He came down at 7:40. He surprised me at the bottom of the stairs as I didn’t hear the door, owing to the loud street sweeper going by. We read the first 4 chapters of The 117-Story Treehouse, which I had preordered and just came out today. As we logged into Minecraft he said, “Dada. I can read this now: ‘Your friends are not playing Minecraft right now.’”
We played Minecraft, then I made French toast. As I did that he took my watch and went out in the yard and ran around for 6 minutes. He remembered his yogurt thing and I let him have that. He then wasn’t ready for a French toast. I went out and checked on the vines on the white fence. He brought in a tree thing, then said it was an extendo-penis so you didn’t have to take down your pants to go to the bathroom. He wrapped the end with tape but it was too scratchy, so we wrapped it with tissue. He then said it was a penis for Sister so it would be easier to pee. He changed his mind and said it was some sort of navigator thing and taped it to the wall.
He added a couple of Underworld songs to his playlist. He then had a Brother game that started with Brother breaking a window with a soccer ball and Dad was going to put him in jail. Bar saved him and they ended up on an exoplanet, with an oxygen generator, electricity, and a couch to play on. Went on from there.
He tried on my glasses. Prescription was a word of the day. For alone time he spent 15 minutes looking at books. We played Minecraft, then read Bone 2. He ate schnitzel and we watched the video that Cherie sent: https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/transportation/new-video-watch-the-alaskan-way-viaduct-come-down-in-6-1-2-minutes/
He asked, “What’s pedestrians?” Another new word. Then had a cookie and milk. He did alone time again. More looking at books, and I exercised. We played his second 15 minutes, finding one of the underground outposts. He was upset when his time was out though, and accused me of wasting time, as we didn’t find a portal and we could have made one instead.
We got through that, and he tried the new juice we had bought: banana, mango, melon. We made popsicles, two of each flavor, and two mixed. Then a Brother and Bar game with them on an ice world. They met a sarcastic polar bear alien trader.
We discussed what we should do everyday and decided that science and music and art should be every day, in addition to math and reading. Then we did his previous scenario where Brother and Sister find themselves in a mineshaft with Baby Sister. It turned out to be a set up for a practical joke by Baby Sister and Bar—which was mainly his twist. They dug their way out, finding themselves in an aquarium.
We watched an episode of Brainchild about oceans, then did reading time based on words from that. He did iPad art: “Thats like twilight…the stars and stuff…”
“We should do a preview of the next Brother game: the next game is they come back home and their parents and everything is gone.”
We got ready to head to school to swim. As we were about to go out the door I told him, “You only have one shoe.” Matter-of-factly, he replied, “Yep. That’s right.”
We got to the pool about 3:10. Omri and family were there. August and I acted out the whole Sister and Brother preposition hide and seek game we did before. This time, there were Hide and Seek police that got them in trouble when Brother played so badly. That was his idea, based on The 117-Story Treehouse, where there are story police.
August said I should be a teacher again, then realized that I would have to leave him, and changed his mind. I said he’d have to go to school, and that led to a discussion of school. He said he thought school would be too hard because the subjects got harder, and he’d be behind. I talked to him about how he is actually way ahead in reading and math and science and that wouldn’t be a problem. He was pleasantly surprised by that.
Carly got there, and then as he played with a lane marker sang, “this is the starting line of my song.” I got out and started to study Hebrew. He needed to use the bathroom, so I took him. The bathroom smelled horrible, so we hurried. Back outside Omri and Jonathan were looking at/bothering a caterpillar. He played with them for about ten minutes.
We then got ready to go. August stopped to smell a couple bushes, then talked about how he uses the plants to make lavender soap, and lipsticks, etc. This went on for quite a while, and he was talking about how he mixed different scents.
Carly walked us to the car, then she walked home. We drove, which took a while, as there was scouting drop off at the Israeli school—Carly was already past the school when we drove by.
As we drove, August said, “They should make cars that don’t need seatbelts.” He then said he made “Automatic brain cars…best of all, they can talk and have feelings.”
When we stopped, the little brown dog that has been hanging around was right outside the car. August said he was okay with it, and he even let it come in the yard. We talked about pets, and he’s okay never having a pet, since he’s allergic.
Carly got home, and I heated up noodles and peanut sauce for him. We then played Minecraft, doing the dragon part in creative mode, and did more Brother games on the couch, and he had a popsicle. Carly took over, and I went up to work.
They did magic tricks from the library book. He earned time and showed her a portal in Minecraft. They also read a Sir Cumference book. He was looking at it on his own when I came down.
We switched and Carly went up. He ate the oatmeal that Carly had made him. We finished reading Bone 2. We discussed the betting scheme in Bone extensively, and fix was another word of the day.
Carly gave him his bath. He dropped something from the counter and called to her to pick it up, then was really whiney about having to pick it up himself.
Once the bath was over, I took over to put him to sleep. I brushed his teeth, and we discussed the end script thing in Minecraft, which I had read out to him. It is about how the ‘player’ doesn’t realize that they are creating real worlds, etc. He talked about how “Once scientists know everything about the earth they could make like a Minecraft that is super real…”
I showed him a photo of him with Great Grandpa Steve that came up on my watch. We also continued our discussion of having cats and allergies and pets and traveling. Eddy came up, and why she wasn’t there this summer. August explained she had been sick with “Pressurized Brassia.”
We discussed school again, and this time he talked about not wanting a really strict teacher, and he talked about Marion being more strict. He also talked about how we should give Velcro tape to the teachers, as he thinks they could really use it, particularly at preschool. He has mentioned this before. He ended by saying Carly and I were the best teachers, because we would explain things the most.
I sang to him, and he fell asleep around 10, I think. But I fell asleep with him before getting back up so I’m not sure.
Doing laps in the yard:
The cool caterpillar:
