He came down about 7:25. He curled on the couch for several minutes before getting up. He walked around a little, then I read the IDW 20/20 issue of My Little Pony to him. I asked if he wanted to say good morning to Mama before we play Minecraft and he went out with her for a few minutes. We played Minecraft. Then I made a mango smoothie. We watched episode 22 of My Little Pony. Phoenix was a word of the day. He then wanted to do a brother game: “One of the backstories, where Brother meets Bar.” We built a yellow sculpture with legos. He kept quoting the Picasso book: “But Picasso said, ‘Yes!’”
He got frustrated when I wouldn’t let him do an iPad building game without doing alone time first. He started off well talking to Carly. He told her what I said and they were talking on the couch. It turned into a big meltdown though. When he calmed down they talked again, and Carly explained how too much screen time isn’t good for our brains and we need to do other things before paying the iPad again. He made the connection: “Like I have to eat healthy food before having a treat?”
She read the diary of a Minecraft creeper book to him. He then requested oatmeal “extra liquidy.” Carly went to get ready and I read more to him. We looked at ocelot photos when he wasn’t quite sure what they looked like. That led to a Brother game where he finds an ocelot. Still hungry, I made a peanut butter and honey sandwich.
For some reason he again started asking us about getting married: “Did you marry him or did you marry her?” “And you both agreed?” “But you don’t have to marry if you want to go together.” “You don’t have to follow culture like that.”
He read a ballerina book to me on the Rivet app. He was then being more of a cat. Carly and August left at 12:15. They went to school, where they went and played with the new spinny chairs in her classroom and went to the pool. They then went and got food from Younes. They were back around 2:30 and we ate some of the food. I then read the second issue of the Spirit of the Forest series to him. And checked out the second volume of the Legends series.
Carly walked to the store. August played the recorder and ate a ton of pistachios. He wanted to save all the shells for an art project. Carly got back. She cleared out the fridge to fit stuff in. August ate the last of the sugary beans. I did the dishes. The two of them discussed how they can have pictures in their heads. He said he had a bad memory in his head of a timeout. He wouldn’t just tell her what it was, but when she asked for a one word description he said, “Let’s do two words: bathroom timeout.” He said it involved walking back from the beach and the other kids walking faster. He got a timeout.
When I was done I read Picasso’s Trousers. We then got out on a walk. He was skeptical about it, but we convinced him of a short one again. I tracked it this time, .91km, and maybe he’ll be interested in going further next time. He was talking about some plant, and said, “It’s a pain in the neck.” We discussed how GPS works. We walked over to the west this time, then back up to the north end of the park. He had said something to Carly about how prisoners are nice on the inside. We stopped to look at the stars, and identified Jupiter and Saturn.
At home we read the My Little Pony Legends volume and he had frozen mango. They watched a Kids Versus Adults episode of Brainchild and I went for a run. When I got back Carly was making August oatmeal. She was trying my method, but the oatmeal turned out too runny. And then she had forgotten the honey. A funny moment. I got him honey, then I took a shower.
We got him ready for bed and Carly said good night. I then read the rest of the Creeper book to him. August was then talking about how to win things, and said, “I know how I would win…confidence. Remember? I learned from Brainchild…” He remembered the experiment where people were asked to count how many photos were in a magazine and people that were more confident in completing the task were actually more successful. He did some singing, then talked about wanting a paper hand fan. We talked about designs on them or decorating them, and he said, “The only thing that matters to me is if they work.” He mentioned not seeing Gabi for a week when he is on vacation, and August said something like, “Instead or vacation Mr. Gabi should live at our house for a few days.” The sweetest thing ever. He was finally asleep by 10:20.
Wearing Mama’s shoes:
Reading about ballerinas:
Figuring out the recorder:
Machine to catch criminals:
