He woke up on his own at 7:30. He went outside with Carly as she watered plants. Back inside he played with some of the straw things, then announced, “I got this caught in my hair and I like it.” He played Minecraft with Carly. He was having a problem again of putting water over what Carly made. Problematic, because flowing water is har to get rid of in the game. After making friend eggs for us for breakfast I mentioned our cage-free egg discussion to Carly, and he had it again with her. Basically, he had found new eggs at the store, and I’d figured out they were cage-free and bought them. He liked that, but then was confused on how the eggs were different, and, when I said they weren’t, why we cared about the chickens. He told her, “I have a bunch of chickens in my lab and I treat them nice and good.”
I made him oatmeal for second breakfast. We then went upstairs for a Brother game. Brother was playing in a Minecraft world created by Bar. He just likes watching the animals in the game and doesn’t like anything scary, but her world was full of dragons, etc. I called it “Bar’s world of death” and he thought that was really funny. He then requested a retelling of the full story where they find Tigey in the jungle. Now, however, the two younger siblings were also there, and they ending up fighting to cuddle with the baby tiger.
We then learned that Tessa and her two kids weren’t going to come this morning, as Tessa wasn’t feeling well.
He played with the fractal app. Looked like ferns and octopus arms. We talked about different kinds of symmetry and read a bit of this article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symmetry_in_biology?wprov=sfti1 He switched to the hydrogen atoms app and made different kinds of atoms: “This is a viper atom…” Then a Brother game with a talking lizard. At first Brother thought it was Millie, but it turned out not to be. Then, when he told the lizard about how Millie is a difficult friend, she overhears and they get in a fight. August had Brother then discover his power, but then wanted him to lose it.
August said his power is being creative, so we went to build, in character, with the Legos. We did that for a while, making a tall building with things hanging from it, and all of the Lego cars on it. I eventually found the pieces for all 5 Lego cars that he has.
I went upstairs to work for an hour and a half. They did two science experiments that didn’t work. One trying to do something (static?) with pepper and another trying to make a fire with a battery. He also did some alone time and they did more Minecraft. Then we learned that Marka was cancelling on us as well, as her son Noah is sick. The good news was that Noah was excited to play with August. August doesn’t want to play with any of the kids tomorrow, as they might still have germs and he didn’t want to get sick.
Carly and I switched at 1:20. I read a good portion of the first issue of Asterix and Obelix to him. A lot of new words for him in that, but he specifically asked about sickle and mistletoe. He had the last of the pizza for lunch, and we watched episode 9 of My Little Pony. We then played with Legos more, adding to our house and cars. He wanted to earn more iPad time. I wasn’t sure how much he had earned earlier, so I sent him up to Carly to ask. I also didn’t know when we were heading to the beach. He came down and told me, “Dada, I had to do tons of convincing.” He sat on the couch and looked at the books, like the dictionary, issue of Discover magazine, etc. for 15 minutes. We then played Minecraft together in our creative world. We were listening to old Ball of Wax CDs, and he really liked an odd song called “Supplies” and added it to his playlist.
As he went to the bathroom he asked, “Why can’t you make yourself sweat?” We talked about things we can’t just make ourselves do, like fall asleep, etc. He had some more oatmeal before we left. He also asked, “What’s a lucky pony?” He then quoted My Little Pony: “It’s a lucky pony indeed that can rely on so many friends.”
We finally got headed to Beit Yanai Beach. I read the end of volume 1 of Bone. We got to the beach at 4:50. He was still a little worried about the sore on his foot, so he wore his light up shoes to the beach. I told him he was brave to still try it though, and he disagreed with me. As Carly parked I commented on how there were “A few people” there. He asked why I said that, and asked if it was sarcasm. I explained understatement.
We found a spot on the beach and Carly went for a swim and August and I started digging. We made an island with a moat around it. He put tons of shells and other things he found in the middle. He found the rind of something, and rind was another new word. Carly came back and we took turns playing with him. I waded in the water, but was mainly on a roll studying Hebrew, so didn’t go for a swim. She took him to the bathroom, and they took a long time coming back; he had stopped by the showers to play with the flow of water there. We decided to back up all of our stuff and move over there.
I played with him first, as he made a channel for the water. Carly and I again traded back and forth, although for stretches he was doing well playing by himself. Sunset came and went and the park started to clear out. He was still in the zone. They built up a big reservoir to hold the water, but it would eventually breach, rather dramatically. When it happened once I pointed out the water at the end was actually getting close to the sea. We ran down there, but it didn’t quite make it. We went back up and repaired it, making it even bigger. Then when it breached again, even bigger, we ran down and August was really excited that it touched the sea.
We finally had to convince him to leave after 7. He didn’t want to, but then said he had his evening time to look forward to at home. I pointed out how he was really developing his ability to think/look ahead and his delayed gratification. He turned that into another discussion of the future of Earth without humans. I asked if he knew about plastic, and he started with, “it mucks up the air…” Carly also mentioned that she and I had read The World Without Us and I said I could read parts of it to him sometime. We were driving at 7:15.
He ate dried mango for snack, and I read more of the Magic Misfits book. At home we got dinner ready, and he started with a berry yogurt. I was having to rush so I could get to the table so we could all eat together; Carly had taken August’s plate from him so he wouldn’t finish before I got there. He randomly asked, “Is it just me? Or is the world getting a little smaller every year?” They played Minecraft and I did a bit of work.
I did the dishes and they went upstairs for a bath. He ended up upset about something. I went up after he had calmed down, then was in the office. Carly came in and said that August requested I don’t leave the office for a few minutes, and I don’t try to ask him about what happened.
He came downstairs for one more small bowl of oatmeal, then he wanted a short Brother game. In it, Brother had just bought a bottle of milk to drink. Then he runs into everyone he knows. They want some of his milk, too. When he objects that he only has one straw they all pull out his own and drink all of his milk. He had me repeat it.
I got him back upstairs and said good night to them. It was close to 10 by the time I left, and then went for a run.
Lego troubleshooting:
Going on and on song:
Beach time 1:
Beach time 2:
Beach time 3:
Beach time 4:
Beach time 5:
