He was up at 6:50. He watched Minecraft and stickman videos, then we read some of Earthling. He then wanted to do a Brother game but didn’t have an idea. He rejected my Story Dice idea. He finally came up with a Minecraft sort of idea. We played out different scenarios of Brother finally playing survival hard on his own. Each time he spawned in a really difficult biome, and each time there was a cat that befriended him. It turned out Bar had hacked Minecraft on his iPad.
We looked for a 3d drawing app, and settled on uMake for now. He ate oatmeal, and I finally found the Apple Pencil in the couch. We worked with uMake for quite a while, learning how to use it. He misplaced the Apple Pencil at one point, and it turned out to be under him. He said, “My butt’s always hiding stuff.”
He then did alone time, playing with his percussion stuff. Carly had planned to take him to school with her so he could play there for a while, but she wasn’t feeling well. She canceled her dentist appointment for later, and we switched things up with Mr. Gabi again so I would just take August today. She still had to run to school, but did that alone.
We played Minecraft for 30 minutes. Then watched Coyote Peterson get bitten by leeches and an alligator. We then did a Brother game where he was bit by bullet ants. Carly made chicken soup and August ate some, and seconds, for lunch. He told me how he had recorded an ant getting its brain taken over by a bacteria using a microscope. We then did Brother and the ugly goose games. Then other annoying animals. He had seconds on soup, then the last cookie. We got ready to go. As we did he asked, “I have an amazing question: why does stomach acid not leak out of your body if it’s supposed to dissolve everything?”
We got going, and listened to Story Pirates on the way to Gabi’s. He went right in with Gabi, although he had told me before that I had to go in with him. About halfway through he came out and asked me to come in. They were playing baseball, of sorts, with August hitting a ball with the sword. Gabi said that August had called hitting it “beginner’s luck”, but as they kept going they were talking about it being an actual skill, and August wanted to show me. He hit it a couple more times, then told me to leave. August later told me they spent the rest of the time playing with the army stuff.
We had talked about going to the Herzliya pizza place, then to the beach, but he now changed his mind and wanted to go to Ra’anana Park instead. So we drove there, parking in the free lot. When we first got in the park he joked, “So where’s Gilad?” He rode his bike across to the park, across the lake, and over to the music playground area. We found a bench in the shade and watched a season 2 episode of My Little Pony that we had missed (about Rarity in Canterlot). He was laughing a lot. After that we did Brother games, two stories we’ve done before: the second candy store story and the orange stand story.
He played with the musical instrument toys a bit. He noticed that they’ve fixed the harp strings, but hadn’t included anything to hit it with. And the thing that you run around in circles and it would play music is now broken. I found a piece of metal on the ground and he used it to play the harp and other things.
We talked about still going for pizza, and he said it needed to be good. So I suggested we just go to VIPizza and then we could take pizza home. He agreed to that. I called Carly to ask her preference on toppings. August took the phone and explained to her that he had chosen Ra’anana Park over the beach because it is prettier, with the trees and plants, whereas the beach just has sand.
We left a couple minutes later, after he had said, “My brain grows…As fast as your ideas flow” and he had picked a dead branch off a bush: “It will make the rosemary’s life a little easier.
He rode his bike back, and we stopped at the bathroom. I talked about taking a “sharp turn” on the ramp and he asked what that meant. So we talked about slight versus sharp turns.
In the parking lot he wanted to intentionally get his bike stuck like he had the other day so the back tire just spun in place. We figured it out, and he kept playing and playing. We pent a good 10 to 15 minutes just spinning the back tire of his bike. A few times he said things like, “This is SO fun.”
Then, when we got in the car (I had to encourage him to go so we could get pizza) he saw a V of birds. Then a second. We sat for several minutes more, watching flocks of birds fly overhead. More than 10 by the time we left. He said, “Maybe there’s some sort of complex bird migrations…I have to do some study of that in my lab.” And he called out, “Enjoy your migration, birds!”
We drove up to VIPizza, listening to more Story Pirates (we’re catching up on season 3, working backwards). At VIPizza we ordered a large pizza. He chose corn on his half. He also got an orange soda, that he was able to drink about a third of. We had talked about taking the pizza to the park, but we ended up eating there. We did some Brother games while we waited, although he kept wanting me to act out noisy ones.
We ate, then he talked about just wanting to walk around downtown. First though we went over to the fruit and veggie market, after putting the pizza in the car. We got carrots and huge pomegranates, which Carly had wanted, and August requested a pineapple and we got bananas and a couple mangos.
Put those in the car, then he wanted to keep walking: “Its amazing…It’s so lovely out. I can’t resist to go!” We walked to the park by the library, and it was busy, but he asked about the library. It was open, so we went in. We went in and found Horrible Harry and the Dragon War on the shelves and read the whole thing in the comfy area. As we walked back through the park he said, “Our shadows are amazing…I’m a kid giant.”
We got home at 6. There was something about “500 aliens taking over earth.” We played Minecraft, then he watched the Brave Wilderness on bloodworms. I went for a run.
When I got back they were skyping with Andrea and Thatcher and Kayla. Carly came to get my help with the 3d app and told August to entertain them. He said, “I don’t know how to entertain kids…except for Colin. I just say poop and pee and he laughs a lot.” He then had to turn the iPad to fix the video and told them, “There is a glitch…you’re going to get nauseous.” Got the 3d drawing app working, and he was showing them how it worked.
I went up and took a shower. When I came down he had more pizza. Got him upstairs for a bath, but he took a long time trying to remember the tune to Yankee Doodle. He was humming it, and had created a different tune for “and called it macaroni” and wanted to get it correct. When he got that down I was finally able to wash him. He was then practicing funny faces in the mirror outside the bathroom.
He said goodnight to Carly. In the bedroom he told me about his “DNA bank” where he stores DNA from people to use later. He kept quoting “Drop the child or lose the leaves” from Earthling and sang “Yankee Doodle please stop crying, Yankee Doodle died of dehydration.” He wanted me right up with him on the upper bed tonight and he fell asleep with his forehead against mine, listening to Beethoven’s Fifth. He was asleep by 9:45.
At some point I said he could be a composer or conductor or something in the future. He said no, he was going to be an archeologist.
3d drawing app:
Baseball with Mr Gabi:
Laughing at My Little Pony in the park:
Uphills will be the downhills song on the way back:
Beaching the bike:
Singing Yankee Doodle:
Practicing funny face:
Pee poop song and drumming:
The DNA bank machine:
