took him up and gave him a quick bath. He was washing himself, but I sped up the process, which inspired him to sing a “How dare you” song as I washed shin. He sang about lots of things, and included a line about killing. When I objected to that he changed it to negative killing, and kept singing “negative kill them means not killing them, in a mathematical way…”
I brushed his teeth, and as I said good night he said “I love you and you. And I love myself. I love everybody. Well, except for criminals. I HATE bad people…Here’s how I catch criminals…a long tube and I suck them into a cage in my lab…” Before the catching the criminals part I suggested that you could even love people who do bad things and it would help them not do bad things. Perhaps too much for a 5-year old. But he sat silently for a while before talking about how he catches them. I left them just after 9:30.
He had tons of energy though. They called me in as he was worried about getting possible gifts for Vivian and Colin but him not getting anything. We talked about that for a minute, then, as Carly needed to sleep, he came into the bathroom while I took a shower and got ready for bed.
He got upset when he was first joking about peeing in a cardboard piece, but then wanted to do an experiment to see how much water it could hold and whether it would soak through. I initially said no, as we don’t do experiments at 10. He was grumpy and told Carly he didn’t want to sleep with me. He was doing a great job of talking about it though, and said it would only take a couple seconds. I said I was listening now, and let him go back in and do his experiment. He was very happy about it, and now got up on the bed with me.
All of our talk about pee made Carly need to get up and go, which he thought was really funny. We did some more whispering, then he calmed down. He pressed right up against my back and fell asleep at 10:30.
The pink fan:
“So brother…”:
Straw slo-mo 1:
Straw spitting slo-mo:
Straw spinning slo-mo 1:
Straw spinning slo-mo 2:
Launching off a hill:
Reading The Old Truck:
Chess with Maya:
Flying in his robot sunglasses:
Catching steam:
Gargling:
