He was up at 7:25. We came down and I read to him about Pulsars. He processed that and said “Did you know I made something called the Pulsar for exploring space?” It looked like a round satellite he had seen, with steel poles poking out of it: “it’s spinning really fast to make a tornado to suck information into it.” We then a read a little about flying, and he learned about da Vinci’s ornithopter. August made clip-on wings: “they’re Tel Aviv sized wings…kick board light…they’re like amazing.” He compared them to flippers in a pool. “And they’re extendable. They can shrink to an inch long for packing…way better than Leonardo da Vinci.” And “one time I discovered there’s space birds circling around th Galaxy. And I had to study the wings. For some reason they just circle around the galaxy.” They have laser eyes that “can zap you to bits.”
We went over and did Legos. He told me “What’s the first thing you’re going to invent? Make a model of it out of Legos.” I made a little helicopter thing that I said was for studying the tops of rain forests.
We played Minecraft, then had oatmeal for breakfast. He wanted me to read a book about the Palestinian about the village of Bi’lin. I talked about it a little, but he got distracted by other things, and asked “What does it feel like to not exist?” He then wanted me to do the Brother and Sister story, the first one about the shirt/blanket. We added to it now, as the blanket was now for Baby Sister when she was born, and Brother wasn’t happy about having a baby.
That then turned into their competition over the baby and to Sister taking care of baby and not paying attention to Veother. Then fat forwarded to Baby Sister feeling the same for Baby Brother.
August sang a “We should use the juicer” song. “That was kind of a remix…I used the song from the man with yellow hat, the intro.” He meant Curious George. But then bad news when we went to try the juicer—it is some different plug we’ve never seen before. So Jeff must have brought it from wherever he lived before. That was disappointing.
August then did alone time and I exercised. He played with Legos, adding to my research vehicle and working on a lab for the scientist. He needed five more minutes to get to 30 and went and did that. As he worked on it he sang a hilarious song:
“The perfect way to study ducks
The perfect way to study ducks
Is to wait until they’re dead” I got the rest on video, about then studying their brains and electricity and taking their muscles out or something.
We then looked at our agenda for the day. August has decided he doesn’t like the word ‘agenda’ (much like he despises the word ‘cubby’) so he wants me to write “things we are going to do today” today. We then did a half hour of Minecraft.
He ate his lemon yogurt and custard custard that he had picked out at the store the other day. ‘Custard’ was a new word to him, and a new taste. Another short Brother and Sister game. He had Sister give brother a present that was actually a pile of poop. He then said it was a poop speaker, and the joke was that it said “poop poop poop poop.”
We started volume 13 of My Little Pony. We then started getting things done. He cleaned the toilets, then I was stripping the epoxy from the strip that was put in to keep water in the shower. He made a potion to add to the cleaner: “put a tiny bit of it on, cuz that’s explosive stuff!” He also helped me with the scraping.
From there we made the beds, then went down for his reading time. He had talked about doing rhymes, and made a rhyme on his own “Knock on the door…break the core” then we wrote a second rhyming poem together. He made me promise to only share it with mama.
He was hungry, and had crackers and meat and plums. We got going and made it to the pool at 3:15. He was disappointed there was no one at the pool. He said he needed kids there, even if he didn’t know them. But he got in anyway, and was really working on his swimming. He didn’t put his vest on at first and played on the steps, really working on his swimming. He would jump from one side of the steps to the other side, sort of swimming. He was also putting one ear in the water at a time. I mentioned having a swimming teacher and he said that wasn’t necessary, because I could teach him. But then I pointed out that he wasn’t actually doing things that I suggested. He then told me that he wanted to hear me talk, but he wasn’t going to do what I said.
I noticed a little whirlpool in the water, but then was trying to figure out how to make them intentionally. Harder that I thought, but I finally figured it out, right before Carly got there.
August wanted me to say tongue twisters, then asked me to make one up. I came up with:
Pinkie Pie popped a pack of popcorn for a party
Did Pinkie Pie pop a pack of popcorn for a party?
If Pinkie Pie popped a pack of popcorn for a party
Where’s the popped pack of popcorn that pinkie pie popped?
I started to get out, and August wanted out right away. I said I’d wanted to sit and practice Hebrew, and he told me I could do that. He kept playing in the pool for a while, playing with a dive ring and his snorkel.
He needed to go to the bathroom so I took him. Then as we picked up he saw ants on a dead bug. He asked “What would it feel like to be that bug getting attacked by the ants?”
We left at 4:40. He started at some kids doing a drama rehearsal on the grass, then shook hands with the security guard on the way out. He talked again about wanting to write with a bottle of ink.
At home he told me “When my teacher told me to do this (rubs hands together and puts them on his cheeks) I didn’t do it.” I don’t know what that was about. Carly cut up fresh mango and he ate some.
Somehow we got on a conversation about things that don’t exist, and Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny we’re mentioned. Then August brought up God. He got in a debate with Carly about it, and when she asked about what caused the Big Bang, etc. he said “Scientists just haven’t figured those out yet…I can tell you for sure why God doesn’t exist: if God existed, what made god?” “Do you believe in God?”
That went on for a good amount of time. He then told me about “A mysterious box…on the moon…and no body knows what’s in it.”
He then asked “What’s mayhem…I don’t want you to ever say that word. I don’t like ‘mayhem’…I like chaos.” ‘Mayhem’ was a word of the day, And ‘mayhem’ joins ‘cubby’ and ‘agenda’ as words he doesn’t like.
He ate meatballs, green beans, and rice for dinner. I went up to work. They played Minecraft, and I came down after an hour at 8
They were reading the news, about Loch Ness and eDNA. We read My Little Pony and finished 13. Carly liked our work on the shower. August had Cheerios with milk, and had me look up where to mine diamonds in Minecraft.
I took him up for his bath. He told me “I have teargas in my lab.” That was from one of the news stories they read. Carly took over and brushed his teeth. I left them by 9:20. A lot of laughter coming from the room for a while, then I went for a run.
His huge invented wings:
How to study a duck song:
Rhyme time:
Math in the pool:
