He got up right at 7:45 again today. I read the start of Neil Patrick Harris’s The Magic Misfits (on sale for 2 dollars) and he liked it enough to buy it and keep reading. We read several more pages, then he wanted Minecraft. Con was a word of the day. He played in his creative world. He asked me to join him. He was digging a huge hole with dynamite to get to the bottom of the world. We dug all the way through, down to the void area below. I then made breakfast. He walked around telling me about dragons and other things in Minecraft. He had oatmeal and mango, then some of my pizza.
We discussed and wrote out our plans for the day (later he would remind me that there were several things on our list that we didn’t do) and started with the video that Cherie sent about neutron stars colliding. He then wanted to watch other news, and we watched a couple of stories about the flooding in Texas and the hurricane on the coast, and ended with an article about deadly animals: https://apple.news/AvdaD1cB-Q6apSomdQJt8EQ. This led to a Brother game where he finds a baby golden dart frog and almost dies, then another jungle one where Millie was being a tiger to eat jungle animals, then one where they were back at school and Millie was an ant so Brother kept drawing attention for talking to himself.
I had hugged him on the couch to make him stop saying something like poop but then he kept doing it. I said if he wanted a hug he could say that. He said, “Can you do more hugging.” “Dada, hug.” For alone time he worked on a Lego car. I vacuumed the AC filters and started laundry. He came up and did a potion in the sink. I exercised. August said, “Mama doesn’t like going on the hike, but I think it’s good because then she gets exercise for the next year when she does the how.”
We went back downstairs to use his 15 minutes, but then he reminded me that he had already gotten extra time in the morning and he was supposed to earn it back. So he earned his second 15 by making a straw pecking hat out of the straws. I watered the plants. For his next 15 in Minecraft he was gliding with the elytra.
He asked, “Back when there were cavemen…electronic-y stuff…How did they invent it if they didn’t have the material?” We talked about how inventions built on one another, and also how the sharing of scientific information intensified with the printing press. “I invented a faster way to get water…I invented a water bottle…I invented an iron water bottle.”
He ate pizza for lunch, then we got going. We drove down to the big Tiv Taam. As we walked in, a car drove past, and the two people in it saw my shirt (the one from Glecy) and shouted, “Seattle!” We spent an hour in the store. We got chocolate chip cookie stuff and things for sandwiches for dinner. He chose a Russian candy treat, and also said there was something he wanted to get for Mama. He led me to these little containers of cheese in oil and herbs. He had apparently seen them a couple trips before and thought she would like it. He said he couldn’t get it the last time we went to the store because we went to the little Tiv Taam. He was the one that chose the big one today; not sure if it was specifically so we could get that for her.
We then drove up to Bet Yehoshua. Carly wanted to try the meat from the smoked meat guy. I stopped by the little store by the park area. Didn’t see him. There was a nice little coffee stand though, with a nice seating area. So August got a strawberry popsicle and I got a small cappuccino and we sat and read a bit more of the book from the morning. I had asked about the meat guy and was directed up and around the corner.
We drove up there and found it. August spent time picking wax off of a rock before we went in. The guy that served me, Dima, I think, was Russian and had recently been on a BBQ trip to Texas and New Orleans and Nashville and other places. Before we left he showed me the photos of a whole hog he had helped roast in New Orleans. I picked August up so he could see, because I knew he’d like that. I told him about Korean barbecue. I think Derek would like this guy.
We were getting close to 3. I had the idea of putting our frozen and refrigerated stuff in the staff lounge, but August really wanted to go home first. So we dropped off the food, then headed to school. There was something he really wanted to look up about Minecraft, so we did that in the car before driving. At one point, as he was talking pretty incessantly about Minecraft all day (more so than the past few) I pointed out how Minecraft is open-ended and allows him to see all sorts of possibilities (his super power). He agreed.
When we got to school we went to fill up water bottles. Ilana walked by, and August told her, all on his own, that he though she should have a book on ventriloquism in her library. I also told her about getting the meat, as she was the one that we had first heard about it from. We then saw Heather and Zoe as we walked to the pool.
We stopped in the bathroom and he went to the bathroom and got changed. A funny moment when I made him wash his hands, and he didn’t think he’d gone to the bathroom. He was so busy thinking and talking about other things (probably Minecraft), and he realized himself that he was distracted. First time he’s been that self-aware about it.
We got in the pool at 3:40. Carly was already there. Omri was there, but was out of the pool by then. Randomly, he asked us which of us asked the other to get married. Not something that has come up in any story, I think. He played the kickboard game with Carly.
When we were leaving close to 5 we were in the senior lounge area while Carly went to get her other backpack. We talked about what seniors are and I explained. He then decided he was building a college so kids can stay at this school if they love it. He was building up, making ladders so you could get to classrooms above the cafeteria. He also said, “There’s also going to be secret places…” And also, “Schools so parents can learn to do their jobs better.”
As we drove home he talked about a plan to make a fort at Vivian’s house, out where the bricks are, but not exactly in the place where Vivian thought there was poison ivy. He then randomly asked, “Why does Colin like trucks so much?” More self-awareness as he said, “I’m thinking about a million things at the same time.”
Home at 5. He made another straw creation, a pecking hat, and told Carly, “You might say something that a teenager would say. Like ‘How did you make that?’ Because it is really amazing. You won’t believe how amazing this is.” We had the meat and potatoes and carrot for dinner. I was the only one that had it as a sandwich. Carly bought Ethiopian coffee at a market in Akko and made that.
August mentioned the emotions stickers, the ones we had used for red and green, and talked about not liking or needing the sheets. Then said, “I thought of something I could have done in the past: ripped up the sheets with red stickers.” Carly finally made the sheet that he’d kept on the refrigerator, from the day he just had green stickers, silently go away. I thought he might notice it missing now, but he didn’t.
He had a few of the straw things together and was swinging them back and forth and noticed it was the same optical illusion as the guitar strings: it looks like there are two strings. We talked about why that happens, and he had a pretty good grasp on it. He had seconds on the potatoes. I went upstairs and worked on sweeping the laundry area (I might actually use the outside desk as things cool off a bit) and hung up our swim stuff.
Back downstairs, August helped me make chocolate chip cookies. He made a sculpture on the couch too, which he later knocked over after making sure I took a photo of it. When they were ready, I had him carry a cookie on a plate up to Carly, who was resting on the bed. Perfect timing, as they were talking about needing milk to go with it as I walked in behind him with milk.
Back downstairs he hung out while I did dishes. I dumped out his battery experiment, which he had started when Eve was over. Upstairs, he played in the sink and asked, “What’s minimize mean?” Another word of the day. He made a ring out of the hair from Carly’s brush. It fell apart before I could take a photo, but then he added soggy cardboard to it for a photo. All was fine until I tried to wash his hair. He got upset, then threw the bottle of cardboard water when I left to go get a small treat for him. Carly took over and I went for a run.
He was still awake for a while I said good night when I got back and I heard them talking after 9:30.
Choosing a candy:
Talking in the pool:
Helmet dance:
Cookie and milk:
