He got up a few minutes before 8. He went outside with Carly for a while. Then they came in and I read poems to him. We have almost finished reading every poem in I’m Just No Good at Rhyming Book at least once, and have red several multiple times. We then played Minecraft and ate banana bread. We were going to read My Little Pony but he got upset when we told him not to tip the table with his feet. Carly took him upstairs.
They read Dogman. Voluminous was a word of the day. They got to the end, and he wasn’t interested in the denouement. Carly compared it to him leaving the last bite of food. I put away dishes and organized drawers. August asked me, “Did you know I have living spray?” This was apparently from Dogman. He brought things to life with the guitar pick. Like the door, sink, toilet, etc. He brought the computer to life, and I had it say it was smarter than humans. August argued with it, saying, “You only have Google…and scientists made that…well, you have Bluetooth. But you don’t have the dark web.”
They went to the pool again. Not a long trip, but a decent one. I asked if he saw anyone there. No one they knew, but he said they introduced themselves to three kids. But they didn’t speak English. At least two of them were siblings, according to Carly. He didn’t know what siblings meant, so another word of the day. He ate some mango and ravioli, then took his shirt off because he had gotten mango on it. He sang:
“Anyway, I have learned something
Never eat fresh mango
Or you will get stains on your shirt
Stains on your shirt”
We left at 12:30 to go to Gabi’s. Our front door has started scraping on the ground a little (seems like it did this before) and was a little hard to get closed. In the car Carly was listening to the Lumineers again. I asked August if she’d been listening to the same song all day. Of “Gloria” he said, “I’ll never get sick of this song.” He said he liked the drums at the beginning of it, or the song after.
At Gabi’s he watched, I think, Home (we heard a lot of laughter), and we met with Gabi this week. August came in and checked on us between stories/episodes, but did just fine out there. Gabi told us of how, at their last meeting, they had gotten out checkers, but August refused to play it because it was a winning game. He set it up so that Gabi could play himself. When Gabi was finding it hard to actually do that, he suggested he play against August, but that he let August win as much as he wants, until August wanted him to play harder. August then rephrased, saying, “So what you’re saying is that I could practice both getting better at the game and getting used to the idea of losing.” He was open to the idea, so they’ll play together on Wednesday and see how it goes.
As we said goodbye August told him something about “You should call yourself Scabby.” Because it rhymes with Gabi. He also hopped on the tiles on the floor, saying, “I’m a knight.” On the way back to the car Carly and I discussed the Mandela effect, but I can’t remember what she said that brought it up in the first place.
Back in the car, Carly played “Gloria” again. He said, “I like the drums at the beginning.” And, “This should be our Mr. Gabi music.” He and I then read Bone #4. We were home at 2:20.
He had a Brother game where he met a girl who was vines that took over the house. I got out foods for us, and I got coffee. I joked that coffee was the seventh most important thing in my life. I then said that of course he and Carly were number 1. But then August said that water was the most important thing. He and I were then joking about it, and decided that he and Carly were #6 at maximum, after water, air, food, insects, and the sun. We had a debate on whether events should be on the list, like the Big Bang. I said no.
I went up to work for awhile, then we all went out on a short, short walk. This was like convincing August to go to the dentist. It finally worked after Carly had offered him a treat, and I, not realizing Carly had offered him something, also offered him a My Little Pony episode when we got back. Also, August was on the bike. And he took us the entirety of the Holly Block. I convinced him to at least do the pedestrian path behind the house, which adds barely anything. He turned the “wrong” way at the street, which lengthened things slightly, until he realized what he had done. Carly continued on for a walk, and he and I headed back. He did at least extend the walk to go over by the nearby orchard to see how the mystery fruit is growing.
We watched My Little Pony, then played Minecraft. Another hard time stopping at the end. Carly was back by now. I got dinner ready (he had raviolis and leftover meatballs and carrots). They went to watch an educational video, and he chose a video on why airlines overbook. Compensation was a new word for him. We ate, then he was asking what the “Whydoo” is. We figured out it is from the poetry book, so I read that poem to him, and others. We have finished reading all the poems at least once.
He then had a Brother game where he saved a cat, but then it ate everything. I had him practice filling his own water bottle. We then did Legos. I was making different sizes of square spirals.
He didn’t want to go upstairs for a bath. He curled up on the couch, then wanted to tell us why he didn’t want to take a bath. He brought Carly over and had us each hold one of his hands. He said, “I get wet. Case closed.”
We got him upstairs though, rhyming as he went. He played in the sink, then did a dragon dance to a children’s song we listened to. I went to get Carly’s phone to take a video of it. He had his bath, then downstairs ate the last cookie with milk. He also had the tiny bag of jelly beans that I had forgotten I had told him he could have. We got him ready for bed and I left them at 9:25 and went for a run.
Bringing things to life:
More important than air?:
Talking to Oma:
Singing and Legos:
Rhyming:
The dragon dance:
