He was up at 7:30. We rested on the couch together for a few minutes. I then read some of the Mr. Men stories from the big book of them. We read about Mr. Nosey and the Beanstalk, Mr. Jelly and the Pirates, Mr. Greedy and the Gingerbread Man, and Mr. Strong and the Ogre.
We played Minecraft, working on the hollowed out mountain and the house that’s attached, and Gilad came on for a few minutes. When our time was up we went looked at our schedule. August decided to go on the Dada-Zinnie adventure after lunch, and we scheduled science and alone time before it.
He then had a big Brother story/game that simply started with a girl that had super throwing, then a bunch of other powers. Like camouflage and not getting hurt by animals and thermal vision. Greena is her name. She took Brother to her house in the jungle where she lived alone and was making a breakfast of nature-y stuff: “Some wood to give it some extra crunch.” She said they aren’t actually powers, they are learned. And if anyone says they have powers they are lying, including Bar, which set her up as an adversary of Bar’s.
We each had a yogurt for breakfast, and went back to the Brother game. He traded paper with her. She makes a list each day: “And in case it blows away I write ‘Run after list (maybe).” He was making a reference to the Frog and Toad story where Toad has a list but then when it blows away he can’t run after it because that wasn’t on his list of things to do for the day.
Greens made medical stuff out of vines. Then, they were talking about who Brother was and August said, “I’ve heard of you, you’re the crazy family. But I don’t think you’re actually crazy. Look, I’m like you.” She talked about how she made inventions in the jungle, like brushes and combs and whatnot. August and I talked about tines and teeth of forks combs and how it is odd there are different words. Talking about something she said, “These are just toys. I focus on surviving more.” And, “I have fun, that’s one of the main things. But only when the hard work is done…And I spy at the edge of the jungle at your civilization.”
He had her ask what Brother does. I listed out all the things he’s done: discovered new animals in the jungle, survived on a deserted island, traveled to voids and through time, been attacked by robots, taken care of animals, made friends with people with all sorts of powers.
We played until 10. Then I had music on and we were listening to the synth-punk band Suicide, from the early 80s. The song “Wild in Blue” was on and he added it to his playlist, then said, “I’d like it if the high school band played this.” I exercised and he did alone time. He listened to the music and got the Kumi Now book and looked at it.
We did more Minecraft, then did a Brother game for a few minutes, using a timer, telling the first Tigey story again. For science time we watched a video on the size of the universe (https://youtu.be/u23vZsJbrjE) and Kurzgesagt videos on automation (https://youtu.be/WSKi8HfcxEk), why the Earth is a prison (https://youtu.be/RVMZxH1TIIQ), and robot rights (https://youtu.be/DHyUYg8X31c).
We had fish sticks and rice dish and chocolate milk for lunch then played more Brother and Greena game. He told her about My Little Pony, confusing her. She then gave Brother a tour of her civilization: “Put in these tiger clothes…we have different laws in this civilization…”
We left at 12:45. We drove up to a park/bridge on the Alexander tht Jonathan had told us about. There are turtles in the river there. We parked and August started riding his bike up to the park. The turtles are really big, like 3 feet long. August rode a circle of the park, first along the boardwalk part then up the hill past the playground and lookout. I had to coax him across the bridge (I carried his bike) as he didn’t believe me there was a path on the other side. He happily started riding on it though, and went about half a kilometer down the trail to the east before wanting to turn around. He commented on the cracks in the path and how they need to fix them. I reminded him of the sidewalk sealant song and he started singing that as he rode.
We headed back to the park and sat at a table in the shade and had a snack. He ate a whole apple. He was telling me all about his record breaking satellite/spare probe: “Nobody got to enjoy what it looked like when it took off…everybody was stunned…” Then how he was recovering a pirate ship and treasure. The bones had gone in a museum and the government was getting the treasure. We chewed some gum, and he asked, “why do plants need water?” He wanted to see a video, but the internet was not working. He also asked, “What’s qualification?” We discussed the meaning of that.
He rode up and down the little hill by the picnic table 4 or 5 times. And he wants to see a video of brain surgery.
We left at 2:50. Quiet on the way back, and as we drove into town the bike, which I thought had been wedged in well, shifted and the handle hit him in the head. He wasn’t very happy about it, but was okay. May have actually woken him up/kept him from falling asleep.
At home we watched the brain surgery videos. The best werehttps://youtu.be/u3O571_kiN4
andhttps://youtu.be/SDsBr6sXkH4
. He actually wanted to keep watching more, but I told him I needed a break from brain surgery and suggested My Little Pony instead. We watched an episode where Pinkie Pie tries to make friends with Grumpy Doodle Donkey. I’ve never heard August laugh so much during an episode, yet at the end he was still trying to claim that he doesn’t like Pinkie Pie and needed another episode.
Instead, we finished the Mr. Men book. A lot more laughing. We were eating pistachios, which he told Carly all about as soon as she got home. For the Mr. Loud story he laughed at the first page, saying, “This isn’t going to go well.”
Carly was home after 5 and he was instantly hyper. He went out with her and did a great job watering plants “For free!” He was being really polite and nice. When they came in for iPad time he wanted to check with me to make sure that the My Little Pony episode wasn’t supposed to have been part of his evening time. They he promised he would never type in th passcode even though he thinks he knows it. And he said he chose his Taiga Bay world because he knew Carly liked that one.
After they were done he read a book about tigers on Rivet. I read one about making slime. I got him his food, with mainly chicken chong and then shrimp from the last of the pad thai. This was when the evening started to fall apart. He wanted pad thai noodles too, and got upset with me when I said there weren’t any more.
He eventually ate, then was rhyming a lot. We noted the weirdness of present past tense verbs of sought, bought, caught, and fought. I then read Nightmare Knights #1 and Ponyville Mysteries #4. Carly cut his hair. He had his backup candy from the last time we went to Tiv Taam, then watched videos while she cut. He watched Bright Side videos about kinds of gasoline and what happens if you fall off a cruise ship. August said, “Easy answer: you drown. But I want the complex answer.”
He then had a meltdown when it was time to go up for his bath, insisting on another video. Carly took him up for his bath. He was feeling better, but I decided to leave our sleepover in his Zinnie room (he and I had set up the beds earlier for him and me to sleep in their together) for another day. We got him ready, and he started singing “Brothers, sisters, we don’t need this fascist groove thing” from the Heaven 17 song he’s heard a couple times. I said good night and went for a walk.
Greena’s items for sale:
Turtle in the river:
Riding around the park:
Sidewalk sealant song on the bike:
His huge satellite:
Satellite to go in a black hole:
Singing We Don’t Need This Fascist Groove Thing:
